​Shingo shares what he's learned about tennis elbow here, having had some trouble with it over the last year or so. He hasn't let it stop him!

Have you ever suffered from tennis elbow?

If so, you know how debilitating it can be. Generally accepted good advice is to stop playing tennis for a while, massage the elbow, and exercise to strengthen the affected area. However, people often don’t know what to do or what can be done to accelerate the healing process. Below is a list of generally recommended things you can do to alleviate or cure the symptom.
  
10 recommended things to do

(1) Heating (bath) and cooling (ice) the elbow (especially in the initial stage)
(2) Resting (at least 2 to 3 weeks)
(3) Massage

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_70oOs9dkwE&t=4s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXAzcjxIHMg

(4) Exercises

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMyhss4dsxM (resistance bands)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz11unl7y9E
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUEHnsY-PuQ&ab_channel=PrecisionMovement
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNFa7TnfbXw&ab_channel=OscarSanchez
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sS4dzm8zMk (flex bar etc.)

(5) Change grip sizes

• Slightly larger grip size than usual. Then you don’t have to grip the racquet so tightly.

(6) Change strings

• Softer polyester or nylon multifilament string (if you can afford it, maybe natural gut)
• A thinner gauge may also be beneficial.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGB33RXHDIM
• https://www.tennis-warehouse.com/improve/video.html?ccode=IPSTVAFTS

(7) Change stringing tension

• Lower tension (preferably lower than 50lb)

(8) Change racquets

• Softer arm-friendly racquets such as Wilson Clash
• https://www.tenniswarehouse.com/learning_center/gear_guides/tennis_racquets/best_comfort_racquets.html
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3u3Ng4twOo (Save your arm by Tennisnerd)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x95IBdDJzII

(9) Change how to grip the racquet

• Grip which allows more open-face hitting

(10) Change how to swing the racquet

• Swinging techniques which lower stress on your elbow
• Hitting the ball early
• Rotate your shoulder, not your elbow (lock your forearm)
• Don’t force your swing. Hit the ball in a way that comes naturally to you (don’t think too much about how to hit the ball, and don’t try to hit like Nadal or Federer)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYIEhWwW0Ec
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7rgFneyKBo
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAH6kUuKvKQ

 
This YouTube link is useful for general advice on how tennis players can stay healthy:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x95IBdDJzII (Stay healthy by Tennisnerd)  

Here are some tools you can use:
​
Flex bar

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we4UoiKG3Co

Resistance bands  

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMyhss4dsxM

Muscle roller bar

•  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we4UoiKG3Co

​Massage gun

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw64KTeF8Yw

TENS machine  

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEfiJL-JS_4&t=402s&ab_channel=AskDoctorJo

My personal experience

Initially, after I felt the onset of tennis elbow, I stopped playing tennis, and started massaging and stretching the elbow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_70oOs9dkwE&t=4s) while taking a bath (to warm the elbow) and icing the elbow with an ice pack on a daily basis. I did these things for nearly 6 weeks. Although the pain was alleviated, these actions didn’t completely cure my tennis elbow. Thus, I did a bit of research and started doing other things including: (1) exercises such as push-ups, (2) other strengthening exercises using a flex bar and resistance bands (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMyhss4dsxM), and (3) massaging the muscles around the elbow using a massage gun and a TENS machine. Now, I can feel that I am getting somewhere with these exercises and massage tools. Although I cannot quantify the effects of all these measures, I feel that the flex bar and the TENS machine are particularly effective and useful to heal tennis elbow in my case.
 
In parallel, I am thinking about changing my racket setup. First, I will lower the tension of the string I am currently using for my racket, and if that doesn’t work, I will start searching for a softer string, such as a nylon multifilament string, suited to my taste (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3u3Ng4twOo from Tennisnerd).
 
Hopefully, all these efforts will eventually result in curing my tennis elbow for good. Any other tips or advice for curing tennis elbow from your personal experiences are always welcome. Thank you for taking your time to read my article!

The junior programme is starting up again indoors from 12 April. There will be sessions available for all ages. Sophie Butland shares some ideas here about what parents can do to prepare their children for a good start in the sport or make the restart easier for them – and spark their enthusiasm at the same time. Check out the videos on our Facebook page as well. Here's Sophie:

​Hi Everyone, it’s not long now until we can all get back on the court! How exciting! I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things (excuse the pun!) and doing what I love most, coaching tennis!
 
