[Vickie]

1st let's just appreciate that physioguy is chiming in. His information is not only accurate and valuable but interesting and entertainintg Sounds like your glenoid fascia is wearing out. Ok lets look systemically, just like the physio-master suggested. If your whole spine is not aligned, yea you guessed it Jim, it is not going to all work just right. I don't use the tech terms but if your 1st and 2nd cervical vertebrae don't balance your head just right with your sacrum then you can't hit a ball well much less without pain. So you have to look at the whole system. Having great leg strength can be a plus unless it isn't balanced with your chest strength which by the way is connected to your scapula (yea, that's the shoulder bone) by way of many muscles including the biceps and triceps. Now you know that Homer Kelly talks about the triceps . . .

I once trained a guy that was only 15 and had been scouted by the pro baseball people ( he was also a high level soccer player BTW) but had lost his game; why you ask? He was a pitcher / short stop but he couldn't stretch his left leg forward (without pain) so he couldn't throw his fast (right) ball. His trainer wouldn't work on his lunge because "it hurt him". Duh! He had lost his 'balance' so we worked from the most elementary point. [This will kill tongzilla, we worked almost exclusively with the therapy ball and increased is abdominal strength by 80%; you don't want to know how we measured it]. We started at the core, I hate that term for the record, we just said let's work the abdomen. But we did do some Pilates which means you look at the transverse muscle. We also isolated the right and left side of his rectus abdominus ( it is 2:30 in atlanta, give me a break on my key stroke until I see this at 4:00 pm tomorrow) Stand in the mirror and tighten one side, without dropping you shoulder and then tighten the other. I do a lot of work with neuroligically challenged people and it works for them. My healthy people are always shocked ,aND challenged and enhanced by the work.

Next, don't so do much to strengthen your shoulders as work on your ability to move through the full range of motion with some resistence. Yes, this means you increase the weight slowly (the traditional, sissy and safe way, is 5%) and avoid injury but you also avoid thickened (excessive) soft tissue development; for those of us that want to maintain range of motion . . that means . . well. . ., range of motion. See how strong and simultaneously flexible your joint functions can develop, . . . think turtle.

Finally, see if your highly powerful hip muscles are more compensatory during your swing than you anticipated. Seems like a strong anchor would make for a better swing foundation except, like the song says, it really is all connected so . . . if you are swinging a weaker, less balanced 'upper' relative to a "lower" . . . you got problems.

Remember that flexibility is the other side of the strength coin. What is your whole workout? Chest? Back? Legs? Abs? Shoulders? (your traps are back by the way - BTW for those of us that are not so computer literate) what do you stretch and when and do you do abs. Youth is great but . . . I have to tell you I have less pain at 48 than I had at 25 since I learned about balanced training. Oh yea, I play everytning better, too.

Let's keep talking. And physioguy, Jim only addressed me caz I'm the moderator. Everyone should please chime in. I will feel free to put in my two cents, fear not; it's a woman thing.

Vik