Crippling elbow pain

When I'm shadow boxing my right elbow hurts. And by hurts I don't mean "Oh, that's kinda sore." I mean, end the fight after one punch because I can't really keep my hand up anymore.

Even at quarter speed on the right hand it kills. It's not so bad if I'm hitting a heavy bag or sparring partner, but I think that's because there's not full extension there.

My guess is that it's an old injury from years of bad punching form in TKD, with the super harsh wrist flick at the end of the punch combined with the full extension damaging the elbow or something. On Monday I'll be making an appointment with the clinic to have a closer look at it so we'll see, but in the meantime I was wondering what y'all thought. Any suggestions? I've yet to try my jow on it (derdeder) and maybe an epsom salt bath, but I think it's more in the bone/joint than the muscles there.

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"When you see a good move wait - look for a better one."
- Emanuel Lasker

“	Originally Posted By: joyseau Even at quarter speed on the right hand it kills. It's not so bad if I'm hitting a heavy bag or sparring partner, but I think that's because there's not full extension there.	”

Some styles use a full extension on their punch, but in my opinion, youre asking for big trouble if you allow your hand to extend fully, shadow boxing or not. Sure fire way to hyperextend at 1 or more joints.

“	Originally Posted By: joyseau Any suggestions?	”

Stop doing a full extension while you shadow box--teach your body that if you throw an attack and it doesnt hit the mark that you start pulling it back before you fully extend and put pressure on the tendon and joint.

“	Originally Posted By: joyseau I've yet to try my jow on it (derdeder) and maybe an epsom salt bath, but I think it's more in the bone/joint than the muscles there.	”

Sounds like more a joint/tendon issue to me too...Which is why you should use a jow that works a bit deeper than your basic bruise jow...Nevertheless, even a basic bruise jow will help raise the local circulation to heal the injury.

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PlumDragon Herbs: Dit Da Jow and Iron Palm Liniments

"When a handshake passes the elbow, it becomes Judo."

Thanks Plum. Once it's had some time to heal over the weekend I'll slow it down and try to retrain my arm to stop before full extension. In fact, even my teacher told me that when I told him about the injury, but his was more as in "because of your elbow, you in particular shouldn't be extending fully." But did I listen? Of course not, and see what happens. Either way, I'll try my jow on it and if that doesn't help much I may try some of the JKD jow on your site. It sounds like it's right what I may need.

__________________
"When you see a good move wait - look for a better one."
- Emanuel Lasker

Glad that is helpful. I had a lot of trouble with overextending once upon a time, and it kinda feels wierd at first to punch and retract before you get full out, but I find it quite useful and once you get good at it, you wont have to sacrifice any power.

People love the JKD jow for those types of injuries; I have a lot of people who use it for tendon injuries/hyperextending in BJJ, qinna, etc...

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PlumDragon Herbs: Dit Da Jow and Iron Palm Liniments

"When a handshake passes the elbow, it becomes Judo."