A little bit about me: I grew up playing tennis in Taunton since the age of 7 years old, I then went on to play for an American university on a tennis scholarship while achieving my Exercise Science degree. And I have now been coaching in Taunton since graduating in 2017.
 
I have always enjoyed helping people, I love seeing people make improvements in their tennis game and I especially enjoy teaching younger children so I can give them their very first insight into the sport. I coach a range of ages throughout my coaching week, with tennis tots starting as young as 2 years old! 
 
Tennis tots at Taunton Tennis Centre
Our pre school aged programme is a fun introduction to the sport and incorporates the early years curriculum. At this young age, a child’s development is going to vary across individuals, so at Taunton we offer a free trial to all of our junior courses, which gives little ones the opportunity to try it out. Through our fun based activities and games we encourage the development of a child’s fundamental movement skills categorised below

1. Balance skills - Movements where the body remains in place, but moves around its horizontal and vertical axes.
2. Locomotor skills - such as running, jumping, hopping, and galloping.
3. Ball skills - such as catching, throwing, kicking, underarm roll and striking.

 
Balloon tennis 
Balloon tennis is one of my favourite activities to do with children at this age. It is a simple yet very effective way for children to develop their gross motor skills and can easily be done from home while having lots of fun. Parents can encourage their child to keep the balloon in the air by tapping it up with their hands, this is an effective way of developing hand eye coordination. You can then challenge your child to use one hand only or progress to using various body parts to keep the balloon in the air. If you do not have a tennis racket at home you can always get creative and encourage your child to build one (wooden spoon with a paper plate) they can then colour/decorate it to make it their own.
 
Throwing games
Throwing and catching skills can easily be developed at home, without necessarily having to use balls and cause potential breakages! You can keep your child entertained by using soft toys/teddy’s and under-arm throwing them into various coloured containers. Which would also help to work on their colour recognition. Rolling skills can be developed with the use of household objects, for example a game of skittles with empty tin cans. 
 
Floor tennis 
Floor tennis is another great activity for children at this age. Children will be able to work on both receiving and sending skills while grasping the concept of rallying in tennis. As the warmer weather is approaching, this would be a fun exercise to do in the garden/on the driveway. You can begin by rolling a ball to each other, encouraging your child to stop the ball and then roll it back. This can be developed into a handball game where you tap it back and forth while encouraging your child to count. Rackets can then be introduced with a control stop (racket strings on top of the ball) and then a gentle tap back. Your child might then be able to progress to a floor tennis rally without a control stop while counting and trying to achieve a high score while keeping the ball inside a zone set out with cones.
 
These are just a few ideas that I like to incorporate into our tennis tots sessions. Our sessions not only encourage children’s physical skills but also social skills which certainly would have been affected due to lockdowns. In our courses, children will learn to work collaboratively with other children and also develop their self confidence and self esteem. Please get in touch if you’d like to know more about our tennis sessions for pre school aged children. We’d love to see some new faces!
I look forward to seeing everyone on court again soon and hopefully it won’t be long before the sun is shining and Covid is a thing of the past! Stay positive :)
 
Sophie 

We’re going to have to wait until 29 March to play tennis outdoors again, but at least that gives us some time to get fit – and make sure our bodies are ready to do what we ask of them without too much complaint.
 
I’m very grateful to Natalie Ackland for agreeing to contribute something here on the subject of tennis fitness. Natalie is one of the most experienced coaches at Taunton Tennis Centre, helping players of all kinds to get the most out of their game, including many young players who have gone on to play at a high level.
 
As well as coaching full time, she competes regularly both nationally and internationally and has represented Great Britain in the over-35s age category. So she’s obviously well worth listening to when she says something about fitness. Here she is:
 
 
Hi everyone
 
I hope you're all managing to keep active in some form.  Mike has asked me to give some insight into what I have been doing training wise. As most of you can imagine, I'm not very good at sitting around doing nothing.
 
I've set myself a few goals over lockdown. 
 
Firstly, for myself, to get myself fitter so I'm less injury prone (strength, core and flexibility). Secondly to support my junior players (and parents) through lockdown with strength and conditioning programmes, racket challenges and quizzes.
 
So what do I do to get fit?
 
I generally do something every day. It always starts with a warm-up, jogging or cycling, followed by some dynamic stretches.
 
