Introduction
acute injuries, shoulder stiffness, shoulder pain, pain
Tennis players often experience posterior shoulder pain due to restricted internal rotation (IR) range of motion (ROM) at the shoulder joint. One of the most common causes of shoulder pain and limited IR ROM has been reported to be posterior shoulder stiffness or contractureTennis games place high pressure on the players' joints, with supraphysiological forces generated hundreds of times per match in the shoulder and elbow joints. It has been reported that acute injuries frequently occur in the lower extremities among tennis players, whereas chronic injuries frequently occur in the upper extremitiesOverhead athletes frequently perform posterior shoulder stretching as part of prevention programs to reduce the risk of shoulder injuriesYamauchi et al.