Stockholm, Sweden
Occupation/Certification:
Combination of strength and conditioning coach and physiotherapist
How long have you been involved in tennis and in what ways?
1988–1997 Tennis coaching / 1997–current Physiotherapist / 2000- current Strength and Conditioning coach
What is your current role in tennis or "tennis medicine"?
I work on the field with young elite players doing my best to assist them with their daily fitness training from a high performance and prevention perspective. In addition I educate coaches in the area of strength and conditioning and injury prevention. As of September 2017 I will start up a post-doctoral project at Karolinska University with further research in the world of tennis-medicine.
What do you find most interesting about "tennis medicine"?
My passion has always been to work actively with the development of young players trying to become professional players, the journey is long and very challenging. However, I do believe when the medical and physical team integrate with the coaches and put the players best interest in the center of attention it is possible for players to succeed!
What is your favorite "tennis medicine" diagnosis to treat and why?
Since working with young players; prevention through ”good daily habits” is hopefully the key for not having to deal with any diagnosis;-) However, no players are immune to injury unfortunately. In the case of injury I do enjoy trying to figure out why players have shoulder problems in relation to the serve. From my point of view it is a combination of local and global factors but very often also a technical/biomechanical issue, therefore I like to use video analysis in combination with clinical examination and rehabilitation trying to find a possible way to make the player healthy.
How do you think we can improve the field of "tennis medicine"?
I believe the key is to integrate with the coaches both on and off court, we must
learn from each other to understand and figure out the best way for every player on an individual basis. I really enjoy the conferences where the different professions (medical team, fitness, coaches, mental, nutrition etc) are involved discussing the challenges that constantly arises with players.
Why did you join STMS and how are you involved?
I joined many years ago, I think the main reason is my passion for tennis. At the
moment we are discussing how we can integrate the coaches to greater extent
and also if it would be possible to do more activities/conferences in Europe and Scandinavia. We had over the years a couple of fantastic meetings in Sweden thanks to a lot of people with Prof. Per Renström as the “meeting general”, that would be nice to repeat again, hope to see everyone at that conference!