New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Golf wrist pain

post #1 of 15
9/15/09 at 4:18pm
Thread Starter 
Anybody here experience golf wrist pain? I've got some pain on the back of my right wrist (right hander) that makes it hard to flex and extend it. It makes golf miserable. I noticed that the pain is the most pronounced when I start the downswing and I think this is because of the additional lag produced. My grip is neutral, and I've thought about adopting a strong grip just to alleviate the right wrist pain. If I want my left wrist flat at the top of my backswing, I have to try to get my right elbow pointing too much at the ground in order to decrease the backwards angle in my right wrist. A stronger grip lets me cup my left wrist a bit and takes the pressure off. The pain has been on and off for a year, is purely golf related, and happened when I was just starting out and still took 4 pound divots with every shot. One divot in particular left the club stuck in the ground, but my hands kept moving forward resulting in an injury.
Reply
Reply

TheSandTrap.com Top Picks

post #2 of 15
9/15/09 at 5:19pm

Re: Golf wrist pain

I recently had left wrist pain (right hand golfer) and thought it was from my golfing and it ended up being carpool tunnel from working a desk job. Maybe its something like that. I would think its tough to injury ur back wrist in ur swing. But good luck with it...its not fun and takes a long time to recoop.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 15
9/15/09 at 11:29pm

Re: Golf wrist pain

Originally Posted by bunkerputt View Post
Anybody here experience golf wrist pain? I've got some pain on the back of my right wrist (right hander) that makes it hard to flex and extend it. It makes golf miserable. I noticed that the pain is the most pronounced when I start the downswing and I think this is because of the additional lag produced. My grip is neutral, and I've thought about adopting a strong grip just to alleviate the right wrist pain. If I want my left wrist flat at the top of my backswing, I have to try to get my right elbow pointing too much at the ground in order to decrease the backwards angle in my right wrist. A stronger grip lets me cup my left wrist a bit and takes the pressure off. The pain has been on and off for a year, is purely golf related, and happened when I was just starting out and still took 4 pound divots with every shot. One divot in particular left the club stuck in the ground, but my hands kept moving forward resulting in an injury.
I actually had this happen to me the last two times I was playing. Two times ago when I went out, I was in a fluffy lie and swung down on the ball rather than trying to pick it and jammed by hand. The next hole came and on my approach shot, I was in a bad lie and swung and my 3 hybrid got caught in the weeds and again jammed my hand. I did it again on Friday when I caught the ball fat on my tee shot and dug a divot where my club got stuck (I thought the divot was going to get me to China).

My pain now is not at the wrist itself, but just above the wrist (closer to the back of my hand). I ended up going to the doctor and after an X-ray, I was told that it was likely a tendon strain and to not play golf for 2-3 weeks and wear a wrist brace. I didn't do that, but I did lay off of golf for about a week and a half and it feels a lot better.

May want to give that a try...
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 15
9/16/09 at 1:09am

Re: Golf wrist pain

Bunkerputt....I feel for you.

A little over a year ago I was playing a local course, Midland Valley CC. It is a neat layout for an older course....the conditions vary widely, though, from month to month.

Anyway, I had an uphill approach shot from the fairway and had already pulled my club and addressed the ball. I could feel a breeze pick up as I waggled and my last thought was to give the 4 iron a little more juice.

Apparently the ball was on some type of running root/weed/crap in the freaking fairway.....I knew this instantly as my hard swung iron stopped abruptly in the divot it created.

Pop said the wrist.......%$&*^^ said I.


That wrist was sore as heck for months afterward...and I kept pushing it.

Three things helped me get through those next dozen rounds or so....the third item I still do to this day:
  1. Pre-round Advil....got ahead of the pain that was sure to come.
  2. Wore a neopreme wrap on my wrist on the drive to the courses....this really went a long way toward warming up the ligaments/tendons/joint.
  3. Very deliberate pre-round stretching of the wrist. I'd grab two irons and hold them upright with my arm extended fully away....rotate the wrist slowly, feeling the weight of the clubs stretching....rotate back up and then down the other direction......five minutes of this and then go through some light swinging of both sticks.....etc.


