Why does my shoulder hurt?

[polotechnics]

I am newish to the forum and snooker really. i have been playing a year. i have worked hard on the stance, alignment and grip etc and it is proving to sucessfullish - i am regularly knocking in high twenties and low thirties. However after about 2-3 hours of practice my left shoulder really hurts - my bridging hand shoulder.

what am i doing wrong.

i would appreciate your help.

thankyou

paul williams

[HUFRO]

Same happened to me , i got shoulder tendonitis and be in phisitherapy for 1 month. The reason is that we should rest a while after each hour or so. Sinsce i have a table, i now practice for 45 min. To an hour and then come back after 2 or 3 hours later.

The shoulder tendon get inflamed and hurts during playing and afterwards.

Hufro
__________________
Originally posted at Http://www.thesnookergym.com/forums

[polotechnics]

that makes sense. cheers hufro

[Luke Hooper]

i find that sometimes i get a bad back, but this is mainly due to being in a car crash a few years ago...snooker doesnt necessarily cause the bad back, it usually hurts before i start playing, and obviously when im playing its aggravating because all i think about is my bad back and it causes me not to concentrate which is slightly frustrating.... i think physiotherapy is the way forward, or excersize...im not sure you can do to excersize your shoulder more but maybe that will help? ive noticed since ive taken up football again my back has been much better...perhaps its the running around that helps

[Straight strike]

You might have putting too much weight on you should joint for too long. Try to rest your forearm on the table, it might help.

[damienlch]

hi paul, sounds to me like you are putting too much weight or tension in your shoulder... i used to have this problem too and still do if i were to stand incorrectly.

you may want to check out these two threads... hope you find them useful... cheers...

http://www.thesnookerforum.com/board...ghlight=weight

http://www.thesnookerforum.com/board...ghlight=weight

[renniwevarb]

I have this problem too Paul.

This may be due to tension being introduced when you tell yourself to have a firm bridge hand... instead of getting a good grip on the cloth with our fingers and letting the forearm rest on the table when possible, we tense ourselves up (mis-directed energy is how I would describe it) thus stressing our left shoulder. Other reasons include stretching out for shots and putting too much weight on our bridge hand, doing tough spider bridging shots etc.

Nothing very wrong really, try telling yourself to relax that left shoulder and you should feel better when down on the shot. This will also free up your cueing arm as you release tension from your whole body and just concentrate on your cueing. Hope this helps.

[Nic Barrow]

Shoulder hurtings

I am newish to the forum and snooker really. i have been playing a year. i have worked hard on the stance, alignment and grip etc and it is proving to sucessfullish - i am regularly knocking in high twenties and low thirties. However after about 2-3 hours of practice my left shoulder really hurts - my bridging hand shoulder.

what am i doing wrong.

i would appreciate your help.

thankyou

paul williams

1. too much pressure on squeezing bridge hand into cloth - it can be lighter as long as it is still.

2. Weight distribution onto bridge arm too much on bridge - the weight shoudl be about 50% on the ELBOW and about 50% on the WRIST, so that the bridge is free to move around and do what it is there for - controlling the cue position.

3. Elbow floating above bed of table.

4. Leaning too for forward into shot - if you are leaning a lot, just slide your 'head and shoulders' back one inch to take the weight off the shoulder.

[cazmac1]

I am newish to the forum and snooker really. i have been playing a year. i have worked hard on the stance, alignment and grip etc and it is proving to sucessfullish - i am regularly knocking in high twenties and low thirties. However after about 2-3 hours of practice my left shoulder really hurts - my bridging hand shoulder.

what am i doing wrong.

i would appreciate your help.

thankyou
paul williams

Any chance you could post some video of you playing. I used to have this problem when I used to tuck my bridge arm shoulder into the side of my face, I don't do this any more and don't have that problem any more

[Brijacq]

Had the same issues 2 years ago, ended up needing a shoulder operation.

My thoughts on why it happened.... I never played with my chin on cue (probably 1inch above), so i thought why should i be different and forced myself to practice with chin on the cue (and probably in an incorrect/uncomfortable position).
After about a month i noticed sharp pains in my shoulder and i couldnt lift my arm above my head. It got that bad in a semi final i had to play 50% shots with a rest.

The surgeon told me that the shoulder from our past was identical to the hip joint when we walked on all fours. In the shoulder there is a tendon that we dont need but if it gets inflamed/trapped can cause the pain. He shaved/moved this tendon out of the way and after 12months i can play snooker with zero pain.

I wont be going back to chin on the cue/ uncomfortable position. This for me was obviously a physical restriction.

Hope this helps

[polotechnics]

Thanks for the advice everyone much appreciated

[kgene]

I found that doing "Rotator Cuff" exercises helped relieve the pain in my bridge arm shoulder. Basically the rotator cuff muscles stabilize the shoulder, keep the shoulder ball from shifting around in the socket. Swimmers, baseball player do these exercises. This is a link to a youtube video demonstrating the common exercise and yeah you don't need a lot of weight since it's a small muscle but an important muscle for shoulder stability: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJbkZ5RBIM8&feature=fvw

[JayDee]

A very common mistake for players is to have their left leg far forward and their body stance effectively leaning forward.
I'd suggest bringing back the left leg more in line with the right foot (right handed stance) and feel your center of gravity be further back.

[Aameiel]

ben gay 4tw allways helps me

[Sidd]

Nic: Thanks for the suggestions. I have developed a somewhat similar problem and have been searching for a solution. I was of the opinion that perhaps I am making the bridge very firm and Terry was also of the same opinion so I will try relaxing the bridge although I do not know how would that work out however your point 4 also opened my eyes really. I have always thought that I lean too forward in to the shot but never mentioned it to Terry as I never thought there was something wrong with it. I got it maybe from Steve Davis's coaching video in which he says that his weight if fully balanced and is a little forward in to the shot and if someone was to push him off balance he would not go backwards or sideways but only forwards. I think I over did this and got it in my brain and hence taught myself to lean too forward in to the shot....

Terry: any chance this might be my problem, if yes, how to untrain myself from this and get in a stance where I am not leaning forward??? It will be difficult for me to get rid of as I am too tuned in to this but since it is giving me the pain I will have to correct it. Advice awaited...!!!