The physiotherapist, Andrés Mundilla, analyzes the injury epidemiology of the paddle
Today's article is about the Injury epidemiology of the paddle from the point of view of physiotherapy, making current evidence as a reference.
Today, paddle tennis is one of the most practiced sports throughout the Spanish population, not only in a professional or semi-professional way, but also as a recreational sport. As with other racket sports, The repetition of specific actions and gestures of this game they can be a factor associated with one or more types of musculoskeletal lesions.
Main risk factor's of injury observed were age, laterality and body mass index.
Based on different studies, it is observed that the regions with the highest lesional incidence are The elbow, lumbar column, knee and shoulder joint complex. The most observed pathologies in the upper extremities were tendinopathies, poorly known as "tendonitis" or in the case of elbow as "epicondylitis." In turn, the most predominant muscular breakage takes place in the Sural Triceps (gastrows and soleus), known as "Tennis Leg", where the main feature is to notice a sensation of "stony" in the leg after a start.
On the other hand, it should be noted that despite having clearly defined lesionales, There are differences between Senior and Junior players. The most veteran players suffer more injuries at the level of the elbow and knee, however, young people have a higher rate in the lumbar region.
These findings could help coaches and physiotherapists to create Preventive programs mainly focused on the escapulohumeral joint, the lumbo-pélvico motor control and the force of the lower extremities.
Finally, a proposal of Exercises to be performed As part of the preventive work (3 series x 10 repetitions):
