Vickie,Yoda suggested Iask you about a pain in my right elbow after doing the dowel drill .I'm either doing it wrong or using muscles I've not used before.Any ideas ?
Vickie,Yoda suggested Iask you about a pain in my right elbow after doing the dowel drill .I'm either doing it wrong or using muscles I've not used before.Any ideas ?
You are probably swinging your Right Arm, Neil. If so, you have transferred your Arm Swing Center from your Left Shoulder to your Right Elbow. This motion is not a straight-line piston action of the Right Arm. Consequently, it can cause a twinge in the Right Elbow and, ultimately, injury to the ligaments.
YODA SPEAKS, truth and accuracy as usual. Neil, If you are swinging from your right shoulder then you are straining the point of insertion of the tricep muscle and putting undue stress on the elbow. First look at your TGM form and then let's think about improving your shoulder action and the health and strength and flexibility of your elbow joint.
This always brings us back to your basic posture. If your shoulders are rounded then your extremities have to make adjustments to maintain your golf form.
So share some info if you will and let's start to support your new drive action.
You are probably swinging your Right Arm, Neil. If so, you have transferred your Arm Swing Center from your Left Shoulder to your Right Elbow. This motion is not a straight-line piston action of the Right Arm. Consequently, it can cause a twinge in the Right Elbow and, ultimately, injury to the ligaments.
Does the right arm just move up and down? is this what you mean by a straight line piston action of the right arm?
As a side note:
I haven't read Golf-O-Metrics by Joe Norwood, but I read a short summary of position #1 in the book "The Secret of Golf." It seems to me that what he's teaching is not a straight-line action of the right arm? Can anybody confirm this? Is this the kind of movement that will cause injury (it seems like it could)?
Vickie, Thanks for the early reply ,and thanks Lynn for the prompt service you guys are amazing!! .I don't really think I am qualified to say whether I' m a hitter or a swinger.I do have a real tendency to hit (not neccesssarily in TGM sense) and fellow hackers tell me i have a l oop in my swing .Basically I would sum my own thoughts up as.... as.aguy who took up the game @ 36 yrs old and had lesson #1@38 and swung longer than john daly ,took divots R to L. that you could bury a small dog in.my ambition when i finally took lessons was to hit a draw.It took alot of work and a Furyk type swing thought to eventually hit adrawI am trying to swing shorter, but tend to re-grip at the top ,I was always told to lead my swing with my shoulders.And in summary I';m not quite sure whether I 'm a swinger or a hitter ...but there is definetly an element of hittting......could I be doing both?.I am still reasonably quick and strong! I am either hitting BIG HOOKS or very LONG blocks with the driver .I have been hitting my bad shots VERY fat with irons.....I wrote the previous bit earlier...Just got back from the range after practicing the dowel drill for two days ..eventually hit 20 balls (5 iron) and i mean hit....like I can't remember-elbow doesn't seem to hurt much.Having said that I am going to try to get a lesson soon with Yoda.I can't believe you people are so helpful
Sorry Vickie -got carried away.... I suppose I am alittle bit round shouldered but not much ..then again wouldn't one slump a little bit in the address position if you were a large build..or would you deliberately hold your shoulder blades back?
I use pure right arm swinging......swing with weighted clubs and no twinge and no pain.....
The only time I experienced any kind of PAIN with my right elbow while RIGHT ARM SWINGING is trying to combine right arm swinging with downstroke loading. If I stay away from downstroke loading and hit DOWN and OUT per 1-L-13 and -14.....pain goes away.
Neil, yes you are correct that there is a very specific manipulation of the spine for a proper address. When I talk about slumped, rounded and anteriorly rotated shoulders (all which can mean the same thing with slight specifications) I am speaking of your general posture. When your posture is already in a restrictive state and you then further restrict the alignment, albiet appropriate, for the purpose of the golf posture then you risk a level of restriction that increases your exposure to joint complications. The theory is to start with a perfect alignment (I hope to see one once in my life) and then watch your bodies magnificent ability to manipulate it and recover from it with no impingment of the joint.
In a previous post I talk with Martee about a shoulder / arm pain that is potentially created by the same phenomenon. It is not the golf swing so much as the permanent structural problems that occur throughout our lives which finally just show up in this athletic endevor. A lot of pain that is blamed on golf or incorrect use can be traced back to structural problems that have nothing to do with the game. Correct the foundation and all things, long and short, will be better and easier on your body.
So . . . I put a lot of emphasis on training for a maximum capability for the foundation of everything you do, not the least exciting of which is golf. If you raise the capacity of your body to perform in a controlled environment like a training session and if the body returns to it's original flexibility and balance then it is just not as impacted when you need to use it in a 'contorted state'. There is a natural and appropriate state and then the not so natural things we do with our bodies. Exercise is not natural so we go to some extremes to make it effective and safe. The golf stance is not a naturally occurring stance and we go to some extremes to perfect it to be effective and safe. But in the mean time the body has to be allowed to come back to a neutral and relaxed state.
Every contribution from every post is valuable to me and important in it's own right. And every post is applicable to one individual physical experience with the injury, the stroke patterns, and the solutions. It is most important that we all keep sharing and learning and from these posts; you can usually find your way to your best answer.
What a great response, Vickie. As usual, your empathy and expert knowledge benefit not only the individual involved, but also our many readers. Thank you for your professional contributions. I am so proud you choose to post on our site.