Bilateral Comparison of Passive Shoulder Horizontal Adduction Range of Motion in Elite Tennis Players

# Background Elite level tennis players subject their dominant extremity to high levels of repetitive eccentric deceleration as the shoulder undergoes extensive internal rotation and cross arm adduction, placing large demands on posterior shoulder structures. While the associated loss of dominant (D) arm internal rotation range of motion (ROM) relative to the non-dominant (ND) arm has been extensively studied and quantified among overhead athletes, horizontal adduction (HADD) loss has been far less explored in current literature. The purpose of this study was to objectively measure passive D and ND HADD ROM and examine differences in D-ND HADD ROM in elite tennis players. The authors hypothesized that significantly lower D shoulder HADD ROM compared to the ND upper extremity would be observed in both male and female elite tennis players at all ages.