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  • Need your help, please!

    I got my ST for Christmas and got instantly hooked. I would spend hours hitting anywhere from 150-400+ balls. I developed Tendinitis in both arms and took 12 days off without any golf contact (torture!). I bought a new mat to hit off of in case I was getting the "CCE" elbow. I got a FiberBuilt FlightDeck and started my obsessive practicing again which led me to a flare-up of tendinitis. I then took 18 days off without golf contact (TORTURE!). I tried to be smart and govern my practice by limiting contact time and amount of balls. However, I woke up last Friday morning with tendinitis symptoms again. This time isn't as bad, but I am concerned about making it through the golf season as soon as the weather turns.

    Questions for our experts:

    I assumed my problem was from being such a poor ball striker and hitting the mat too fat.

    1.Could my problem be from the severe toe or heel strikes that send the jarring/stinging feeling up the club shaft?
    2. If so, would I benefit from getting graphite shafts? I have been in the market for new clubs since last Fall but keep putting it off until I got a 'consistent swing' to get fit with.
    3. Would it be a cheaper/smarter route to have my current clubs changed to graphite shafts?

    I appreciate any help or suggestions you guys have.

    Thanks!

  • #2
    OK, I have quite bad tendonitis ("golfer's elbow") in both arms and have had it for a while (3 years). Here are my reflections

    (1) It comes and goes. It can vary from day to day in a way that is not much connected to golf or how much I hit
    (2) It's often painful, but it doesn't ever get worse than a particular point of pain. So there is no sense in which it's getting worse and worse and will eventually completely cripple me
    (3) One of my regular golf partners is a surgeon. I mentioned this to him and his response was: "it comes with age - there's nothing that you can do - man up - it won't get worse and worse - stop whinging - by the way your drive's in the bunker"
    (4) Sometimes it unexpectedly resolves completely for a while in one or more arms and there is no pain. But it always comes back eventually
    (5) Often it hurts LEAST when I'm actually playing or hitting with ST

    As a result of this, I have learned to either ignore it or use ibuprofen. But I don't limit my hitting because of it.

    NOTE: I have NO medical qualifications whatsoever. These are simply my personal experiences with this condition.

    Comment


    • dagratest816
      dagratest816 commented
      Editing a comment
      as a man who jokes and has tons of friends that joke on one another #3 is hilarious hahaha. gotta love friends.

    • skytrakali
      skytrakali commented
      Editing a comment
      He's a British surgeon - that's how they speak!

    • triplebogeysrbetter
      triplebogeysrbetter commented
      Editing a comment
      And he stayed at Holiday Inn :-) Sounds like some of my golfing buds.

  • #3
    Unfortunately...some anti inflammatory medicines and rest away from hitting is likely your best bet. Maybe see a doctor about it too.

    Comment


    • #4
      It seems like the volume of golf balls hit is causing your problems. From what I read the FlightDeck is supposed to be a good mat for hitting balls. I personally made my own version of the "DivotAction" mat with a CCE top that has some give to it due to the plexiglass bottom. It has served me very well with little to no pain that I would attribute to jarring impact with the ground.

      I don't see how a shaft change is going to solve this particular problem. A shaft is usually fitted so that you get the proper flex to match your swing speed which maximizes the chances of a getting your club face back where you need to at impact.

      You can also have the lie angle of your club heads adjusted (+ or -) to make sure are you eliminating heel or toe strikes with the ground. This seems more likely to help any impact issues than just new shafts.

      Of course I'm not a fitting pro but that is with my limited experience in getting fitted for irons.

      Comment


      • #5
        Originally posted by skytrakali View Post
        OK, I have quite bad tendonitis ("golfer's elbow") in both arms and have had it for a while (3 years). Here are my reflections

        (1) It comes and goes. It can vary from day to day in a way that is not much connected to golf or how much I hit
        (2) It's often painful, but it doesn't ever get worse than a particular point of pain. So there is no sense in which it's getting worse and worse and will eventually completely cripple me
        (3) One of my regular golf partners is a surgeon. I mentioned this to him and his response was: "it comes with age - there's nothing that you can do - man up - it won't get worse and worse - stop whinging - by the way your drive's in the bunker"
        (4) Sometimes it unexpectedly resolves completely for a while in one or more arms and there is no pain. But it always comes back eventually
        (5) Often it hurts LEAST when I'm actually playing or hitting with ST

        As a result of this, I have learned to either ignore it or use ibuprofen. But I don't limit my hitting because of it.

