Wrist pain?

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

I'm pretty new to the game, and in the last few weeks I've really ramped up my practicing. I'm hitting the balls at the range 2-3 times a week.

The night after I hit balls, into the next couple days, my wrists are very sore, especially my left wrist. Pressing my hand back (like the position your writs is in when you do a push-up) causes a fairly sharp pain. Over the next couple days, the soreness and pain fade away. Also, even while my wrists hurt, it doesn't stop me from swinging a club (i.e. the wrist motion of my golf swing does not become very painful).

Should I be concerned about this? If yes, what should I do about it? Is it likely to go away as my wrists get more accustomed to hitting a lot of balls?

Other details that may or may not be relevant:
*I have very strong forearms, and I'm built fairly strong in general.
*I swing the club pretty hard. I'm sure I don't have the highest clubhead speed of the people on this forum, but I do swing the clubhead faster than anyone else I play with, and usually faster than others at the range.
*I do chunk/hit the mat before the ball kind of a lot, since I'm not all that good yet.
*I was taught to address the ball with my hands on the swing plane (Moe Norman style), meaning the club is close to in line with my forearms. This means my wrists are bent downward more than normal at address to hold the club in this position.
*The pain doesn't seem to be getting worse or better as I go; each time I practice I experience about the same amount of pain afterward.

So what do you guys think?

-Andrew

[klaymon]

Mats will cause more wear and tear on your body than grass because they do not give. Try hitting off grass for a while and see if the pain doesn't subside.

[alf174]

Long term, wrist stretching exercises may help - at least it did in my case.

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

Mats will cause more wear and tear on your body than grass because they do not give. Try hitting off grass for a while and see if the pain doesn't subside.

I tried the grass for my first few shots yesterday, but I couldn't put the clubface in the right place to save my life. The first few shots took enormous divots under the ball (which hurts more for me than when the club bounces off the mat), and then after that I was totally thrown off my swing, topping the ball because I was concerned about totally destroying my tee area in the first 10 shots, or hitting the ground behind the ball and scooping up 15 lbs of dirt and grass to hit the ball 70 yds with my 7-iron.

I got embarrassed, put the balls back in the bucket, and hiked back to the mats, where I proceeded to start hitting much better. -Andrew

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

Long term, wrist stretching exercises may help - at least it did in my case.

Was your wrist pain similar to mine as I described it? What sort of stretches did you do that proved helpful?

-Andrew

[alf174]

Was your wrist pain similar to mine as I described it? What sort of stretches did you do that proved helpful?

similar to yours - I use this exercise:

http://www.golflink.com/tipsvideos/video.asp?v=52534

[Open-Faced Club Sandwedge]

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[Chubber]

Being completly new to the sport, I have experianced some slight wrist discomfort (nothing as bad as you have described), but only in my right wrist. Now my lower back and my right elbow.... they ache for about a day and a half after each session at the driving range.