Carlos Alcaraz needs to learn lessons from Tiger Woods on anatomical damage

We all know that Tiger Woods is suffering the effects of severe anatomical damage to his body fundamentally due to his extremely physical golf swing. Yes, he also suffers pain from his leg injury from that horrific car crash but at root his pain problems - and consequential opioid pain killer problems - stem from an enormously athletic golf swing generating a huge amount of power which enabled him to launch the golf ball great distances and thereby 'take' golf courses and fire very low scores.

To summarise: Tiger's golf swing was very demanding on his body and eventually it caused great back damaged requiring a lot of surgery and accompanying pain.

Carlos Alcaraz's tennis game has the same foundational problems: hugely athletic and demanding on his body.  He is quick and he is rarely beaten by a ball because he forces his body to do exceptional things. He contorts his body and places huge stresses on it. 

Despite being in his early 20s he is suffering serious injuries already which has led, recently, to him withdrawing from the Madrid Open. His form has dropped off a little due I would argue to his injuries and perhaps exhaustion. To maintain that level of physicality is exhausting.

 Alcaraz told reporters that the injury “is more serious than any of us expected” and said he would “need to listen to my body” to avoid further damage. Wise words. He needs to protect his body going forward.

He has a game style - combined with his enormous natural talent - which will shorten his tennis career. If he modifies his game style to make it less physical he will be notably less successful. Catch 22.

All sports have been progressively more physical and therefore demanding on the anatomy of the sportsmen and women.

This leads to more injuries, more pain in old age after retirement, brain injuries in contact sports and in tennis a demand by the players to curtail the number of tournaments.

Crunch time is coming in golf - time to detune the ball and/or clubs to hit the ball shorter distances - and in tennis - to make is less demanding on the tennis players anatomy. 

It should be noted that this argument only applies at present to the men's game. But I suspect that in due course it will apply to women as well.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins. Also, sources for news articles are carefully selected but the news is often not independently verified. And, I rely on scientific studies but they are not 100% reliable. Finally, (!) I often express an OPINION on the news. Please share yours in a comment.