I then do some shoulder stability work with my band. For me this is crucial to stay fit for tennis. I'd recommend every tennis player to have a band. If you're interested here's Jamie Murray's band work out for ideas.
 
https://youtu.be/SITvsI0wsg0
 
I then do some form of strength and conditioning. It may be a HIIT workout (high intensity interval training), or if my body isn't feeling it, a lower intensity workout. Joe Wicks is a very popular one to follow for HIIT workouts. Here's an example of one I use.
 
https://youtu.be/tXOZS3AKKOw

My favourite source of information is an Australian based fitness company which has trained many pro players over the years such as Leyton Hewitt and Martina Navratilova to name a few. They do a programme for the over 40s and you can get it for free on Facebook. It's more linked to injury prevention, and improving balance and core. This is a good example of a lower intensity workout, but just as good.
 
www.tennisfitness.com/overs-40's-tennis-workout
 
If you're not over 40, there are lots of good ideas to tennis specific training. I follow them on Facebook as there's lots of free videos to get new ideas.
 
I always finish with 10 minutes of core (abs, hips, glutes, shoulders). This is crucial for tennis players and again I recommend doing at least some core work. A strong core is key to reducing tennis injuries. Here’s a video I made of some of the exercises I do.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYv5WuY7HaE&ab_channel=TauntonTennis
 
One thing I always do is listen to my body. If it's tired I rest (normally 1 in 7 days). If an exercise aggravates something, I do something else. But I also like to really push myself. 
 
I've also set my challenge of doing a 5k in under 25 minutes. I'm not a natural runner at all, in fact I'd call myself a plodder!! But I like a challenge, and I'm about 3 minutes quicker already.
 
Good luck and I hope to see you all back on the court soon!
 
Nats

We must have missed about six months of tennis since last March. Let’s not miss any more through not preparing ourselves physically for the restart and then getting injured.

With a bit of luck, we’ll be back on court in a few weeks. The last I heard, the government was hoping to get the schools back on 8 March, so if they manage that, my guess is they’ll be allowing things like outdoor tennis as well. Are you ready? I’m not sure I am.

What’s the last thing you want when you finally get back on court? That’s after you’ve torn about a bit, hit a few balls with joyful abandon, gradually found your range somewhere between the net and the back fence, and felt just how great it is to be there. For me, it’s… TWANG!!! Something like that anyway.

It’s often my calf or my hamstring. For you, it could be your elbow, your knee, your back, your shoulder… The possibilities are virtually endless. Or maybe we’ll just be struggling for breath through doing too little over the previous weeks.

Fortunately, there are plenty of people making videos to help us avoid all that and get us preparing in the right way. You’ll find a quick selection below. If you try any of them, I’d love to hear how you get on – either in the comments below or by email to [email protected]. Then perhaps we can share the information around.

I can’t claim to have done any of this myself yet. This is just some initial research. I hope it’s useful.

Mike

Hello everyone,

I hope you’re well and managing to keep motivated for your return to court (whenever that might be). Are you keeping in shape? If so, how? Why not share your tips with the rest of us by entering a comment below the blog post or replying to the email? (I'm putting this out as both.) If you reply by email, I’ll  forward the tip (anonymously if you like) to everyone and put it on the club Facebook page. A few of us (me included) could probably use some help.

I was browsing around yesterday and happened across some useful stuff on the LTA website:

Keeping in shape for tennis
The LTA is doing its best to help us keep in shape at home. Some of the activities on its Tennis at Home Hub you can even do sitting in a chair. They're really worth a look. If we do tennis-specific exercises like the ones shown at the Tennis at Home Hub, we’ll be less likely to injure ourselves on our return to court (and we’ve waited so long!).

Tennis coaching in your living room
The LTA is also offering free coaching that you can follow at home. They say it’s for all standards of play. The first session is tomorrow (Saturday) at 10 am on the LTA’s Facebook page. Subsequent sessions will be on Facebook and TikTok. All details are on the free coaching link above. With a bit of luck they’ll publish the videos on YouTube subsequently, as well.

Let me know how you get on and if you have anything you can recommend.

Also, if I were to start communicating through the blog and to just email out a link to the blog, would that work for you? You should also be able to just subscribe to the blog on this page.

All the best,
​
Mike

Hello everyone,

Here's a quick update for you.

