Tennis injury- My hand/thumb

I played tennis for 3 hours Saturday, a very tough 5 set match.
Then Monday played an easy 6-0 6-1
Then Tuesday played a VERY tough 3 set match that lasted 2 1/2 hours
Then yesterday I played an easy 6-2 6-2 match.

Anyway, I've played a crapload of tennis lately. Now I have a terrible pain in my hand. It's definitely from holding the racket, it's in the lower part of my thumb. It just feels really tight and when I pull my thumb back or out at all it gets a really sharp pain.

It's not anything serious, but I don't want it to happen everytime I play a lot of tennis. Is there a name for an injury like this? I would imagine it would be pretty common among tennis players.

Is there anything I can do for it now? Like ice or heat or anything to make it more comfortable? And is there anything preventative I can do for the future? Wrap it somehow or do exercises to strengthen it?

u have to relax ur hand/wrist when u play tennis. It often happens if u keep ur racket too hard in ur hands..
but there are some salves u can use and u feel better. but I think u have to rest now cuz if u keep playing the pain won't disappear

I think I had something similar to this a while ago. I didn't play for about 5 days then after that it was fine. Just give it some rest.

Maybe try resting it for a bit.. Try massage everyday and gentle stretches.. Ice won't really do anything unless its swollen.

If it doesn't get better, or it becomes an annoying problem, perhaps go and see a physiotherapist about it.

We're off from school for about a week and a half, and I've already decided I'm not playing again this week. I think it was just too much tennis too quickly... Because I didn't play all winter, then was in the gym of our school (yes, it works terrificly for tennis :rolleyes: lol) and just started playing outside last week... So 4/5 days was probably too much.

Thanks for the info

Why don't you play with your opposite hand, on the easy matches? 6-0, 6-1? 6-2, 6-2? You need to win that badly while you could be using your opposite hand and giving your dominant hand a rest.

If its a wrist problem. That's bad.

It could be permanent. If you see a doctor. Make sure they recommend a good physiotherapist. When you get to your physiotherapist. So if a blood flow stimulation therapy wrap is right for you. They are very useful.

I recommend them to everyone of my customers.

If you don't end up going to a physio, this is the wrap I recommend for my patients http://www.kingbrand.com/Wrist_Injury_Treatment.php?REF=Boris1011

Good luck.

I hope this helps.

Cheers!

If you don't already, train yourself to put the racquet in your non-dominant hand after each point so that your dominant hand, wrist, forearm get a 10 second break and the muscles go through a range of motion rather than just being clenched around the racquet handle. It also makes it a lot easier to give your doubles partner a high-five after a good shot!