target4fun Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 Lately I got to a point in my life where I can start going to more matches so have gotten back into practicing drawing daily. In doing so I would do some draw practice 20 reps or so then give it a break 5-10 min and then resume. Did this for maybe 45min to hour. So in doing this daily for past few days I yesterday I went to gym and realized my elbow was messed up as soon as I lifted some weight. I start all my sets with light weights to warm up on first set so I know it wasn't the weights that did it. Today feel even more elbow pain so I have been taking it easy. I am not writing on here to cry and bitch but just curious if anyone else has went though this same issue with draw practice and what you did to solve it. Limit it to 10 min? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrn1975 Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 Google absolute pt shooters elbow.... He lists some exercises that will help eliminate the pain you feel. I experience this all the time and when I perform the excises, things get 99% better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
target4fun Posted September 9, 2016 Author Share Posted September 9, 2016 Thanks! I will get right on that now. At 33 and fairly active I think the beginning stages of getting older is starting... Fun fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted September 9, 2016 Share Posted September 9, 2016 33? Getting older? Seriously? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
target4fun Posted September 9, 2016 Author Share Posted September 9, 2016 Yup older than I was yesterday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnbu Posted September 10, 2016 Share Posted September 10, 2016 33 ? LOL. guess even young guys get trouble from over use. best thing is rest, ice, stretching and exercise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nadurra Posted September 10, 2016 Share Posted September 10, 2016 I've noticed that when I do dry fire daily my bench drops because my right side is somewhat weaker and subsequently my lockout is less forceful on my right side. Sucks but it's a price you pay. Perhaps focus less on draws? Movement and transitions are all used way more than the draw in most cases. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Di Vita Posted September 11, 2016 Share Posted September 11, 2016 16 hours ago, nadurra said: I've noticed that when I do dry fire daily my bench drops because my right side is somewhat weaker and subsequently my lockout is less forceful on my right side. Sucks but it's a price you pay. Perhaps focus less on draws? Movement and transitions are all used way more than the draw in most cases. You might want to get that elbow/shoulder checked out, because that isn't normal. You should be able to dry fire and not lose strength in your arms (this coming from someone that dry fires with enough intensity to be sweating buckets by the end). The vast majority of the time injuries happen because of neglecting to maintain the body. Poor posture, poor shoulder/elbow position, poor integration of the torso, poor soft tissue quality all tend to lead to problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grapemeister Posted September 11, 2016 Share Posted September 11, 2016 Yep, https://www.absolutept.com. Stuff you strap or stick to your arm, stretching, and taking it easy isn't going to take care of the problem. Do the exercises and the pain will go away, at least for most people. I had the same problem off and on for quite a few years. At one point I couldn't load ammo or grip the gun for very long because of the pain. When I started doing the different hand and forearm exercises with dumbbells, the pain went away. Rubber bands I got from Ironmind to work the extensors helped a lot, too. Actually, I think, the rubber bands probably helped me more than anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IHAVEGAS Posted September 12, 2016 Share Posted September 12, 2016 On September 9, 2016 at 3:33 PM, GunBugBit said: 33? Getting older? Seriously? Actually I think our reflexes peak at about 17, and then it is just a long process of physically turning to shit . But, it seems like some of the repetitive use pains can get better or completely go away, perhaps due to muscle development? In any case I had the same issue as the o.p. last year and this year it has gone away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDA Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 Wow, timely thread! I spent the last ten days working on drawing from the holster every night. Went to the range Sunday and did a hundred live fire draws Sunday evening my elbow/forearm hurt and Monday morning it was pretty sore! Just started with the exercises this morning. Thanks for the info on this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FTDMFR Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 +1 on the stretches I started getting some bad tennis elbow on my support side last year. The stretches got rid of it in a month or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blaster113 Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 When I was practicing heavy (dry fire 5 days/wk, live fire 200+ rounds 2 times/wk plus Sunday match) I started to get pain in my right (strong side) elbow. When I backed off on the live fire and continued the dry fire the pain went away. Been hitting the weights for several years so I dont think its a lack of arm strength. Shooters elbow... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MemphisMechanic Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 Absolutept is the ticket - those four weightlifting exercises work WONDERS on your wrists and elbows. They also do great things for your grip strength... but the main benefit is being totally and completely pain free. I'm a heavy equipment mechanic, and my tendonitis was brought on by work then exacerbated by shooting and dry fire. It got to the point where it hurt my elbow to flush a toilet. I was back to 100% in three weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooke Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 In no way am I trying to be a smart ass. Serious question! Why in heck spend so much time practicing a draw? Especially if it hurts. Yes, time matters but once you can draw pretty well, how much better can you get.....0.1, 0.2 even 0.3 sec? You only draw once per stage. For Production and SS shooters you reload multiple times per stage. Why not work on that?? All shooters