I wish you good luck.....wrist pain can drive you nuts on the course and afterwards.
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 15
9/16/09 at 1:33am

Re: Golf wrist pain

Originally Posted by bunkerputt View Post
Anybody here experience golf wrist pain? I've got some pain on the back of my right wrist (right hander) that makes it hard to flex and extend it. It makes golf miserable. I noticed that the pain is the most pronounced when I start the downswing and I think this is because of the additional lag produced. My grip is neutral, and I've thought about adopting a strong grip just to alleviate the right wrist pain. If I want my left wrist flat at the top of my backswing, I have to try to get my right elbow pointing too much at the ground in order to decrease the backwards angle in my right wrist. A stronger grip lets me cup my left wrist a bit and takes the pressure off. The pain has been on and off for a year, is purely golf related, and happened when I was just starting out and still took 4 pound divots with every shot. One divot in particular left the club stuck in the ground, but my hands kept moving forward resulting in an injury.
I have had similar issues, primarily when I am coming over the top and coming into the ground hard. It feels like the tendons are vibrating hard when my hands come to an abrupt stop, and the arms want to keep going.

Go get a velcro style wrist band with or without the air bladder. They are similar to those sold for tennis elbow, but are for the wrist. They are 8-16 bucks. Pharmacies and golf shops have them. It has really help me if I end up coming into the ground hard.

I hope this helps!
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 15
9/16/09 at 1:46pm

Re: Golf wrist pain

Originally Posted by Dub View Post
[*]Very deliberate pre-round stretching of the wrist. I'd grab two irons and hold them upright with my arm extended fully away....rotate the wrist slowly, feeling the weight of the clubs stretching....rotate back up and then down the other direction......five minutes of this and then go through some light swinging of both sticks.....etc.
I do this too. I dug a 56* wedge down to the iron core of the Earth and snapped my wrist something wicked last year. I started doing these before the next few rounds and I do them alot of times even now, especially when I'm working on my irons at a range and I really think it helps keep the wrists loose. Bottom line is, if you bury one in the ground it's still gonna hurt. But the more you get your wrist used to rotating that way opposing a force, the better.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 15
9/22/09 at 6:45pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Golf wrist pain

I've played golf averaging once a week for the last couple of weeks (as opposed to 2-3). The pain is almost gone. I think it was probably tendon related as I could move the wrist manually with my left hand and didn't have any pain in the joint. As soon as I engaged the muscles, wham-o. Plus it's been a lot quicker to heal. I swear, every time I injure myself in golf, I have to retool my swing mechanics to be just a little bit better. Now I'm not cranking so hard in the transition and the speed is gained much more gradually. Plus, I'm doing so much better with those 30 yard pitch shots where you don't want a lot of wrist action. Thanks for the advice, guys.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 15
9/23/09 at 1:15am

Re: Golf wrist pain

Originally Posted by bunkerputt View Post
Anybody here experience golf wrist pain? I've got some pain on the back of my right wrist (right hander) that makes it hard to flex and extend it. It makes golf miserable. I noticed that the pain is the most pronounced when I start the downswing and I think this is because of the additional lag produced. My grip is neutral, and I've thought about adopting a strong grip just to alleviate the right wrist pain. If I want my left wrist flat at the top of my backswing, I have to try to get my right elbow pointing too much at the ground in order to decrease the backwards angle in my right wrist. A stronger grip lets me cup my left wrist a bit and takes the pressure off. The pain has been on and off for a year, is purely golf related, and happened when I was just starting out and still took 4 pound divots with every shot. One divot in particular left the club stuck in the ground, but my hands kept moving forward resulting in an injury.

There is no need (ever) to take a divot that large. The wrist pain is caused from you smacking the ground with your club. I have a friend that takes huge divots, he plays the ball way to far back in his stance. If you do something similar, the ball should mostly be played between the center (60* wedge) of your stance and the inside of your front foot.


