

The concept of the kinetic chain was introduced in tennis in the 1990s by Dr Ben Kibler, adapted from a concept created by Dr Jack Groppel. The history of tennis sports medicine can thereafter largely be defined by some important developments.Īn understanding of biomechanics from a sports medicine perspective is a key area in player development because all strokes have a fundamental mechanical structure and sports injuries primarily have a mechanical cause 3. Articles on ‘tennis toe’ (subungual haematoma) caused by jammed shoes showed up during the 1970s.

During the 1940s, quite a few articles emerged describing what was called ‘tennis leg’, which was defined as a partial tear of the gastrocnemius muscle often associated with the landing after serving. This injury has been described in over 1600 scientific articles since 1928. It is called lateral epicondylitis, but is really a degenerative process characterised by large populations of fibroblasts, disorganised collagen and vascular hyperplasia. The rules of today are largely from 1924, with the one major change being the addition of the tie-break system designed by James Van Alen around 1970.įor a long time, tennis medicine was synonymous with tennis elbow, which is an overuse injury related to tennis, first described by Runge in 1873 2.
TENNIS WORLD TOUR TRAINER FULL
It returned as a full medal sport in 1988. Tennis was part of the Summer Olympic Games programme at the inaugural 1896 Games, but was dropped in 1924. The French Open was introduced in 1891 and Australian Open in 1905. The US National Women’s Singles Championships were first held in 1887. The US National Men’s Singles Championship, now the US Open, was first held in 1881 at Newport, Rhode Island.

In 1877, the All England Club held the first Wimbledon tournament and its tournament committee came up with a set of rules that are essentially the game we know today. The real breakthrough in popularity came in 1874 when Londoner Walter Clopton Wingfield patented the equipment and rules for a game fairly similar to modern tennis.

The Hampton Court in the UK was built in 1625 and is still used today 1. The French royal families adopted the game early. The first ball was wooden but soon evolved into a leather surface filled with a fatty substance. The monks soon added the first version of a racquet, which was probably made of wood and leather. Most historians credit the first origins of the game to 12th century French monks who began playing a court game where the ball was struck with the hand against their monastery walls or over a rope strung across a courtyard. Since the 1980s, tennis as a sport has undergone a revolution in many ways, not least of which is the role of sports medicine in the game. Therefore any reason for contact with any medical personal was due to common overuse injuries related to the equipment and poor technique, such as ‘tennis elbow’ or ‘tennis toe’. In the early days of tennis, the heavy wooden racquet, clothing and technique affected a player’s performance and power. Tom is specialized in personal development and orthomolecular nutrition.The history of sports medicine in tennis follows the development of tennis as a sport. He forms a bridge between top sports and the corporate world, where he uses his rich experience and knowledge from top sports and top sports coaching to help individuals become top performers in their work environment. He’s still active as a tennis coach and trainer at national level.įor Mentally Fit, Tom focuses on workshops about energy management, helping individuals and teams reaching their full potential. After that, he started working at the Dutch Golf Federation as Player Developer for the Dutch National Youth Team. Between 20 he was assistant coach of Jong Oranje, the Dutch national youth team (women). He has a rich experience in coaching Dutch tennis talents, like Dennis van Scheppingen, Fred Hemmes and Peter Wessels.
TENNIS WORLD TOUR TRAINER PROFESSIONAL
After his professional sports career, he obtained his coaching licence level C from the Dutch Tennis Federation. He won two Grand Slam Mixed doubles titles together with Manon Bollegraf (Roland Garros 1989 and US Open 1991). Tom Nijssen was professional tennis player at the ATP World Tour for 15 years.