        NOTE: I have NO medical qualifications whatsoever. These are simply my personal experiences with this condition.
        Thank you for replying!

        Is your pain in your elbows? I actually don't have any pain and never do, my symptoms are numbness and tingling in my bilateral thumbs, index fingers, and middle fingers. I am an RN and I immediately worried that I developed Carpal Tunnel. I saw my physician and she diagnosed the tendinitis, and recommended ice, rest, and NSAIDs. The symptoms are never while I am playing or practicing, just the next morning I notice it when I am checking twitter or playing WGT on my iPad or iPhone.

        Comment


        • skytrakali
          skytrakali commented
          Editing a comment
          The pain is most often on the bump of my elbow - but it can be anywhere from the shoulder down including forearm, wrist, fingers etc......

      • #6
        Originally posted by jhepti View Post
        Unfortunately...some anti inflammatory medicines and rest away from hitting is likely your best bet. Maybe see a doctor about it too.
        Thanks, I did see my physician who diagnosed the tendinitis and recommended ice, rest, and NSAIDs. The next thing I am going to try is putting some carpet padding under my FlightDeck. Right now it is resting on my concrete garage floor. I have a 4' x 8' sheet of sub-flooring that has carpet and padding that I stand on, then there is an oval cut out which houses the FlightDeck.

        Comment


        • #7
          Originally posted by frodaddy00 View Post
          It seems like the volume of golf balls hit is causing your problems. From what I read the FlightDeck is supposed to be a good mat for hitting balls. I personally made my own version of the "DivotAction" mat with a CCE top that has some give to it due to the plexiglass bottom. It has served me very well with little to no pain that I would attribute to jarring impact with the ground.

          I don't see how a shaft change is going to solve this particular problem. A shaft is usually fitted so that you get the proper flex to match your swing speed which maximizes the chances of a getting your club face back where you need to at impact.

          You can also have the lie angle of your club heads adjusted (+ or -) to make sure are you eliminating heel or toe strikes with the ground. This seems more likely to help any impact issues than just new shafts.

          Of course I'm not a fitting pro but that is with my limited experience in getting fitted for irons.
          I had a buddy tell me that graphite shafts are more forgiving and have less reverberation from the poor ball striking. Maybe he didn't know what he was talking about?

          Comment


          • triplebogeysrbetter
            triplebogeysrbetter commented
            Editing a comment
            I have Mizunos 850s with 90 gram graphite shafts. I still get golfing elbow from hitting on the mat. I'm a digger and have to limit myself with the simulator time. Three weeks ago my back and elbow were so bad I had to stop for a week.

            Now I limit myself to 40-50 balls on the practice range. Then a couple of random 3 holes on WGT a night. It's worked for me so far.

        • #8
          I have my mat on a cement slab in my garage. The mat is somewhere between budget and CCE. It is thick, but I could still feel the cement giving some not so pleasant feedback and had some pretty serious pain in my wrist and elbows since i was out there every night for an hour or two. Had to take almost 2 months off from hitting(luckily it was winter time). In addition my wife who is a better golfer than I was getting some wrist and elbow pain when the mat was directly on the cement. I ended up using motorcycle seat padding gel to absorb the downward force. I can't remember the exact topic here on the forum but it was somebody else's idea(I can't take credit). But I can vouch that it helped out a lot and the pain both my wife and i were having has not resurfaced. Here is the stuff I bought https://smile.amazon.com/ULTRAGEL-Mo...words=seat+gel
          But I have my hitting mat sitting ontop of kid play mats and then I pulled the square where the ball sits and just put the gel down and laid the mat down. Works like a charm and we haven't found it to change/impact our swing or contact in a material way.

