Bridge hand soreness

Puck90a

Puck90a

Registered
I think I've developed a lot of good stroke and bridge fundamentals. I keep my stroke arm moving straight and my bridge very stable and solid all the way through the final stroke. Sometimes, particularly on shots with my bridge on the rail, I tense my bridge hand a good bit. Not the point that I'm shaking, but just so that it is very rigid and won't budge any. I have seen great benefits in doing this in the accuracy of my shots.

However, after many hours and multiple nights a week, my left hand seems to be sore. I can't tell if it's normal muscle pain or if I might be causing problems with my tendons - like a carpel tunnel sort of thing. It doesn't hurt to make a fist or move fingers, except for my thumb a little bit.

Anyone have any advice on this? Anyone else have this kind of pain? Or do I need to reassess my fundamentals and learn to shoot with a more relaxed bridge?
 
I get this every once in awhile but mine kind of stopped I would imagine you are focusing way to hard on stiffness of your hand, I AM NO EXPERT, if you are on the rail though try going back to open thumb middle ring and pinky and closed pointer because if your hand is starting to hurt from being to stiff I am almost certain that is carpal tunnel which is not very good so just change up your bridge hand a bit.

if it starts to happen to me I have taught myself to be comfortable with more then one bridge granted I am just a beginner and not the best shooter in the world but I felt it necessary to learn closed and open bridges for every situation. when using top i only use open bridges and draw is only closed but thats just because i miscue alot when i try the opposite.

hope this helps and i hope that im not completely wrong as well :D
 
Well, I think I've found the cure.

My hand is sore during the day, but if I get in a 4 hour practice session, it stops hurting. So I think the cure is to just keep playing pool. :cool:
 
Puck90a said:
Well, I think I've found the cure.

My hand is sore during the day, but if I get in a 4 hour practice session, it stops hurting. So I think the cure is to just keep playing pool. :cool:
Click to expand...

Yep, just keep playing so you never tighten up.;)
 
never even thought about it, could be like guitar and you may need to build muscle in the area such as like building calluses on the tips of your fingers you know?
 
Good idea on the advil.

I bet it's similar to a guitar playing thing, but guitar players probably have it much worse. They have to contort their hand into a lot of awkward positions and repetitively move, relax, and press. All I do is tension my hand into one position and leave it there, although I do that repetitively throughout a rack. I think I might be getting more used to it or I might have loosened up a little. I remember I used to make my right shoulder hurt really bad when I broke. It was because I was trying to control speed with my muscles too much and not letting the cue fly freely, so I was straining my joint. I don't have problems now. Maybe when my bridge gets trained really well I won't have to supply as much tension to keep it where I want it.
 
Puck90a said:
I think I've developed a lot of good stroke and bridge fundamentals. I keep my stroke arm moving straight and my bridge very stable and solid all the way through the final stroke. Sometimes, particularly on shots with my bridge on the rail, I tense my bridge hand a good bit. Not the point that I'm shaking, but just so that it is very rigid and won't budge any. I have seen great benefits in doing this in the accuracy of my shots.

However, after many hours and multiple nights a week, my left hand seems to be sore. I can't tell if it's normal muscle pain or if I might be causing problems with my tendons - like a carpel tunnel sort of thing. It doesn't hurt to make a fist or move fingers, except for my thumb a little bit.

Anyone have any advice on this? Anyone else have this kind of pain? Or do I need to reassess my fundamentals and learn to shoot with a more relaxed bridge?
Click to expand...

I am not making a suggestion just asking a question. What percent of your shots do you use an open hand bridge? You may be surprised that if you watch the top pros they use an open bridge a pretty high percent of the time. For me it is some what relaxing. Over the years I have found myself using an open bridge more and more. I can easily see my bridge hand becoming stiff and tired if I tied to play all tense for hour after hour. Like everything you have to pace yourself and understand you may have some small limitations you have to work around.

Having said that, you may try doing some hand exercises such as would be recommended for carpel tunnel. My wife was diagnosed with CT and we chose to not have and surgery and she basically got rid of it through therapy. It has been like ten years now and I can say is not bothered by it at all anymore. I am sure there are exercises you can do that will strengthen your hand and provide relief as well as future problems.

Serious problems can often arise from the simplest activities. Years ago I was re decking a boat I bought. I removed, drilled, set and plugged thousands of screw over a months time. When it finally hit me it took a good year for my right hand to recover, I was practically a cripple.
 
macguy said:
I am not making a suggestion just asking a question. What percent of your shots do you use an open hand bridge? You may be surprised that if you watch the top pros they use an open bridge a pretty high percent of the time. For me it is some what relaxing. Over the years I have found myself using an open bridge more and more. I can easily see my bridge hand becoming stiff and tired if I tied to play all tense for hour after hour. Like everything you have to pace yourself and understand you may have some small limitations you have to work around.
Click to expand...

I use a closed bridge the majority of the time. I have a "hitchhikers thumb", so when it is pressed against my middle finger and looped index finger, it is bent in hitchhiker mode, "hyper extended" so to speak (doesn't hurt generally). My ring finger tends to want to bend - it makes everything feel more stable. Pinky is straight out. This is all what feels most natural, but it is a lot of bending, and when I supply some tension to lock it all in place, I think it strains some stuff. I use an open bridge on some shots - sometimes it just feels like the natural thing to use and sometimes it doesn't. I'm all about building consistency right now and not doing things willy nilly, so I might want to investigate why I prefer an open bridge in some shots, and build a consistent methodology around that. I tend to use it in shots that don't require a lot of power or control but do require a lot of delicate accuracy. I can still be pretty delicate and accurate with a closed bridge, so most of the time I try to stay consistent and use a closed bridge. But even when I use an open bridge, I still tighten my hand and fingers, and it doesn't feel much more soothing in that position.

I still see a lot of pros use closed bridges the majority of the time. Strickland, Bustamante, Hohmann, Immonen, and they occasionally use open bridges. The person I see use an open bridge the most often is Corey Deuel. I think Jeanette Lee uses an open bridge a lot too.
 
I practiced all day today. My hand is kinda sore, but what hurts the most is my left shoulder joint. It's probably from extending and stretching it outward a thousand or so times today. We'll see how it feels tomorrow. I have league tomorrow night.
 
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