Your divots should be relatively shallow (mostly grass, with some dirt) and should START in front of the ball.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 15
9/23/09 at 8:40pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Golf wrist pain

Originally Posted by mc0388 View Post
There is no need (ever) to take a divot that large. The wrist pain is caused from you smacking the ground with your club. I have a friend that takes huge divots, he plays the ball way to far back in his stance. If you do something similar, the ball should mostly be played between the center (60* wedge) of your stance and the inside of your front foot.


Your divots should be relatively shallow (mostly grass, with some dirt) and should START in front of the ball.
I agree completely. I would only add that they should also be of uniform depth. Toe-deep divots probably mean your clubs lie angles are too flat, for example.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 15
9/23/09 at 9:03pm

Re: Golf wrist pain

I always came in very steep - it was so bad, that i literally killed my graphite shafts in my irons back then within 5 months or so. This resulted in bad wrist pain - mostly on the left hand though. Back then i got an MRI scan, and literally every impact area in the hand was bruised bad.

Since then i flattend out my swing i only take very shallow divots (unless i hit it fat or come OTP of course) and i´m very thankful for that, else i probably would have had to stop playing. Hadnt had big problems ever since - sometimes of course when hitting out of the rough, i feel it again, but thats just temporary.
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 15
9/24/09 at 4:44am

Re: Golf wrist pain

try not to roll your wrist as much in your swing, and have more of a weak grip. having a strong grip will definatly over time create wrist pain.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 15
6/7/10 at 2:21pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Golf wrist pain

Just an update. Over the past 8 months or so I changed my swing rather significantly to accommodate what I think are the right fundamentals biomechanically for the hands and wrists in the swing. With a neutral left hand grip, if the right hand is weak, that is turned left in an effort to avoid it getting too active, it will be difficult to generate a lot of lag without excessive pronation of the right hand. This places a lot of strain on the wrist and can predispose one to injury, particularly on shots with a lot of lag that meets some turf resistance.

Because of and in addition to this, at the top of the backswing, there needs to be some cupping in the left hand for two reasons:

1. It maximizes the amount of wrist hinge one can achieve which allows one to aggressively rotate the body throughout the downswing without the wrists uncocking too early. This brings tremendous speed, leverage, and consistency.

2. The left hand cupping relieves strain on the right wrist because it doesn't have to pronate as much from a fairly neutral position.

Without the left hand cupping, the right hand would either be turned rightwards (stronger) on the club to allow it to hinge, which can lead to the right hand flipping down at the ball, the right elbow would be too flat to relieve the wrist pressure making it harder to leverage the right side, or you'd just let the right wrist take the pressure and take the chance of pain and injury. Long term, I think a little bit of cupping in the left wrist at the TOB is the smartest way to go.

Once I took a rest and made the grip changes, I haven't had any problems at all with my right wrist and I'm able to generate tremendous amounts of leverage without any pain.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 15
6/7/10 at 6:32pm

Re: Golf wrist pain

I currently have this pain in my left wrist."DeQuervain's tendinitis is defined as an inflammation of the tendons
along the thumb side of the wrist that often develops after repetitive lifting or side to side
motion of the wrist, resulting in pain when gripping objects or twisting the hand."

This happened after I played 18 holes last week. Its the part of the wrist right in line with the thumb. I didnt hit anything hard but I guess I hurt the tendons there. Anyone have any advice on this. I can really feel it if I take a club just in my left hand and go back and forth with my left arm only.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 15
6/7/10 at 8:08pm

Re: Golf wrist pain

Mine is currently in my left wrist but I contribute it to having a complete crap grip and swing and trying to just hit my way out of a funk at the range. I've since worked on my swing but I haven't given myself time to rest. I went to the range today to work on my new swing and grip and am playing 18 Wednesday then 36 Friday. After Friday I'm going to take a week off and see how it goes.
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 15
3/10/13 at 2:31pm

Be sure your grips are the right size. Grips that are too small for your hands will cause you to squeeze too tightly, putting too much pressure on the tendons and carpal bones in your hands. Your finger tips of your left hand should barely touch the thumb pad when you grip the club. Also be sure to hold the grip in the middle of your fingers of the right hand. This takes the pressure off the right wrist when at the top of your backswing.

Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Instruction and Playing Tips

TheSandTrap.com Top Picks