Club sessions
These appear to be in rude health at the moment. We had 13 people at Wednesday club night this week from 7 to 10 pm, there were 15 at the outdoor session on Tuesday evening, 20(!) at Saturday club afternoon, 4 despite the rain on Thursday evening last week and 11 last Tuesday evening.

The Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday sessions are combined sessions with Elms Tennis Club and seem to be going really well. With club sessions on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, there is no shortage of tennis on offer if you want it.

Winter matches
The weather has prevented the mixed team in Division 2 of the North Somerset League from playing a match so far (but fingers are firmly crossed for tomorrow evening at Blackbrook), while the vets team lost their first to Victoria away 9-2.

The new men's team in the Culm and Exe Valleys League lost their KO cup match to a strong Trull team 8-0 but beat Tiverton 6-3 in their first league match last Sunday.

Kerry representing GB
Kerry Quirk, the tennis centre manager, is in Miami with the Great Britain over 40s ladies' team for the World Team Championships. They won their group and are now playing off for the medal spots. There is a nice pic of the team on the Facebook page.

Singles ladder
We need to revive the singles ladder, which petered out once the summer season got under way. I'll be setting that up again in the next week or so. I'd really like to see a thriving singles scene at the centre. Let me know if you'd like to play by emailing [email protected].

Mike

Hello everyone,


The season is two or three weeks old now, and we're struggling on despite injuries, players being otherwise indisposed and the other teams being rather good in a lot of cases.

It's just as well we're managing to blood a few new players. We had three players making their debut for the brand-new men's team in the West Somerset League on Thursday: Lloyd, Benji and Will Walsh. Glenn played too. It must be the youngest team we've fielded for quite some time. Age range: 17 to 29.

If you'd like to watch some tennis, we've got a few home matches coming up this week (with a bit of luck you should be able to get a cup of tea in the clubhouse if you do go):

Monday 20th: Men's A team vs Backwell A at home in Division 2 of the NSTL
Tuesday 21st: Ladies' A team vs Bridgwater B at home in Division 1 of the NSTL
Tuesday 21st: Mixed C team vs King's College Pupils at home in Division 5 of the WSTL
Thursday 23rd: Mixed B team vs Elms B at home in Division 2 of the WSTL
Friday 24th: Men's A team vs Sherborne A at home in Division 1 of the Y&D League

And if you fancy joining the travelling support, there is this one too:

Friday 24th: Mixed A team vs Trull A away in Division 1 of the WSTL

You'll find the results so far and the current league standings in the links and downloads on the right. I'll do my best to keep them updated every week.

Mike

Hello everyone,

Club sessions
We had 14 people at club night last Wednesday and 13 on Saturday afternoon, so a pretty good start to the year. Let's keep it up!

Handicap tournament
Shingo organised a fun handicap tournament on Saturday 5 January. 24 people of different playing standards who attend a variety of sessions at Blackbrook took part, and it was a big success. The scoring system seems to have worked a treat. Thanks again to Shingo for organising and Kerry for making the indoor courts available at no cost. 

We'd like to organise more of these tournaments in an effort to bring together people from different sessions. There will be another one on Sunday 17 March, so please put that in your diary and look out for more information. I've added some of the people who played in the tournament to the club email list. The emails are designed to keep you updated on what's going on in the club and at Blackbrook as far as tennis is concerned. If you don't want to be on the list, please let me know and I'll take you off again. 

Committee meeting
We had a meeting on Saturday. Here are the main points:

Funds
We are building up some small funds from tournaments we organise and our other activities (competitive indoor doubles etc.) so that we can finance further activities. We now have our own domain name for the website (www.tauntontennisclub.co.uk) at a cost of £60 a year, for example. That's helped us to feature reliably in the first few Google hits. We'd like to reimburse people for having club tournament trophies engraved this year as well. If that's you, please get in touch. 

Committee members
Laurence agreed to become treasurer and join the committee, so we have a pretty good team in place now: David Walter (chairman), Mike Lynch (communications), Oli Knowles (men's captain), Hayley Collins (ladies' captain), Laurence Paul (treasurer), Shingo Yamada (new players) and Karin Sladden plus Kerry Quirk, the tennis centre manager. Nigel Hatfield has told us he will be coming off the committee but continuing to captain the men's team in the North Somerset League.

