While reading up on some upper extremity injuries associated with sport, I came across this piece from Epidemiology of musculoskeletal injury in the tennis player. Based on information found the authors are hypothesizing that “teaching the topspin serve at a young age may put the young tennis player at increased risk for back pain and/or injury.” It is thought that “early introduction to the topspin serve may be associated with the development of spondylolysis and/or spondylothesis in elite-level players.”

This particular piece of research goes into other injuries associated with tennis such as lower extremity pains, association with volume of play, age and sex, skill level and even racquet grip position. 

Racquet grip position is another one I found to be very interesting as different grips have been associated with different overuse injuries.

• Ulnar sided injuries (extensor carpi ulnaris tendonitis and triangular fibrocartilage complex pathology) were significantly associated with a Western or Semi-western grip

• Radial sided injuries (flexor carpi radialis tendonitis, De Quervain's tendinopathy and intersection syndrome) were more common with Eastern grip.

With this information regarding tennis racquet holds being associated with different overuse injuries, we can see how this may relate to daily work , job dependent. Below you can see the photo of how this individual holds a rod, what you don’t see is that they have a large GPS unit above that needs to be stabilized, similar to stabilization needed when hitting a tennis ball. Some different wrist and hand positioning on this rod may pre- dispose this individual to these same overuse injuries.

Which tennis grip style is most like this positioning?