Recurring Wrist Pain

Do u play penhold? I had had the same problem, then i switched to shakehand; problem solved.

Repetitive use injuries, which is what you are describing, can become chronic, and in worst case lead to constant pain and curtailing of normal daily activities.  Even stuff you don't normally think much about, like wiping your rear after taking a crap, can become very painful and difficult. 

Often, the only solution is rest or a change in technique.  Repetitive use injuries sometimes are not always helped very much by ice or anti-inflammatory drugs because in some cases they are non-inflammatory degenerative changes that reverse slowly.  Depends on what is actually happening. 

The best news in your case is that it is sporadic, which means you can still head this off at the pass.

Wrist and hand pain is often caused by local inflammation of tendons adjacent to nerves in the hands and wrist that course through narrow spaces (for example carpal tunnel syndrome, cubital and radial tunnel syndromes, Guyon canal syndromes, etc.). There can also be non-inflammatory tendonosis of the wrist or hand, and a lot of patients who don't fit into any of those boxes but who still have pain are labeled "non-specific" because nothing is visible on MRI.  These conditions don't always cause pain, sometimes their is tingling or numbness.  All can take quite some time to resolve.  Sometimes even surgery is required. Evidence that exercises are an effective therapeutic intervention for any of these is weak at best.  (I originally cited some articles but it made the post too long).  It might help, but stop if it starts to make it worse.

The important thing is to figure out what in particular is causing the pain and then stop doing it.  Is it your forehand?  Your backhand?  

It is hard to say what change you might need without watching you play, and even then it may not be at all obvious. 

Sometimes a grip change can help a lot to alleviate these kinds of pains as Egghead mentioned.  Actually, though, that is not as easy as it sounds in that it is hard to do by just force of will, since habits are ingrained.  It turns out that the easiest way to accomplish a grip change without thinking about it too much is to switch to a different shaped handle.  If you use FL handle, try ST.  If you use ST, try FL.  Even a switch from a square-straight handle to a round-straight handle can be a significant difference because you hold the paddle a bit differently without thinking about it.  I have known people where that completely solved problems with wrist or elbow pain.

In addition, a lighter blade/rubber combination may help.  Normally I prefer somewhat heavier setups personally, but all that goes out the window when people start having repetitive use pain.

Along the same lines, a faster blade/rubber combination may help. 

Take this seriously.  At the end of the day, the only way to stop the pain is to quit doing whatever it is that causes the pain.  It doesn't mean quitting the sport, but you need to do something different.  Maybe stop with prolonged multi-ball.

GMan4911 wrote: I originally got the flexbar that he mentions to fix my tennis elbow and it also fixed my wrist pain.  Cheapest place to get it is Amazon.

Flexbar is indeed quite helpful. I used it when I had tendonitis or inflamed tendons in my forearm (elbow) and in my wrist.

I am actually going through some wrist problems myself right now.

Sorry for a bit of hijacking but here is my story - it is about the wrist problems and perhaps the OP will find something useful here.

During NA Teams in November I tore (a little) some underarm muscle and for the next 5 weeks - so as not to stop playing at all - I switched to a very defensive game with thin-sponged SPs on the backhand and slower inverted on FH (because basically I was not able to loop from both wings - only pushes, blocks, chops and flat games). Then around beginning of January I felt I was again ready to start playing my regular game BUT as soon as I started swinging, I injured some of my extensor tendons or perhaps an ulnar collateral ligament (or both, although I doubt it) in my right wrist.

Those are ligament and tendon on the "non-thumb" edge-side of the wrist.

I am guessing that the main reason was that I did not exercise those tendons/ligaments during those 5-6 weeks when I didn't loop and they were not ready for aggressive flips and power loops from BH. (FH is fine; that side of the wrist affects almost exclusively only the BH motion).

I was devastated because I didn't really get used to the defensive style and didn't want to continue doing that - I lost about 100 USATT rating points in the club league, which is natural because I played almost 40 years in my usual style and it takes a lot of time to properly switch to a very different game. Especially, in the mental department.

