Shoulder Health
Petanque Coach
Execises
Shooting
Pointing
I love my shoulder! Why is it aching?!
Our shouders are given a bit of a workout when we play petanque. Sometimes after a lot of throws we might feel an ache in shoulder. The good news is, that petanque is not a sport that is particularly hard on shoulders - at least when compared to tennis, baseball and even swimming. Any sport that requires hard over-hand activity can do damage to the shoulder structure. Petanque being an under-hand sport makes it a lot easier on the shoulder.
That is not to say that throwing in petanque will not aggrevate preexisting injuries, and weaknesses, causing aches and pains. I have a weak right shoulder as a result of past activities - throwing logs down the hillside at the farm years ago, lugging and stacking 60 pound blocks for a retaining wall... and I'm not getting any younger! Even sleeping on your throwing shoulder can cause it to ache.
The shoulder is a complex mechanism that can go out of whack fairly easily if strained or damaged. Once damaged, swelling can occur causing more damage and pain. Parts that counter-balance each other can shift when damaged or weakened...
OK, enough of that dire stuff. That's what the medical school sports medicine pages are for. Visit them at your own risk!
But once you have scared yourself about all the things that can go wrong with your shoulder... let me give some advice about taking care of your shoulder so that you can play petanque into your dotage as I intend to.
Things to do to take care of your shoulder so that you can play petanque into your dotage.
1. Before you start playing, take a few minutes to warm up your shoulder. Gently stretch and rotate it in all natural directions. Slowly go through the motions of all the throws that you will do, being sure to stretch all muscles, tendons, and connective tissues in order to allow them to be ready for what is to come.
2. Learn smooth, easy throwing forms. If you are a power shooter, and your shoulder aches after games, learn to be a finesse shooter - you'll get more carreaus and save your shoulder for dotage stuff.
3. If your present form is a jerking-from-complete-stop-to-throwing-speed style, learn a more relaxed swinging throwing form and allow gravity to do some of the work for you.
4. Use your torso when you throw. Why make your shoulder do all the work??? Discus throwers use their torso, so do baseball pitchers, and golfers - so should you. I found that by just incorporating a very slight torque into my shooting throw I was able to increase the distance of my throws and the finesse. A little torso torque has made my throws almost effortless!
5. Stop sleeping on your throwing shoulder! I did this and it made a BIG difference!
6. Do slow and easy exercises to strengthen and align the various parts of your shoulder. Go to some of the sports medicine sites and see what they recommend.
7. Start practicing your old-person gloat for when you are in your dotage beating whipper-snapper players a quarter your age.
One other thing, there are shoulder supports to help compress the shoulder if this is needed to allow you to practice more. When I was a high school track coach, shin splints was a real problem early in the season with some runners. The tissue was pulling away from the bone... so we compressed it with bandages to allow the runners to continue to train without further damage. As a result, some were able to run in the district meet that wouldn't otherwise have been able to.
I started using a shoulder support in mid 2008 when I started shooting more, thereby putting more strain on my already fragile shoulder. It made a huge difference and allowed me to finish out the year. I used one during practice and tournaments and it is worked wonderfully! It definitely let me play pain-free. It will depend on the nature of your shoulder issue but for me a shoulder support worked well. You can get them at sports equipment sites.
Update on the shoulder support... it did help me through most of 2008... but late in 2008 it wasn't enough. I had an episode of extreme shoulder pain that brought me to the conclusion that my right shoulder is just not going to do the job. So I have switched to throwing with my left arm!
Sure it is awkward, and has set me back a year or two in my development. But it is a less injured shoulder and I hope that that will allow me to practice more and become better in the long run. At this point, early in 2009, I am making some very good pointing throws with my left arm, and can occasionally hit on iron when shooting.
So, remember that you have two arms, and if one shoulder is bothering you so much that you can not practice and enjoy your petanque sessions, consider switching to your other arm. That's probably why we carry a spare! just in case we need it to continue to play petanque!