Tennis 10+ Warm-Up and Cool-Down Program: A 1-Year Longitudinal Analysis of Compliance and Injury Rates in Adult...

Injury prevalence among adult recreational tennis players may be >50%, involving injuries to upper extremity, lower extremity, and trunk. No standardized on-court warm-up/cool-down program has demonstrated improved compliance and injury reduction in this population.

Compliance with the Tennis 10+ warm-up/cool-down program in adult recreational tennis players will improve over time. High compliance with Tennis 10+ will show reduced injury rates versus low compliance over the 1-year study period.

Longitudinal cohort study.

Level 3.

Adult recreational tennis players actively participating in a tennis league and/or competitive tennis were included. Level of compliance by time, injury rate, injury type, sex, and age were assessed at baseline, and at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Association between variables was assessed by a 2-sample t test or chi-squared statistical test.

A total of 317 adult recreational tennis players (age, 18-75 years [mean, 48]) completed enrollment. Compliance levels improved significantly over time (P = 0.01). Men (P = 0.02) and players aged 39 to 50 years (P < 0.01) showed a significantly higher level of compliance over time. There were no differences in injury rates between low and high compliance groups, except at 12 months, when high compliance was associated with a significant decrease in injury frequency and overuse injuries (P = 0.01).

Compliance with the Tennis 10+ warm-up/cool-down program improved from baseline, especially with men and people aged 39 to 50 years. High compliance with Tennis 10+ was not associated with lower overall injury rates, except lower overuse injury rates at 12 months.

Tennis 10+ can be implemented as an on-court method before and after tennis play to effectively reduce barriers to warm-up/cool-down in adult recreational tennis players. Further study is necessary to identify the significance of injury reduction with program compliance.