The big kid called yesterday in a tiff 'cause he seems to think that he has tennis elbow. Doctor, do not heal yourself, 'cause you have a fool for a patient....back to the kid.....
The elbow hurts on the outside and as a person who has had TE for 5 years, he called me for advice. I immediately said that it was due to a missing link in his delivery. He is either twisting his arm or not decelerating/pronating properly. Am I a genius? Nope, I know 'elbows.'
OK, so when I call Dr G for assistance, this is what he says..."Ice, rest, ibuprophen." Nothing else? Nope. Ice, rest, Motrin. Gotcha....yes, and I still have TE, but in my case, it is chronic. In other words, I will have it until the day I die. On my grave stone, it will say....professor...mother....wife...daughter...sister....friend....vanilla vanilla cake and Skittle lover.....tennis player.....suffered from tennis elbow most of her life but rallied to support friends and family. A true hero (cough, cough.....).
Back to the story...so he seemed pretty upset and I shared with him how I handle my TE. Yet, I still have it. OK, let's look at how other people handle it....go to your PT and ask him for exercises. Good idea....then he hung up. Oh, by the way, I also now wear a cool black sleeve on my forearm to cut down on the swelling. I look like a middle aged NBA player with bad knees...yep, the look I was shooting for.....back to the kid....
While at the ball park, he had a friend video him while he pitched and sent it to the Pitching Doctor. Yep, his good buddy from last year. The PD remembered him (who could forget the guy who opened and closed his camp every day for a month last year?). The PD got right back to him, told him to do two things with his delivery and if he fixes it, he will increase his velocity by 3-4 mph (let's see...89-91 + 4=93-95!!!) and eliminate the pain.
Then we got another call...."MOM! Listen to this..." No, he did not share that his incredible enthusiasm was due to a Middle East Peace Treaty or finding the airplane lost in the Pacific Ocean or someone had found a cure for cancer. Nope, the excitement was due to the PD's words of encouragement.
Now dad got on the phone and told him to take a weekend at the PD's ranch for a tune up. "No, dad, if the Czar finds out, he will cut me from the team." We can't win here, right. Dad continued to encourage him to fly to Texas. No one at the university will know that he was there.
This is incredible. The guy could fix his elbow and ramp up his velocity, but he is afraid of the Czar who is so incredibly narrow minded that he will cut his top pitcher for trying to better himself because it is not according to his personal home spun program! Keep in mind that the Czar screamed at him for an hour telling him that the PD ruined him. Yet, he continued to secretly incorporate the PD's program into his training and rose to be the top pitcher on the team after he was released from the bench for the lack of mental toughness. I am at a loss for words....not usually, but in this case, I am.
What will happen to our big kid? Stay tuned.
Peace!
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