Objective. To describe the incidence of musculoskeletal injuries in paddle-tennis senior players.
Method. The sample was composed of 131 active paddle-tennis senior players (107 men / 24 women); with a mean age of 56.8±4.6 years [50 to 66 years] and 1.76±0.07 m, 81.3±16.44kg and an average play time of 9.36±6.34 years. The 39.7% played at the right position; 79.4% over the medium level, 91.6% were right-hand and 62.6% were federated. Participants were asked about the injuries they had suffered during their paddle-tennis career and completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ).
Results. The results showed that specific joint lesions due to paddle-tennis are located mainly in the elbow (29.8%), lower back (27.5%), knee (22.9%), tennis leg (22.1%) and shoulder (20.6%).
Conclusions. Paddle-tennis creates specific demands on the musculoskeletal system of senior players, with acute injuries, such as knee sprains, being more frequent in the lower extremity while chronic overuse injuries, such as lateral epicondylitis and shoulder pain are more common in the upper extremity, and low back pain in the trunk in the senior players. The main injury risk factors observed were age, laterality and body mass index. These findings could help physiotherapists to create preventive programmes.