Winter team
The team is playing in Division 1 of the North Somerset League, where the standard is very high. Laurence, Oli, Shingo, Hayley, Alice and Nicolette have played most of the matches. They've been competitive and had some good matches, but with four matches left they have their work cut out to stay in the division.

Summer teams
It looks like we will enter one more mixed team in the West Somerset League, which will start at the end of April or beginning of May. Bill Scott has expressed an interest in this team. We hope it will be made up of players from the Evergreen sessions and others who are unlikely to get many games in our other teams. We had a number of teams that were promoted last year, so things are likely to be tough! We'll have the following teams in local leagues:

• Mixed A team in Division 1 of the West Somerset League
• Mixed B team in Division 2 of the West Somerset League
• Mixed C team in Division 5 of the West Somerset League
• Men's team in Division 1 of the Yeovil and District League
• Men's team in Division 2 of the North Somerset League
• Women's team in Division 1 of the North Somerset League

We'll also have a men's team at the county level of what used to be the Aegon league (involving a handful of Sunday matches where you get to play singles as well as doubles) and two women's teams (one at the national level and one at the regional level).

Winter indoor doubles league
31 players from five different clubs have played in the Monday and Friday evening sessions in the bubble since September, playing a total of 254 sets in 76 different pairings and occupying two courts 75% to 80% of the time. The idea is to run competitive sessions, and we are keeping a table of results and standings for both the different pairings and individuals. Of those players who have played five or more sets, John Rens of Martock and Oli Knowles have been most successful up to now, winning 83.33% of their sets. John just has his nose in front in terms of percentage of games won. This will be running until April.

The Thursday lunchtime and Sunday evening sessions are also still going ahead, although a few players have been lost since the spring. They are generally filling one court per session.

Clubhouse, open day
The clubhouse has undergone a deep clean. We agreed to bring our own tea towels for matches and club sessions.

There will be an open day on the Great British Tennis Weekend on Saturday 20th July. There will be more on that nearer the time.

Have a good year's tennis!

Mike

​Hello everyone,
 
Shingo is organising a handicap doubles tournament on Saturday 5 January in the main hall from midday to 3pm.
 
It should be a lot of fun and an opportunity for a get-together – a good way to start the year and get back into tennis, whether you haven’t played for a couple of weeks or a couple of years, and whether or not you are a member. We hope people who attend different sessions at Blackbrook will play.
 
There will be a £5 entry fee to cover the price of balls, tea, coffee, nibbles and perhaps some small prizes. You can enter as an individual, but if you’d like to enter as a pair, that should work as well.
 
The handicap scoring system is designed to even out differences in standard and produce close results. Are you paying attention? Here goes:
 

• If the score reaches deuce, only one more point is played. The receivers choose which side the deciding point is played from.
• If one team goes two games ahead, they start the next game 0-15 down.
• If they win that game and go three clear, they start the next game 0-30 down.
• If they lose that game, the handicap goes back to 0-15 for the next game.
• If they win that game and go four games clear, they start the next game minus 15-30 down.
• If they keep winning, the handicap remains at minus 15-30 down.
• If they lose, the handicap goes back down to 0-30.
• If they lose the next game, it goes down to 0-15, and so on...
• There are no sets. It‘s all done on games.
• The server stands on the correct side according to the score or it gets really confusing!!

 
It’s likely we’ll use a hit-and-mix (American-style) format, but we’ll decide on that when we have all the entries in. In this system there’s a top court (Court 1) and a bottom court (Court 4). When you win, you move up a court, and when you lose, you go down. You play against the person you’ve just played with.
 
Please enter by sending an email to [email protected] by Friday 28 December, preferably sooner to give us an idea of the kind of numbers we can expect. If this is a success, we’ll look into organising more such tournaments.
 
All the best and have a good Christmas,
 
Mike

Hello everyone,

Winter league
The winter league team has been having some good matches in the heights of Division 1 of the North Somerset Tennis League, where the standard is pretty high.

The website hasn't been updated recently, but it looks like we're fourth or fifth (out of six) and fighting for survival in the top division against Backwell.

The attached file shows the results so far, who played and the dates of the fixtures in the second half of the season.

Summer league
Although we're in the depths of winter, we should start thinking about how many teams we'll be entering in the summer leagues. To make things simple, if you played last year, we'll assume you're going to play again unless you tell us otherwise. If you didn't play last year and would like to, please let us know.

Mike