Reprinted with permission from Northeast Indiana Gamenight.
Ball State tennis player Ashlyn Rang remembers it vividly.
June 1, 2012, the day she went under the knife.
“Going into it, I was told I possibly wouldn’t need the full Tommy John surgery,” Rang said. “I woke up from the surgery and they told me they had to do the full surgery. I was devastated.”
Rang was forced to have serious Tommy John surgery on her right elbow last summer, effecting the way she’s played her entire sophomore year of tennis.
A type of surgery usually performed on pitchers in baseball, Tommy John surgery requires replacing the UCL in the elbow with another tendon in the body.
Rang said the injury first became noticeable when she was playing for her high school. Bone spurs caused inflammation, and then overuse from the increased workload at Ball State eventually caused the tear.
After the surgery, rehabilitation was slow, dull and methodical, especially considering Rang was itching to get back on the court.
"The recovery process was depressing and frustrating,” Rang said. “I was told I couldn’t pick up a racket for four and a half months. I was really upset for a long time, but knew I had to move on.”
Rang continued her physical therapy with doctors and trainers, building the muscles in her elbow back up, despite the demoralizing conclusion that it would be months before she could even start doing tennis drills.
Unfortunately, the new tendon hasn’t reached the strength of the old one. Even today, more than 10 months after the surgery, Rang feels tenderness in her elbow and it affects her game.
Doctors warned her that recovery could take up to a full year.
The soreness has adverse side effects on Rang’s style of play, forcing her to alter one of her most deadly weapons, her serve.
“My serve was by far my biggest weapon last season, and now I don’t have it,” Rang said. “On bad days I do underhand serves. I’ll try to throw tricks in there to make it harder to return, but it’s not the same.”
Serving underhand is unheard of in college tennis. With competition always fierce and unforgiving, having a strong serve can be a player’s best friend.
Having to serve underhand creates a huge liability, one that Rang has worked hard to overcome.
In addition to the underhand serve, Rang said she’s had to alter her forehand. She said her forehand was what caused the injury in the first place, creating stress on her elbow, and she’s been forced to change her grip in order to avoid the injury again.
She hasn’t been happy with the changes she’s had to make.
"My serve was my main weapon last year, and right now it’s at maybe 50 percent,” Rang said. “That and my forehand, it’s taking a toll on my game physically because I don’t have the stamina I used to have.”
Without the dominant serve and a different forehand, Rang’s shots aren’t as effective, making it more difficult to get opponents out of position.
Those opponents can return the ball faster, forcing Rang to chase, tiring her out faster.
Despite the difficulties Rang has encountered, she has her mind set on returning to her old form.
“My coaches and I are being really smart about everything,” Rang said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll be back to 100 percent by some point this summer.”
