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Tennis Elbow Tools

Tennis Elbow Illustration
Tennis Elbow Illustration
Racquet Network’s store in southwest Calgary offers a variety of options for players suffering from tennis elbow. Visit our online Pro Shop or come in to see us a 310 Woodview Dr SW. We are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00am until 7:00pm.

Tennis Elbow Treatment Devices

Racquet Network does not treat tennis elbow nor do we claim have a cure for it. We do, however, carry a variety of treatment tools in our Calgary store that our members have recommended to us over the years. At the top of this list are hard-to-find, quality gel packs that are specifically designed for icing elbows. We also carry a variety of exercise devices that are designed to strengthen weak muscles in order to reduce the likelihood of tennis elbow recurrence.

Tennis Elbow Supports

Depending on the current state of your injury, your physiotherapist may recommend rest or continued exercise. Racquet Network carries a line of supports that are designed to reduce some of the pressure that causes tennis elbow pain.

Tennis Elbow Prevention – Racquets

Whether you shop online or come into our Calgary store, you will find that we carry a number of tennis frames and pickleball paddles that are specially designed to reduced the number of harmful vibrations reaching your elbow. Many players with recurring tennis elbow issues carry at least one such racquet in their bags at all times. Some who live with frequent tennis elbow issues choose to play only with low vibration racquets.

Tennis Elbow Prevention – Strings

In addition to low vibration racquets, Racquet Network carries Calgary’s largest selection of soft, elbow-friendly tennis and squash strings. For many players with tennis elbow, soft strings are not simply a luxury; they are a necessary investment in their health and well being.

Tennis Elbow Prevention – Dampeners

Players with a favorite racquet and/or a favorite string are often unwilling to make changes to either, even when their racquet/string choices are at the root of their tennis elbow problems. Fortunately, Racquet Network carries a variety of dampeners that can be added to any racquet to reduce the intensity of harmful vibrations.

Come into our Calgary store for a consultation or check out the TENNIS ELBOW section of our online Pro Shop. While we do not endorse any specific treatments for tennis elbow, we can provide you with many tools that our members have found to be helpful to them.

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Dealing with Common Injuries – Bursitis

Battle Creek Ice It Shoulder SystemBursitis (bur-SY-tis) is a painful condition that affects fluid sacs that cushion the bones, tendons and muscles near joints. It occurs when these sacs become inflamed.

The most common locations for bursitis are shoulders, elbows and hips. However, it can also develop in knees, heels and at the bases of big toes. Bursitis often occurs near joints that perform frequent repetitive motions, such as the hitting/serving shoulder in racquet sports players.

Treatment typically involves resting the affected joint, icing it and protecting it from further trauma. In most cases, bursitis pain goes away within a few weeks with proper treatment, but recurrent flare-ups of bursitis are common.

For racquets sports players, especially tennis, squash, pickleball and badminton players who play frequently, bursitis is a common injury. If left untreated, it can also become a debilitating injury that keeps players off of the court for weeks at a time.

As a coach and player who is frequently on court for twenty or more hours per week, I can speak from personal experience regarding the consequences of leaving bursitis untreated. In my younger years while teaching and playing racquet sports, I estimate that I missed several hundred matches and lessons.

Since then, however, I have developed a very effective strategy for preventing the development of bursitis and for healing it quickly once it occurs. In fact, I now rarely miss matches or lessons due to bursitis.

My strategy is very simple. I keep a freezer full of ice packs and I use them every time I get home from playing or teaching. Specifically, I keep three shoulder packs and three general purpose rectangular ice packs in the freezer. I use the shoulder packs after every match regardless of whether I am feeling pain or not. The shoulder packs help me cool the shoulder joint down quickly and prevent inflammation from developing in the fluid sacs.

The other, rectangular ice packs I use only when I am feeling pain in a particular non-shoulder joint, such as my knee or the base of my foot. At the first sign of pain in these areas, I ice, ice, ice until the pain goes away — because this is the best way I have found to prevent inflammation from settling in and becoming a longterm problem.

Top 3 Tips for Dealing with Bursitis

Here are my Top Three Tips for players who want to treat or prevent bursitis:

1. Keep at least three ice packs in the freezer. The trick is to rotate each one 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off. A single ice pack is not enough because it takes six hours to freeze again after you use it. Having three allows you to ice for about 60 minutes after every match.

2. Large ice packs are better than small ice packs. I look for ice packs that are long, wide and thick — about twice as big as I think I need. The small ones melt too quickly and don’t provide penetrating cooling. This is especially important in the shoulder where the fluid sacks are deep in the joint below several layers of muscle. Small ice packs will cool the surface, but the cooling will not reach the joint.

3. Shoulder systems are extremely convenient because shoulders are difficult joints to ice. Using a harness system like the one in the image above allows me to ice my shoulder while moving around. In fact, I am wearing one now while I am typing this piece. If I wasn’t wearing it, this would be difficult to do.

Preventing Bursitis

Preventing bursitis is infinitely preferable to treating it. An hour of ice after every match is simple and effective but allowing it to develop and settle into your shoulder may result in weeks of ice, drugs and physiotherapy. My best advice is to avoid getting it in the first place.