Musculoskeletal Health Across Competitive and Recreational Racket Sports: Performance Demands, Injury Mechanisms, and Long-Term Athlete Wellbeing

Racket sports continue to grow worldwide, with disciplines such as tennis, badminton, squash, table tennis, padel, and pickleball engaging millions of participants across competitive, recreational, and lifelong participation settings. These sports provide substantial physical, psychological, and social health benefits but also place athletes under unique musculoskeletal demands arising from repetitive, high‑velocity actions, rapid directional changes, and sport‑specific loading patterns. As participation expands across age groups and performance levels, understanding how these demands interact with performance, injury risk, recovery, and long‑term musculoskeletal health has become a critical research priority.

This Research Topic aims to gather multidisciplinary evidence on musculoskeletal health across racket sports, spanning the continuum from performance enhancement and injury prevention to athlete well‑being and healthy aging. The collection seeks to connect sports medicine, biomechanics, physiology, strength and conditioning, rehabilitation, epidemiology, and broader health sciences to advance understanding of how racket sports participation influences musculoskeletal function throughout the lifespan.

We welcome original research, systematic reviews, meta‑analyses, brief reports, methodological studies, and perspective articles exploring mechanisms underlying injury occurrence, physical performance, training adaptations, and long‑term health outcomes in both elite and recreational populations. Particular emphasis is placed on translational research that informs evidence‑based practice among coaches, clinicians, sport scientists, and healthcare professionals.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Epidemiology and burden of musculoskeletal injuries in racket sports

• Biomechanical and physiological demands of match play and training, including sport‑specific loading patterns

• Acute and chronic workload monitoring and injury risk management

• Overuse injuries, tendinopathies, and stress‑related conditions

• Spine and joint health during racket sport participation

• Neuromuscular function, strength, and physical performance determinants

• Recovery, rehabilitation, and return‑to‑play strategies

• Injury prevention interventions and exercise‑based programs

• Sex, age, and skill‑level differences in injury and performance profiles

• Youth athlete development, musculoskeletal adaptations, and healthy aging

• Wearable technologies, artificial intelligence, and athlete monitoring systems

• Long‑term musculoskeletal health outcomes in recreational and competitive participants

By consolidating emerging evidence across multiple racket sports, this Research Topic seeks to generate an integrated framework that connects performance and musculoskeletal health—translating scientific advances into practical strategies that promote both performance longevity and lifelong participation.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Racket sports, Musculoskeletal health, Injury prevention, Biomechanics, Sports performance, Athlete monitoring, Rehabilitation, Healthy aging

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.