I started playing badminton about two weeks ago and I think my friend and I have played to exhuastion about 10 times (nearly everyday). I really like the sport, I grew up playing tennis but badminton is a fresh start for me, especially mentally. I'm a 4th year in college, age 21. My problem is, after the first week, I started feeling pain not on my muscles near my shoulder, but more "inside" and deep near the bone. It's gotten slightly worse everytime...lately we just skip a day to rest since I've been hurting. Here are my observations: - when my arm is not warmed up, raising and lowering arm in alignment with my body causes a small crack or pop sound..does not hurt at all. after warmup of any kind, it usually goes away. left arm does not do this. I noticed this when I used to play tennis everyday in high school too. - pain usually subsides within a day...and I never feel it again until immediately the few hours after heavy play. - after moderate play today, only a few smashes/clears but lots of warm up and easy shots, I was fine when I was packing up my stuff. No pain at all, perfect. Suddently, it feels as if my arm was dislocated and popped back into place...i could not even support the weight of my arm since it was causing pain deep inside the shoulder area. it felt as if multiple "strings" were being strained and my arm was basically useless for about 20-30 minutes. I could barely drink the bottle of water I had without shaking my arm and dropping it. I could barely make a tightened fist. I get back home and after about a hour, my arm is perfect, no pain whatsoever anymore (at least without stenuous motion). i read through some of the old posts here about the symptoms of problems but I can't single it out. I've been a tennis player and have a good serve, and during the prime of my tennis playing days (age 14-17) my arm never HURT as now, but it did feel very loose and would always make a "pop" as described above. sorry for such a long post, could someone help me out? thank you!
You definately need to take a complete break from playing and see a doctor /physio. It is very easy to strain the muscles of the complex shoulder joint and you are unable to even raise your arm. In tennis you might play a set and have 5 service games where you serve overhead 10 times in each = 50 overhead. In badminton you could knock up for 3 mins and hit more than 50 overheads the the demands are different.
Check here for a comprehensive series on shoulder pains: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14072 Some recent posts here as well: http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16452&page=1&pp=18
thanks for the help. Actually, I've already looked through those threads...they have good info but I can't single out any problem. I've been babying my arm all day...i plan to do it for a full week then do rotator cuff strengthening as outlined here: http://familydoctor.org/265.xml
wow there really are a ton of posts on this board about shoulder injury yea man you need to cut back.. i can't say how serious a problem you have but you definately need to take atleast a day or 2 off per week if your playing that hard.
you need rest. don't however, do nothing with it, as the worst thing someone can do during recovery is to not use the muscle. so just go easy with your arm, and do daily stretches and massages, like gentle rubbing when you're watching tv or something. i tore the rotator cuff when i crashed out on a race bike. thinking it was just sore or something, i didn't go see the doctor. a week or two later, i still couldn't move my arm (between the shoulder and elbow) at all. a friend made me go see the doctor, and thats when i found out it was torn. he made me go through this whole daily regimen, including particular stretches, icing, heating, the whole works... even so far as to having it bound and lifted up a certain amount during sleep. even with all this, it took about four to five months before i had regained full movement.
thanks for the advice. I have been keeping the arm in gentle motion such as practicing backhand serves against a wall and shadowing strokes. My arm is feeling much better and I'm proud that when me and my friends went to the badminton courts on Friday, I didn't play with my right arm (my good arm) but my left arm! it was an educational experience in terms of footwork/positioning.
it could be your grip Hi ya, I had a labrum (a joint in your rotator cuff) tear once. So I had a experience player check what I was doing wrong. He found that (among other things) I was pan handling. So instead of using my fore-arm and wrists to smash and clear I was using my shoulder. It might pay just to be aware of your grip. Cheers
yes, I believe that could be part of my problem. I was originally a tennis player, and full arm extension was important. With badminton, I think I should pronate my arm and use my forearm a lot more at the instant before/on/after contact.
I just wanted to update that I started playing heavily today, and I feel great. There was just a slight tinge in my elbow, it might be due to slight hyperextension during a struggling backhand shot. Anyway, overall, my shoulder is well. I believe the recover exercises that I posted a link to is very helpful... the most important thing now is to warm up VERY carefully...and never start hitting hard until your arm feels warm and loose. thanks for everyone's help.