          Comment


          • #9
            cmckelvmi I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who loved their new simulator so much that it hurts (literally). I too have "tennis" elbow on my left elbow (I'm right handed) from hyper extending it on my back swing coupled with hitting off of a CCE mat. I started with a generic mat that came with a net return package, I then upgraded to a CCE mat (which didn't help much), I then cutout the CCE mat and inserted a Divot action. So far, the divot action has been helping a ton (I've only been using it for about a week), but I still feel a little pain in my elbow after hitting 100 balls or so. I'm planning on taking a little break (i.e. limiting my sim time to only 2 or 3 days a week) to see if I can recover fully. Thanks again for addressing this topic and I'll let you know if I come across anything that helps, besides hitting off of a divot action mat.

            Comment


            • #10
              Don't resign yourself to being "too old"

              I'm no golf expert, but I do work with university athletes from several different sports as a strength and conditioning coach. Sometimes it's a matter of 'too much' or 'too old' but more often its a matter of poor flexibility in one area, or lack of strength in another area that causes too much stress to outlet through a specific joint ... which eventually leads to overuse injuries.

              Eg. Baseball players have Tommy John surgery on their elbows often because of poor shoulder mobility causing extra range of motion to come from the elbow joint. Likewise most moderate back pain can be eliminated by teaching someone to generate more movement and rotation to come from the hips and less to come from the spine.

              ​​​​​​A good golf coach, or good fitness coach should be able to help you point out where you can improve mobility/strength/technique to reduce the stress on your joints. A couple sessions can't cost more than new shafts for your clubs plus you support your local pro

              ​​

              Comment


              • #11
                Thank you all for your replies! I love the insight and especially appreciate that I am not the only one.

                Comment


                • #12
                  Originally posted by Sandbar View Post
                  I have my mat on a cement slab in my garage. The mat is somewhere between budget and CCE. It is thick, but I could still feel the cement giving some not so pleasant feedback and had some pretty serious pain in my wrist and elbows since i was out there every night for an hour or two. Had to take almost 2 months off from hitting(luckily it was winter time). In addition my wife who is a better golfer than I was getting some wrist and elbow pain when the mat was directly on the cement. I ended up using motorcycle seat padding gel to absorb the downward force. I can't remember the exact topic here on the forum but it was somebody else's idea(I can't take credit). But I can vouch that it helped out a lot and the pain both my wife and i were having has not resurfaced. Here is the stuff I bought https://smile.amazon.com/ULTRAGEL-Mo...words=seat+gel
                  But I have my hitting mat sitting ontop of kid play mats and then I pulled the square where the ball sits and just put the gel down and laid the mat down. Works like a charm and we haven't found it to change/impact our swing or contact in a material way.
                  I think I remember reading the thread involving the motorcycle gel pad. I looked into Ebay and Amazon at the gel options, then lost interest when I decided to get the FiberBuilt.

                  Comment


                  • #13
                    The only time I get pain from hitting off mats (CCE) is when I'm swinging poorly and getting too steep. It's actually a nice bit of feedback that I'm not executing my swing properly.

                    Comment


                    • #14
                      In addition to the great comments and advice to fight golf injuries, you may want to check into using Kinesiology tape, also known as KT Tape. You can buy online or at any Rite-Aid/Walgreens stores. There are lots of youtube vids on how to tape for various injuries, including tennis and golf elbows, wrist and shoulder. It won't prevent, but will help... I have used KT tape for tennis elbow and shoulder pain and the wife used it for an old wrist injury that took awhile to heal.

                      Hope that helps out!

                      Comment


                      • #15
                        Originally posted by Genghis View Post
                        In addition to the great comments and advice to fight golf injuries, you may want to check into using Kinesiology tape, also known as KT Tape. You can buy online or at any Rite-Aid/Walgreens stores. There are lots of youtube vids on how to tape for various injuries, including tennis and golf elbows, wrist and shoulder. It won't prevent, but will help... I have used KT tape for tennis elbow and shoulder pain and the wife used it for an old wrist injury that took awhile to heal.

                        Hope that helps out!
                        I will give it a shot, thanks!

                        Comment

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