Tennis elbow is miserable. M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E. I’m taking is very easy and haven’t played since New Year’s Day. At least I can say that I’ve played in 2019. Counting my blessings, I got tennis elbow in winter during the rainy season. Most of the club dates in the past week have been rained out. Another blessing to count, is I am forced to rest my problematic right ankle.
Over the weekend, I drove my son Nicholas—for what may have been the last time—back to school at UCLA. (He’s a senior in Applied Mathematics.) On the way back, I listened to hours of pickleball podcasts.
Tonight, somehow, I ended up watching this video—maybe it came up as a YouTube suggestion for me—it’s a good explanation of a good drill:
Thursday, January 10, 2019 (No Play)
I was hesitant to mention it yesterday, but it does seem that my elbow has made some improvement. It’s still painful with certain actions, but it’s maybe 5% or 10% improved. I still believe it’s going to be a long haul. I haven’t played for 9 days now. It’s still quite painful to lock my elbow and bending my hand up at the wrist and spreading my fingers out increases the pain. It’s still bad, just slightly better. It’s a good sign anyway.
Since, I can’t play, or at least play normally, I looked back at a couple of my old matches. The first one is from 11 weeks into me playing pickleball.
This second one is 17 months in, from six months ago.
Comparing the two games, the difference in skill is stunning. In the second, Eric and I look like we can play this sport. Yes, we lost the game—on two lame shots by me—bu we easily could have held our lead and won. (Actually, the first lame shot by me was set up by Eric’s very short return to Jeff who smacked it in my direction.)
Hopefully, I can get out and play lefthanded soon.
Number of days on a court: 239 (No change.)
Number of total hours: 659.5 (No change.)
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
Yesterday, I’d emailed some players to meet at Brommer at 9 a.m. on New Year’s Day. Being Tuesday, the official SCPC play was out at Willowbrook in Aptos. Aside from being far, the level of play at Willowbrook generally isn’t overly strong. I was 10 minutes late and pulled up just as Rob got there. Eric was the first one. John P. arrived a few minutes later.
My peeps getting ready to play. Rob, Eric (far) and John P.
The four of us played some games. The word of the day was, well, a phrase, no, a word. Let’s go with “pain”. My tennis elbow was killing me. After the first couple games, I was wondering if I should just go home. But I love playing and continued on with my forearm strap and my ankle brace.
People trickled in twos and fours and we maxed out a little over 20 people. It’s good that John brought his own temporary net for people to use.
I played a game against Bruce and Janet with little Marie (who usually plays in Scotts Valley). Marie was very kind and thoughtfully aware of my tennis elbow. For some of the points in the game, I played left-handed. While I’m coordinated and sometimes hit shots left-handed in a game on purpose for the best result—say, a sharp crosscourt dink to my backhand—I’m far better playing with my dominant right hand.
A nice surprise was the the appearance of young Tom and his girlfriend Iliana. He’s amusing—intentionally funny! While we didn’t play in a game together, noticeable was the disparity in our skill levels. Tom and I used to be of similar skill. No longer. I’ve moved up to an entirely different level now. A good waymarker.
Kevin and his wife Bev played for about an hour, though I didn’t get into a game with either one. (Kevin is a strong opponent.) When they were leaving, I told Kevin, “You’re leaving? You can’t leave!” He admitted, “My knee is bothering me.” I countered, “I have really bad tennis elbow and I’m staying!” “But you are a warrior,” he said with a smile. I’m a warrior or just dumb. I’m not sure which yet.
Rob and I played a game against Mike Davey and John. Rob and I lost. Then lost again. In the third game, this one to 15, Rob and I were ahead but ended up losing by a few points. Afterward, Mike said, “That was a really good game.”
There was a first today. Rob and John were dinking back and forth straight across the net. After a few exchanges, Rob leap forward and executed an Erne shot on John and pounded the ball into John’s chest for winner. Nice, Rob! (I’m very jealous!) I’d never had a partner do that before.
Mike, Rob, John and I finished up play about 1 p.m. A good 4 hour session.
Mike Davey is a good player. I’d figure him to be a 4.0. Either that or a very high 3.5. He’s very consistent. He was frequently coaching John while playing with him. I wish Mike showed up to the scheduled group play sessions. He’d be a good opponent to battle against on a regular basis.
Home
Ice bag sandwiched in a towel resting on my right elbow.
I don’t know what I’m going to do. My elbow is very painful at times and isn’t getting better. It’s definitely affecting my game—particularly bandhands. (For example, there was a backhand drive where I subconsciously resisted hitting the ball hard and so it landed in the net. At that memorable moment, I knew why I was hesitant.) Maybe I go to play just left-handed for however long it takes for my tennis elbow to go away. Or stop playing. It’s frustrating.
Wednesday, January 2, 2019 (No Play) • DOCTOR VISIT
I was off to the doctor this morning to get my elbow checked out. My wife made the appointment. I told my doctor that due to pain, I’ve been at times switching to my left hand for shaving, releasing the parking brake my car, and other things. And that sometimes shaking people’s hands can be almost intolerably painful.
My doctor—who said had personal experience recovering from tennis elbow that he’d developed from playing squash—recommended a few things. First was rest. And to expect likely months (!) for recovery. He went on with some exercises to employ:
Lock my right elbow. Bend my wrist down. Rotate my hand counterclockwise then rest it on my right thigh. Using my left hand, hold and bend my right hand toward my elbow. Release from this position slowly.
