You're starting to feel a little bit of pain in your elbow. Maybe it's on the top
of the elbow, maybe it's underneath but hey you're pretty tough you're going to
play through it. That might not be the best course of action, especially if it's
a case of tendinitis starting. I've got a couple tips for you today on how to
avoid that so that you can stay healthy and be out on the courts longer. Stay tuned.
Hey everybody it's CJ Johnson. If you're brand new to this channel welcome!
You're going to find all things pickleball here. From paddles and equipment to
skills and drills, to tips on staying fit and healthy so you can spend more
time on the courts. If you haven't already done so if you wouldn't mind hit
the subscribe button over here and then the little bell notification. That way
you'll know anytime that I post a new video. It also tells YouTube that this
channel is important and it makes it easier for other people who are
pickleball players to find this channel too. I was a golf professional for well
over 25 years when I started playing pickleball. I never had a case of
golfer's elbow all the tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of balls
that I hit never had that injury, until I started playing pickleball. Wow talk
about the pain! That's what we're going to talk about today is how to avoid tendonitis.
So what exactly is golfer's or tennis elbow. Well tennis elbow tends to be on
the top of the arm and golfer's elbow tends to be on the bottom. It's an
inflammation of the tendons around the joint it can be extremely painful. In
fact I was talking to somebody today and just when she was walking and hiking
swinging her arms was uncomfortable for her and needless us to say that has
definitely kept her off the pickleball court. Here are some of the things that
we can do to keep golfer or tennis elbow at bay. Number one take a look at your
equipment. Now paddles range in weight from somewhere around five and a half
ounces up to a very heavy weight of nine. I know that a few ounces doesn't sound
like a lot but if you multiply that out over a few hours on the pickleball court
a couple of days a week that can really add up to a lot of strain on the muscles
and the tendons in the forearm. So it's important to have an appropriately
weighted paddle for you. Now I tend to prefer a paddle that's right around 7.7
ounces that seems to be something that's extremely comfortable for me. You might
have to try them them out just a little bit play with them over a period of time
and see what's best for you but if you're starting to get some strain on
your arm you might want to consider the weight of the paddle. The next thing that
you want to look at in your equipment is the size of your grip. Now paddles come
with small medium and large grips and certainly by using over wraps and
changing the grip tape you can change the width of your grip. If you have a
grip that's too small or a grip that's too large and you have to hold on to it
tighter that's going to cause a lot of tension in that forearm and put a lot of
strain on those tendons. Now you might be saying CJ how do I know if it's the
right grip size for me well you can certainly ask somebody at your
pickleball courts or one of your tennis professionals for some help they'd be
able to give you some suggestions but here's kind of a general rule of thumb.
If you're using a continental grip which places the V on this side of the paddle
on that upper bevel of the paddle an appropriately-sized grip you're going to
be able to place about one finger in between your fingers
and your thumb.
Speaking and grips one of the things that you want to watch is
your grip pressure. Most of us have way too much tension in our grip that puts a
lot of tension up into the forearms. It makes it difficult to hit shots but it
also puts a lot of stress on those tendons. One of the things that I like to
do between points is I take my paddle hand off I put my paddle in the other
hand and I just kind of shake out my arm. The third thing to look at is the type
of paddle that you're using as an example this is a blade. I have to tell you I
loved playing with the blade for two days and then what I found is anytime I
caught a ball off the sweet spot out here towards the end of the paddle I
felt a lot of twist in my arm. Since I was already having some discomfort and
pain in that arm I knew that it was going to cause me more problems over the
long run so I stopped using the blade paddle and went back to a traditional
paddle. Take that into consideration when you're choosing your paddle. The second
thing you want to look at are your mechanics. If you're executing some shots
and you're using a very unorthodox position maybe you're turning, you know
hitting this very spinning serve and turning the arm and the elbow in a very
strange way chances are you're putting some stress and strain on the muscles
and the tendons and that could be inflaming that area. My best advice is get
a person, one of your local pickleball professionals and make sure
that you're executing your shots correctly and not adding any additional
stress to what you're already doing. The third thing is what are you doing before
you play pickleball. Are you warming up? If you're not already warming up or you
don't know why you should warm up make sure you click on the video that's
coming up above. I've got several videos that tell you why it's important and
exactly what you should be doing. When a lot of us finish playing pickleball we
are off to have some dinner or maybe some drinks with our friends that we
just played with that's part of the fun of playing the game but if you spend
just a few minutes afterwards taking care of that sore forearm it may not
develop into tendonitis. This week I'm going to send you
links to two different videos one for golfer's elbow and the other one for
tennis elbow with the top things that you can do to alleviate your pain. Iif
you're not already part of our Better Pickleball Community it's completely
free and you can check out all the details in the show notes down below. In
the meantime, I'm going to share with you some of the things that I like to do
once I get off the pickleball court that helped me to feel better. The first thing
that I do when I get home is I grab a bag of peas, a bag of frozen peas. It's a
very easy to ice that arm with this bag of peas. They're extremely flexible and it
can be used time and time again. The next thing I do is a little bit of self
massage. I love trigger point therapy. This is the
therapy ball and then this is called the footballer. I put this on a flat surface
and then I simply roll my forearm against it and it takes out some of
those knots and that tension that developed while I was playing. Another
one of my favorites is an nice bath and in that bath I use some essential oils
and some epsom salts. I take about a cup of Epsom salt and I mix into it about
two or three drops. This particular one is called Move it's a combination of
wintergreen and juniper essential oils and it's designed to help our muscles
feel better to reduce some of that swelling and to take away some of the
stress and strain that we've put on the muscles all day. The other way that I
use the essential oil is I mix it with some coconut oil which is a carrier oil
and I put it in a small rollerball and before or after play I can rub it
directly onto my skin providing immediate relief. Another one of my
favorite homeopathic remedies is Arnica Gel and you'll find this in most health
food stores you might even find this at your local grocery store it's become so
popular but arnica is a plant and this gel is designed to help to alleviate
swelling and bruising and just in general make those muscles feel better.
You can put this on before or after you play but usually I put this on right
before I go to bed.
Know this that by taking care of this before you get it
it's a way easier than treating it. In fact tendonitis usually takes a very
long time for it to go away. You may end up seeing the doctor,
multiple times, having to take a lot of time off pickleball perhaps a regimen of
anti-inflammatories, a variety of different things. So by spending a
little time in the beginning, making sure that your equipment is correct, that
you're doing some stretching, that you're rolling, doing some self release maybe a
little icing you might just be able to stay healthy and stay out on the
pickleball courts. If you've had a case of golfer's or tennis elbow put down in
the comments below what you did to get rid of it. We can all learn from each
other. If you got value from this video if you wouldn't mind giving it a little
thumbs up and sharing it with your pickleball playing friends because together we can
Train Smart, Live Bold, Age Well