It's a scourge among players of tennis, which is also very present among the players of padel. The elbow tendonitis or tennis elbow keeps you off track for a long time. How to avoid it?

It is a sharp pain which will not leave you alone until after a long period of rest. We are not talking about several days, but very often several weeks, even months. Tendonitis in the elbow is a painful lesion that you have to learn to live with because it is located on a part of the body that you use very often.

Tennis or padel elbow?

It is an inflammation of the tendon which is located at the level of the elbow and which prevents to tighten and close correctly the hand. Every time you grab your pala, you feel pain, and the pain will be more intense when you hit the ball.

How to treat her?

This is not quite the topic of this article as our aim is to avoid it. Put cold on the affected area, in this case the elbow, massage the forearm as many times as possible, and rest because each new attempt will restart the process.

How to avoid it?

This is where we wanted to come from. It's still much better to be safe than sorry, isn't it?

The first thing to do when we start the padelis to adapt our body. If you look closely, you will see that in professional players the forearm on the side of the hand holding the racket is oversized in relation to the other. So even if you fell in love with the padel, do not play 5 games a week from the start as you may cause this pain.

Then think about taking care of yourself. Put on the cold and stretch the forearms, triceps and shoulder, massage yourself regularly, even at work you can take 1 minute to relax this part of the body. Finally, drink water frequently because it is the only liquid that you can consume without limit and that will do you good.

Your pala. There are all kinds of palas on the market. Beginner's palas are great when you first take your first steps, but then you'll have to go upmarket along with your level of play. Palas can help people who suffer from padel elbow to avoid this lesion; ask your dealer for advice. Note that control palas and ladies palas tend to dampen shocks and therefore avoid vibrations in your arm.

The handle. We don't think about it often enough, but the number one reason for elbow tendonitis is an unsuitable sleeve size. We all have different hand sizes, and pala sleeves are all (more or less) the same. You must therefore play with the grips and overgrips to enlarge or not the handle and find the ideal size: one that will allow you to feel comfortable, while reducing the risk of tendinitis.

Here are some photos that will enlighten you.

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Julien Bondia

Julien Bondia is a teacher of padel in Tenerife (Spain). Columnist and advisor, he helps you play better through his tutorials and tactical/technical articles padel.

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