Anyways, I didn't want to use SPs again so I started using some thin-sponged defensive tacky or semi-tacky inverteds on BH, sometimes with a bit of deception effect - like Gambler Reflectoid, Spinlord Marder II etc. I was still not happy with the style, and my opponents commented that my game became a lot more comfortable for them as I could not pressure them from BH... and I play 60-70% of all my shots from BH.

Then I went to see my chiropractor and complained to him - I wasn't really sure he could help me. But he did - he took out a so-called Graston "knife"-tool and scraped that side of my wrist for a minute or so. Man, it was painful... you have to use a bit of skin cream with it because otherwise you'd just very likely break the skin. You can read about Graston technique on the web - some chiropractors don't like it, some like it a lot. It is individual, of course, meaning that it might not help with some injuries. the idea is to "scrape" away the scar tissue that forms on the healing tendons, and increase the blood flow to wash the "scar dust" away.

I also do it myself once-twice a week now. Graston knives are pretty expensive - like 80-100 dollars. You can actually do it with a regular butter knife but it should have a thick edge.  So I bought myself a cheap set of Gua-Sha scraping/massage tools (7-9 dollars on Amazon or eBay) and I use them - they are softer and much easier on the skin.

So my advice to you - try it once. Take a thick butter knife or something similar that will not break the skin. Use a bit of skin cream - like Vitamin E cream or really any other thick skin cream you are not allergic to - put a bit of it on the side of the wrist where you feel pain and start carefully scraping the scar tissue away. You should feel pain, and perhaps try to push the tool a tiny bit deeper than you would like to.  Be careful, try it once like an hour before practice and then see if that helps. If it doesn't then forget about it and consult with a physical therapist or a sports medicine specialist. If it does, then get yourself a cheap Gua-Sha set - for future use - or continue to use whatever you like for that purpose. Do it twice a week until it heals, and then continue on with regular wrist exercises and maybe some scraping once in a while.

Good luck!

"Scraping" scar tissue away? Read this first.

https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-graston-technique-inducing-microtrauma-with-instruments/

https://www.painscience.com/articles/tissue-provocation-therapies.php

I think it's definitely technique. For better or for worse, you can hit a strong forehand loop with the wrist locke.

Baal wrote: "Scraping" scar tissue away? Read this first. https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-graston-technique-inducing-microtrauma-with-instruments/ https://www.painscience.com/articles/tissue-provocation-therapies.php

Nobody claims that this is a widely accepted and commonplace technique. It should be considered an experimental treatment until such time that Graston enthusiasts will find a grateful billionaire who will fund the FDA trials, articles etc (I doubt it will happen in this century but hey, who knows!). All I am saying is that it is quite safe to try it once, it is very easy to try it, and if your chiropractor knows how to do it, and you trust him/her then one time procedure (taking up about a minute of your time) should not hurt at all (I mean it will hurt for that minute but... you know what I mean).

By the way, is acupuncture FDA approved? alternative Tibetan medicine? yoga? some of these things are somewhat controversial.. in some places. I am not comparing, I am just saying that lack of articles and FDA trials sometimes doesn't mean much when we are talking about rather basic thing with a low financial benefit. I am told that hundreds of chiropractors are doing it, and at their conventions they discuss results and pros and contras and generally agree that this is usually beneficial.

Are vitamins or dietary complements approved as medical treatments? Hell no. That doesn't stop us from consuming tons of them and for a lot of people - I heard - some of these things help. There are also stories of overdoing it, of hurting your health with some stupid scammy things, and of companies pushing placebo concoctions at high prices. Stuff happens, you have to be careful and keep your common sense with you.

Again, all I am saying - it certainly helped me, and I know one more guy who complained to me and then tried it with his chiro and then by himself, and he was happy with the results.

Baal wrote: JimT wrote: All I am saying is that it is quite safe to try it once Maybe.  One hopes so.  However, my concern is that it is not entirely without risk because the technique adds trauma to an already traumatized soft tissue and there is as yet no credible evidence for its effectiveness, and the underlying premise is not supported by any pathology.

Trying it once should not aggravate trauma too much. My "evidence" was simply that I felt much better even after one-minute "scraping". Again, one of my friends who I recommended trying it, did try and did not feel any change. So it helps some people, or some traumas, and doesn't for others.