Hold my right arm at a 90° angle with my upper arm parallel with the floor and my hand pointing up. Cup my forearm near the elbow with my left hand, thumb pressing on the inside of the forearm and fingers pinching the sore muscle on the top/outside of the forearm. Then with the index figure in a straight pointing position, rotate the hand slowly around and around the wrist trying to point down toward the floor. You should be able to feel the sore muscle under your fingers.
Use the Tyler Twist technique with a green Theraband Flexbar. He did a quick search for “Tyler Twist Video” and this one below came up, though he said that she’s releasing the twist far too fast and that it should be uncoiled much slower.
I asked him about ultrasound devices—someone posted on the Facebook Pickleball Forum recommending one—and elbow compression sleeves. He said studies show mixed results for those. When I mentioned that one player said that the ultrasound worked for him, my doctor said, “It’s hard to argue with results.”
What really hurts is extending my right arm straight out—locking my elbow—then bending my hand up at the wrist and splaying out my fingers as wide. That kills.
Going forward, I’ll probably be playing less and playing with my left hand when I do play. There was a tournament I was debating in January but that’s off the table.
i couldn’t find the Theraband Flexbar easily locally so I begrudgingly ordered it online. (I really like to support local businesses.)
I emailed a guy yesterday who had posted a year ago about how an ultrasound device had been helping him. I asked if he still recommends it 13 months later. If yes, I might buy one. (They only run $40 for the one he’d mentioned.) I just hope I get a reply.
Man. What a pain. I hate tennis elbow. It’s really messing up pickleball enjoyment.
Number of days on a court: 239
Number of total hours: 659.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
Over the last 24 hours, we’ve been having some problems with our water heater’s pilot light going out and leaving us with cold water. Just before I was about to leave, my wife said there was no hot water again. I checked the pilot light and it had gone out. I lit it—it has a spark button—and got to the courts late for an opener. As I walked up, Allan and Wayne were already there. Allan teased me, giving me a hard time. “It’s already 9 a.m. When I was the site coordinator, I had everything set up by 9.” I checked my phone, “It’s 8:59 and I had a bit of an emergency.” I explained the situation then added, “You know that saying, right? ‘Happy wife, happy life!’ Yeah.” It was cold—my car read 46 degrees—but it was sunny and would warm up to be a gorgeous day.
After a game with against Tom S. and John P. with Wayne as my partner, Tom commented on my good play and said to me. “I’ve noticed the improvement.” He really liked some of my shots. He emphasized me being able to successfully hit difficult low shots back over the net.
The tennis elbow I’ve been dealing with for a month and a half was evident right from the first game. It’s a nasty lingering condition that doesn’t like to get better.
After I got a break after playing two games, I put on my ankle brace. I didn’t want to take any chances with my ankle giving me some trouble.
Busy day. We had about 45 people there today. Left in gray, is Rudy from south county.
My wife texted that the water heater had stopped working again. There goes any afternoon plans! I’ll be replacing our 10-year-old water heater. *rats*
Kim invited me into a game with her, her friend Cathy and Beth Black. “We got our fourth!” It’s nice to get invited into a game with advanced players. Beth was a bit rusty. Kim and I beat her and Cathy 11-4.
We had a rematch but with Cathy as my partner. After that game, I introduced myself to a man I’d see a few times before. His name is Tony—50-something, not the 20-something UCSC grad student Tony. “I’ve been enjoying watching your game.” That was nice to hear. A game that was exciting enough to enjoy watching.
Not long after, Beth and I teamed up against Stuart and Eric. It was a hot mess, as they say. Beth and I lost 11-0. Hey, every once in a while, you are going to get bageled. Beth, as I said was rusty, and we both made mistakes and weren’t meshing well. It happens.
The last game was Bruce (Janet’s husband) against Susie and Harry (whom I’d seen on Friday). It turns out Harry used to live in the area, but lives in Nevada now. He’s visiting for another week. He’s a pretty good player, on par with me.
As the session progressed, my tennis elbow deteriorated. I remember one backhand where my paddle meeting the ball resulted in a particularly noticeable stab of pain in my elbow. I think I missed at least half a dozen shots today from pain. At least my ankle held up better than a couple of days ago. Today, I played only 4 hours—things wrapped up at 1 p.m.—instead of 4 1/2 hours like Friday. Still a long session, of course.
Wrap Up
With my arm injury, it makes it hard to evaluate my play. I missed a good number of drop shots, more than normal, but I’m not hitting quite the same. My soft shots were often way too soft. There were a few points where I wasn’t tracking well enough and left an opportunity for a winner down the middle—that was taken advantage of a few times. It wasn’t chronic, but still, something to continue to work on.
I’m still slicing none of my shots. It’s too painful to do them.
Evening
As I watched my recorded game from earlier in the day of my Oakland Raiders losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in decisive fashion, I iced my right elbow. Then I used my 3-pound weight to do some forearm exercises. This tennis elbow is pretty rotten.
Last Sunday evening, while shopping for a speaker with and for my son Nicholas at Fry’s Electronics over in the Silicon Valley, I spied a back massager that slips onto a chair. $59. I texted my wife a photo of the box.
“Good, you can get your own massage.” (She’s far from into giving massages.) When I got home though, she said incredulously, “You bought that?” A few of us in the house tested it out . . . me, my son, my daughter’s boyfriend, then my daughter. It met with universal approval. I used it for the second time tonight. Boy, it felt great on my back which was fatigued from the session this morning. I can see why these types of things are very popular in Japan!
Number of days on a court: 238
Number of total hours: 655.5
To start at the beginning of this blog click on “1st Post” in the menu above.
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