can improve target acquisition for transitions. All shooters can speed up splits (on target splits hopefully). Why not work on that? It just seems there are better things to improve than something you do one time and especially if that same thing hurts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MemphisMechanic Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 Because boys will be boys, and draws and reloads are fun to do. How often do you hear someone post "I spent a week straight doing 30 min of weak-hand-only dryfire on distant mini poppers?" Well. You hear things like that. But they're posted by GMs. The B-class scrubs like to do the fun stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Di Vita Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 2 hours ago, Brooke said: In no way am I trying to be a smart ass. Serious question! Why in heck spend so much time practicing a draw? Especially if it hurts. Yes, time matters but once you can draw pretty well, how much better can you get.....0.1, 0.2 even 0.3 sec? You only draw once per stage. For Production and SS shooters you reload multiple times per stage. Why not work on that?? All shooters can improve target acquisition for transitions. All shooters can speed up splits (on target splits hopefully). Why not work on that? It just seems there are better things to improve than something you do one time and especially if that same thing hurts. I do tons of draws and reloads because it's important that they're consistent. The goal is having my hand position perfect every single time from any start position (including draws to weakhand, strong hand only, and unloaded draws from any start position). I've been dry firing a long time and I still haven't gotten there, you can imagine how much training is involved when you look at the variables you can add to the draw. I think an extremely fast and refined draw/reload is a sign of exceptional gun handling skills. Once you do have that fast refined draw you may not practice it as much, but you certainly can't just stop practicing it. Improve weaknesses and bolster strengths. Depending on the situation, the improvement in time can be well in excess of .3 seconds. Generally the more difficult the draw target is the more you will save, but there is something to be said about being able to rip .7 draws on demand on appropriate targets in a match. Regardless even if the improvement only is .3 seconds, I want that .3 seconds. I've lost more than one match by a tenth of a point. Obviously if you are injuring yourself something needs to change about your approach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IHAVEGAS Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 I will never see .7, but practice has improved my time. As a lesser shooter, working on the draw makes it a lot more likely that I will get a consistent grip and also consistently bring the gun to where I want it without delay for aiming correction. I think this helps me more than the reduction in draw time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted September 13, 2016 Share Posted September 13, 2016 On 9/9/2016 at 1:58 PM, target4fun said: Yup older than I was yesterday We are all getting older. Sorry to hear about your elbow pain. We can get these pains at any age. Two things I know from experience to help a lot: 1) Rest. 2) Correct exercises that will be therapeutic to the injury. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
target4fun Posted September 13, 2016 Author Share Posted September 13, 2016 Yeah, I managed to fight through it. According to the absolute pt guy the best cure was to continue on, also the exercises I do weekly are ones he recommends so i just continued with that. Since then the pain is reduced and is pretty much gone. Thanks for everyone's help in pointing me in the right direction, I am glad I didnt rest it, as that is what I was going to do. As for the why waste time on draw debates... I find my weak points and do drills. That isn't to say I don't practice all of the other things as well, I do but it is just they weren't the source of the issue i was having so I felt it was extra useless info. So while others may spend endless hours practicing the draw and nothing else, rest assure that isn't me. Thanks again. If anyone reading this in the future has "shooters elbow" youtube/google "absolute pt shooters elbow" and there is some good info there, that is what helped me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MemphisMechanic Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 Weekly? Doing those four weightlifting exercises a minimum of 3-4 nights a week is recommended, just like if you were trying to build strength in your muscles anywhere else in the body. I took his recommendation to do them daily right away, and I now do them 3-4 days a week because that keeps the problem from coming back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogtired Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 Tennis elbow and elbow pain are two different things. I suspect you have tennis elbow. besides 33 y/o's use that arm more frequently than us older gentlemen...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDA Posted September 16, 2016 Share Posted September 16, 2016 My elbow pain started Sunday evening, I saw this thread on Tuesday and started the exercises immediately. Today my elbow is already 75% better after four days of exercising per the videos.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 On 9/16/2016 at 0:27 PM, TDA said: Today my elbow is already 75% better after four days of exercising per the videos.. Wonderful! Nice to hear that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MemphisMechanic Posted September 21, 2016 Share Posted September 21, 2016 (edited) On 9/16/2016 at 2:27 PM, TDA said: My elbow pain started Sunday evening, I saw this thread on Tuesday and started the exercises immediately. Today my elbow is already 75% better after four days of exercising per the videos.. You'll keep exercising for about 10-14 days after the pain goes away. Then it'll stop being a priority, and you'll stop. It will take about two weeks for it to come back once you do. Sooner, if you dryfire and shoot hard. You'll beat it again in another 10 days of lifting weights. This cycle will repeat... until you learn to make yourself lift 3 to 4 days as a longterm habit. Been there. Learned that. Edited September 21, 2016 by MemphisMechanic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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