Greetings! So I have a peculiar shoulder. The first part: I have a chronic - but not painful - anterior sterno-clavicular subluxation in my racket arm. (This means that the joint between my collar bone and sternum pops out forwards when I make certain motions. Luckily it reseats itself properly without any manual intervention.) I intend to get this surgically pinned. Luckily it’s not painful, but it means I can’t make certain motions with my arm or it moves out of place (it can be a nuisance for smashing properly, I have to pronate my body more to avoid the dislocation). Has anyone had experience with collar bone pinning and how it altered their play/ability? The second part: Because of the above, my shoulder muscles are less developed at the back. I’m not allowed to do things such as bench pressing or overhead heavy lifting as this could cause problems for the joint. My doctor has confirmed badminton is fine. Because of the underdeveloped shoulder muscles at the back, the front muscles compensate. The really weird thing is, because of the lower muscle mass there, I can extend my racket arm further than my non racket arm. If I’m really pressing it, I can probably get an extra 3-4 inches out of it. Now here comes the conundrum. How can I make this an advantage? My arm is definitely odd. It seems my collar bone has a lot more movement in it than it should have. Would building my back/shoulder muscles up more end up becoming a disadvantage? Maybe I should learn to compensate my shots so I can get much steep smashes. Your thoughts would be appreciated.
