Charlie-SWUK
Regular Member
So I'm in a bit of a difficult situation.
About 2.5 years ago I injured my right arm pretty badly, I had both golfers and tennis elbow, problems with the shoulder joint - problems that would cause my pain in my lower ribs, neck, and even give me headaches. Eventually the injury got bad enough that I had some numbness in my hand, couldn't clench properly etc, so I had to make a tough choice.
I chose to retrain left handed, and while I sort of mm'd and aa'd for a while between the two (up until about January almost 2 years ago), before switching over completely and dedicating myself to it.
So what's the dilemma?
I've met two new specialists (who primarily work with boxers) who are going to work together, and they believe they can correct the primary issues. Those being:
- Childhood injury caused scarring around the scapula that didn't heal properly
- A combination of factors exacerbated that scarring, meaning it ended up with adhesions to the ribs
- This scarring around the ribs and scapula pulled on back and neck muscles significantly
I've had one appointment so far and the difference was crazy. Arms at my side lifting up, my right arm was inhibited at about 140 degrees, my left arm could touch my ear. By the end of it, my right arm could do the same.
They believe they can get me back to playing right handed, and better than ever as some of these injuries existed prior to me taking the sport back up a few years ago.
I tried playing again tonight for the full duration right handed, and I'm still able to hit powerfully and accurately. My footwork is all there, the movement all works, it's all autonomous and fluid. I still had some inhibition, and a little pain from where I'm still breaking down scar tissue, but nothing close to before. When everything connected I could hit very powerful accurate shots, far more powerful than I'd been able to before right handed, or currently left handed.
The biggest difference I noticed was in flat game, my left handed flat game sucks. It's not that I can't do the shots, I can in drills, it's like there's no autonomy there, it's not instinctive play.
I don't know whether I should aim to play right handed fully again, at some level it feels like the relearning process would've been wasted, but in others it feels like if my right hand becomes viable again I'm just sort of playing a martyr by refusing to use it. It also feels like, if that right arm goes wrong again, I could've spent that time refining my left further.
About 2.5 years ago I injured my right arm pretty badly, I had both golfers and tennis elbow, problems with the shoulder joint - problems that would cause my pain in my lower ribs, neck, and even give me headaches. Eventually the injury got bad enough that I had some numbness in my hand, couldn't clench properly etc, so I had to make a tough choice.
I chose to retrain left handed, and while I sort of mm'd and aa'd for a while between the two (up until about January almost 2 years ago), before switching over completely and dedicating myself to it.
So what's the dilemma?
I've met two new specialists (who primarily work with boxers) who are going to work together, and they believe they can correct the primary issues. Those being:
- Childhood injury caused scarring around the scapula that didn't heal properly
- A combination of factors exacerbated that scarring, meaning it ended up with adhesions to the ribs
- This scarring around the ribs and scapula pulled on back and neck muscles significantly
I've had one appointment so far and the difference was crazy. Arms at my side lifting up, my right arm was inhibited at about 140 degrees, my left arm could touch my ear. By the end of it, my right arm could do the same.
They believe they can get me back to playing right handed, and better than ever as some of these injuries existed prior to me taking the sport back up a few years ago.
I tried playing again tonight for the full duration right handed, and I'm still able to hit powerfully and accurately. My footwork is all there, the movement all works, it's all autonomous and fluid. I still had some inhibition, and a little pain from where I'm still breaking down scar tissue, but nothing close to before. When everything connected I could hit very powerful accurate shots, far more powerful than I'd been able to before right handed, or currently left handed.
The biggest difference I noticed was in flat game, my left handed flat game sucks. It's not that I can't do the shots, I can in drills, it's like there's no autonomy there, it's not instinctive play.
I don't know whether I should aim to play right handed fully again, at some level it feels like the relearning process would've been wasted, but in others it feels like if my right hand becomes viable again I'm just sort of playing a martyr by refusing to use it. It also feels like, if that right arm goes wrong again, I could've spent that time refining my left further.
