Odds & Ends

It's the off-season so there's not much to write about with regard to the professional tennis tours. Still, there's a wealth of fascinating tennis-related news out there. I let some slip through the cracks and never ended up writing about them earlier, so this is my chance.

CARDIO TENNIS: Some people use tennis as a way to burn calories and improve fitness, and that was one of the premises of Tennis Welcome Centers. Here's something that goes it one better.

From Sports Geezer:
Can Beyonce save tennis? How about Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez? The United States Tennis Association and the Tennis Industry Association seem to think so. The two organizations, concerned about their sport's failure to thrive in recent years, have created a new and way more extreme tennis workout, and it often includes blasting music from at least one of the two young ladies. What else does in [sic] include? There's a 10-minute warm-up, 45 minutes of cardiovascular conditioning--including team games and forehand, backhand and volley drills--and a five-minute cool-down....[I]t's called cardio tennis, and it seems to be less about tennis than it is about cardio. The main selling point is that it is a high-energy workout that burns more calories than singles or doubles by elevating the heart rate into the aerobic training zone. And if you think no one will buy that selling point, think again. Cardio tennis workouts are offered at 760 public and private courts across the country.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather play the real thing. I can get my cardio workout from other activities; nothing beats the rush of opening a fresh can of balls and smacking them hard back and forth across a net. Still, the cross-promotional aspect of this with tennis may inspire other people to pick up racquets and actually start playing. It's all good.

TENNIS ELBOW: Tennis elbow sufferers may have yet another weapon to add to their pain-killing arsenal. According to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, injecting Botox into the affected arm could alleviate the condition.

From Reuters.co.uk:
There are many options for treating tennis elbow, including rest, anti-inflammatory pain medications, braces and injections of corticosteroids. But in studies, only anti-inflammatory lotions or ointments have proven effective, Dr. Shiu Man Wong told Reuters Health.

For their study, Wong and colleagues at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Prince of Wales Hospital recruited 60 adults who'd suffered tennis elbow pain for at least three months. Half received a single injection of botulinum toxin type A in the affected area, and half were injected with saline.

One month and three months later, patients who'd received the toxin showed greater improvements in their pain than placebo patients did, the researchers found. In the botulinum toxin group, the average score on a standard pain-rating scale fell from 65.5 to 23.5 over three months. Among placebo patients, the average score dipped from 66.2 to 43.5.

For a few patients, though, the toxin did cause muscle weakness in the fingers; muscle weakness is a typical side effect of Botox in general.

More studies are needed to confirm the toxin's effectiveness for tennis elbow, Wong said. It's not clear why it may aid the condition, but direct analgesic effects may be at work, according to the researcher.

In tests of grip strength, Wong noted, there were no overall differences between the two study groups - suggesting that the pain relief was not just a product of reduced muscle tension around the elbow.

Botulinum toxin may eventually prove useful for painful conditions like chronic headache and tennis elbow, according to Dr. Seth L. Pullman of Columbia University in New York City. But for now, doctors should reserve it for conditions marked by abnormal muscle spasms, he writes in an accompanying editorial.

Will it reduce wrinkles on my arm, too? But seriously speaking, tennis elbow is a very painful condition that knocks players out of competition for months on end. I wonder what spurred Dr. Wong's interest in the matter.

MOON TENNIS: Shortly before the 2005 US Open commenced, NASA released an article about how the Moon's atmosphere and gravity would affect topspin, any tennis player's staple for keeping the ball in court. To complement this article, NASA also shot a video starring Andy Roddick, the US Open Series' "Rocket Man."

From NASA:
They call him the "Rocket Man." Tennis pro Andy Roddick holds the world's record for fast serves: 155 mph. By the time opponents realize where the ball is going, very often, it's already gone. Ace! His groundstrokes are like rockets, too.

Believe it or not, this can be a problem. Balls hit so hard want to go long, flying straight out the back of the court. Out! It's hard to win a game that way.

So what do you do when you're so powerful? Roddick has a trick up his sleeve: topspin. By hitting the ball obliquely (at a slant), he causes it to spin. Topspin makes the ball curve downward. Instead of going out, it drops neatly into play on the other side of the net.

Now the Rocket Man is wondering, "What if the US Open were played on the Moon? Would topspin do me any good?"

Andy's acting may be wooden, but his participation in the video anchored the NASA article's spacey speculation in tennis reality. Now if only he could stop foot-faulting in the video...

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 12:07 PM