Abstract
There is much evidence regarding athletic injuries and their relationship to both modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors. Non-modifiable risk factors such as age, gender, and previous injury are well understood to be connected to injury risk across different sporting populations. Modifiable factors include musculoskeletal factor such as trunk stability, range of motion, flexibility, and motor function. These components are important to assess for and incorporate into injury prevention programming. Understanding higher risk populations and sport specific demands are necessary for maximizing health outcomes. Tennis is an asymmetric rotational sport with dominant and non-dominant sides. It requires coordinated movements throughout the kinetic chain. At the elite junior and professional level, repetitive high forces and demands are placed on the body, often at end-ranges. Injuries in the tennis population are experienced throughout the body, but can vary by age, gender, and level of play. It is well understood that sport specific adaptations occur in the dominant shoulder of high-level tennis players, however less is known whether sport specific and functional adaptations also occur in the trunk and lower limbs. The presence of side to side differences in the trunk and hip have been linked to injuries in other sport and non-sport populations. Sport specific assessments can help identify muscle imbalances as well as inefficient movement patterns and substitutions.
Purpose: Since relationships between injuries and risk factors are not well understood in the elite tennis population, the purpose of this research is to further describe and identify both modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors for the elite junior (young/adolescent) and professional tennis population. This information has important clinical implications for injury prevention and rehab programming. Additionally it will provide much needed evidence to direct future research in the area of injury prevention and return to sport criteria.
Methods: Data from the United States Tennis Association’s High Performance Profile (HPP) database (n=237, male and female, ages 9-27 years old) was analyzed for this research study. The HPP contains both injury information (survey) and tennis specific musculoskeletal tests of flexibility, range of motion (ROM), trunk strength/endurance, and motor function. Chi Square and Logistic Regression were used to test for associations between non-modifiable (age groups, gender, injury history) and modifiable risk factors (musculoskeletal/HPP tests).