Mike G.

I'm a guy who's 5'11", but the scale is over 300 lbs. Playing pickleball one day, I reached for a ball, and something in my elbow gave way. The shooting pain from my forearm and inside left elbow caused me to shriek and drop my paddle.

Fortunately, there was a guy there named Joey. He took me off to the side and asked which way it hurt when I turned my hand. He held my hand and asked me to apply pressure the opposite way and just to hold. Not doing anything strenuous just trying to oppose the initial pain. In the moment it worked. Pain was bearable. A couple of days later I put my tennis racket in my left hand and attempted to hit a forehand very lightly. Another shriek in pain another drop of the racket and I figured I was in for some rehab. What ensued was an entire month of playing tennis right handed.

I reached out to a traditional physical therapist. She told me it would be 3 to 6 months before I could hit a tennis ball left-handed again. Finally, I reached out to Joey and he saw me in his office.

He asked me to do a simple exercise with my right arm (yummy side). He never touched my left arm that day. He had me do a particular exercise standing leaning against the wall with my right arm on the wall and it was able to mimic the way my left arm hurt. I did one set like 15 and stopped. He asked me to create that motion again with my left arm where I could tell him there’s the twinge of pain. When I did it the pain was diminished greatly. He had me do that simple exercise two more times checking in between for results. All I can say is the next day, I played tennis left-handed. Granted I was cautious and gentle. But zero pain!