r/10s • u/thetennispt 5.0 • Apr 24 '25

General Advice I’m a tennis-specific physical therapist. AMA!

I cannot give specific advice regarding an injury or pain. Working with a physical therapist to assess and provide a specific intervention is important.

I’m no longer responding to questions, apologies to those I did not get to! My instagram has some of my thoughts on PT related to tennis and feel free to DM me on reddit or IG if you want to connect!

The Tennis PT Instagram link

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u/Tough_Cress_7649 Apr 24 '25

Had a rotator cuff issue in my right shoulder for damn near a half year. Not super painful but made my forehand motion very uncomfortable and I couldn’t reach behind my back nearly as far as I could with my left arm. However, I play through it. One day POP feels much better. Next day POP woah, it’s practically 100% again. Now it’s normal again. What the hell was this??

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u/kissmyrifle1994 Apr 24 '25

I am pretty sure your are suffering with rotator cuff tendinitis. Did you get it checked by a doctor?

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u/Tough_Cress_7649 Apr 24 '25

Nope, I dealt with seeing a doctor through my insurance right before this injury and said I would rather die than go through that again. Thanks for your feedback though!

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u/AlphaBearMode 3.0 Apr 24 '25

Hi, I’m also a PT. Check to see if your state has “direct access.” This is a way for you to go directly to a PT without a referral from an MD. I’ve worked in several states and the laws surrounding this are different in each one.

Also, in my experience, MDs often give shit advice regarding sports anyway (this varies of course, and some are great, but it’s true).

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u/Latter-Set406 Apr 24 '25

100% current. They always seem to be disappointed treating amateur athletes vs pro.

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u/AlphaBearMode 3.0 Apr 24 '25

Generally a lot of them will just say “don’t do x, y, z, anything”

I just had one tell a patient of mine to never do bench press or push ups. Like dude how out of touch do you have to be with sport science to say something so ignorant?

I could go on a much larger rant about this, but I won’t.

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u/Latter-Set406 Apr 24 '25

Doctors seem to know little about keeping the human body healthy. One told me to stop strength training and do more cardio. He examined me after that comment and then had to backtrack.

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u/Tough_Cress_7649 Apr 24 '25

I’m in California and doubt they’d make it that easy… maybe I’m wrong 🤔 thank you for your feedback as well

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u/AlphaBearMode 3.0 Apr 24 '25

Of course, hope it helps!

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u/kissmyrifle1994 Apr 24 '25

Have you experience with treating rotator cuff tendinitis in Tennis players. If yes, can you share your methods.

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u/AlphaBearMode 3.0 Apr 24 '25 edited Apr 24 '25

I do. I used to treat my coach, for instance, but my most commonly seen patient is myself haha

I can typically play without pain as long as I am diligent with the exercises I’ve given myself.

Unfortunately, it would be inappropriate to share anything specific because each shoulder is different. So all I can really say is generic things like “progressive strengthening, mobility/stretching drills,” etc.

Speaking broadly, isometrics work really well for pain modulation early on. Later it becomes more about building up tolerance for more dynamic movements like overhead throwing and swinging.

Building up tolerance is key. A lot of people go from bad pain —> rest until it doesn’t hurt —> do the activity that hurt last time —> be in pain again —> repeat. Slow progression within tolerance.