Competitive young tennis players can be a strength and conditioning coach's greatest challenge. They're on the court 6-7 days per week, all year round. The overuse, combined with a typically high strung competitive environment and play-no-matter-what attitude is a destructive triad that's likely to lead to a tennis-related injury.

Shoulder injuries are expectedly common in tennis athletes. Researchers suggest that shoulder injuries are not the most common in tennis and finish third behind back and lower body related injuries. However, the goal of this post and those to follow is not to proclaim one area of the body to be more significant than the other. Best practice training strategies for the upper body will also be indicated for back and lower body injury prevention and vice versa.

The collage above could be titled "5 Signs of Shoulder Disaster". Max external rotation, internal rotation in elevation, flexion/supination, end range flexion, and horizontal adduction are all provocative examinations for different shoulder pathologies. I admit the pictures of Rafa are extreme. His style and skill are extraterrestrial, but the pictures are still pretty cool and the similarities to the 5 provocative tests mentioned above are outstanding. If you're not familiar with comprehensive clinical examination of the shoulder, buy this book:

Following an assessment, you can categorize an athlete toward a variety of restorative emphases and levels of progression. A sport specific training program built upon kinetic descriptive statistics is useless if you're training a body that doesn't have sufficient range of motion and control. Your assessment should peel back as many layers as you are qualified to reveal, examining fundamental human capacities that are requisite for superhuman athleticism.

As a brief review of functional shoulder mechanics: The humerus (upper arm) attaches into the glenoid (socket) which is formed by the scapula (shoulder blade). The scapula sits on the ribs which attach into the thoracic spine (upper back vertebrae). The shoulder joint, collar bone, shoulder blade, and upper back all must move in harmony (thoraco-scapulo-humeral rhythm), a premium for tennis athletes.

In the video below, I demonstrate a sequence of shoulder preparation exercises that address the capacities I've reviewed. As I mentioned above, some athletes may do more mobility than stability or vice versa as determined by their assessment.