My daughter Nicole (SuperGirl) injured her finger earlier this summer. I was wondering is anyone out there has had a similar problem. We are not sure how it happened it just started hurting one day when she was throwing her driver. The injury is to her middle finger (on her throwing hand). The part that hurts is the knuckle closest to the tip of her middle finger. She did hit her fingers on a metal pole during her follow thru at the TX10 Gonzales this past June. Although her fingers hurt the rest of the tournament, her hand didn�t both her when she played in the Conroe Bang�n Chains Open 2 weeks later.

A couple of weeks after the Conroe tournament, when we stated practicing for the Live Oak Summer Open, she started having trouble with her drives and complaining about pain in the top knuckle of her middle finger. Even though the finger was bothering her, she played in 2 more tournaments and in a local disc golf league. However, she started having all kinds of problems with her throwing motion and her finger kept bothering her. By the time she played in the Corpus Christi Costal Clash, she could no longer use her driver (step and throw hard) without having severe pain in her finger. Therefore she played the tournament throwing almost nothing but approach shots. After the tournament her doctor suggested that she take 6 weeks off and not even pick up a golf disc. Therefore she had to miss the United States Open Women�s Disc Golf Championships.

Little by little, her finger started to improve. So 6 weeks later she enters the Moffitt FlynHighDiscGolf.com Lone Star Series tournament. I said I would let her play on the condition that she could not use her driver. She would only be allowed to throw nice smooth approach shots from a stand-still position (no hard throws using her driver). This worked well for the 1st round and she was having a great time. She played in the recreational women�s division and all 4 rec ladies had their share of good throws. It was a nice and competitive 1st round with all 4 players within 3 shots of the lead. During the round I kept reminding Nicole to throw smooth not hard. Unfortunately she re-injured her finger on the 2nd hole of the 2nd round. In hind sight, I should have pulled her out of the tournament right then and there, but she didn't want to quit.

It has been over a week since she re-injured her finger and the finger still hurts when she puts pressure on it. So Nicole has a doctor's appointment tomorrow to have her finger x-rayed. It looks like she is done with disc golf for awhile. It is a shame because her game was really starting to come around. She was really looking forward to playing in several upcoming tournaments (including Texas States), but it looks like that is not going to happen. Hopefully she will be back soon.

Has anyone out there had a similar problem with finger injurys? If so, what was the problem and how long did it take to heal?

Thanks..........Rick

Sounds like tendonitis. She is probably aggravating an existing injury with her normal grip.

Encourage her to practice throwing with her off hand while the finger heals. She is young so she is likely to catch on pretty quickly to throwing the other way.

Kiralyn was hoping Nicole was going to make the USWDGC this year. Kira might be going down to the TWC with her sister and mom. Kira has been paying attention to the Junior Girl < 13 season points thing because she has never had competition for that before.

I have the same problem with my index finger on my right hand. Swells up pretty big after throwing, the first throw of the day is very painfull. Hope she gets better. Let us know what the Dr says (so then I dont have to go /msgboard/images/graemlins/smirk.gif ).

Get well soon SuperGirl!!

supergirl and wonder woman with injuries? that doesnt seem right.

Good thing Winter is coming.......She needs to just give it a rest.
No throwing with the Right hand!!!!!!
You can't play through joint pain.And don't mask it with meds! This only hides the problem. I would suggest hot and cold theropy.
She needs to be healthy for TWC :D

Has Nicole/SuperGirl tried a different grip such as a (flip the bird) birdie grip where the middle finger is extended under the flightplate, instead of gripping the rim? Check out Discgolfreview.com for more details under the "Instructional Articles", then under "Grip It To Rip It".

I agree with the 'time for healing' over the Winter...nothing like a fresh start in the Spring! :cool:

definitely sounds like tendonits :(

George Smith had the same injury at the 2000 Worlds in the semifnals. I think it was tendonitis...he had to finish the round left-handed or throwing two-fingers on the Hudson Mills Monster course (I think he injured the ring finger)....moved him from 13th overall down to like 55th.

He basically laid off golf for a few months, and he was back to normal the next season. Your results may vary, and your doctor will know better.

Chap

Would this include pain all the way down to the wrist? I was throwing the other day and had extreme pain through my middle finger all the way to the wrist. It felt like I broke a bone, but after a few more drives it stopped. The same thing happend the next day, but stopped after I warmed up. Its not cold yet where I am, otherwise I may blame it on the weather.

I agree, let us know. We don't want to go to the doctor,they are mean :mad:I'm sure he would have told me "No golf" thats pretty much why I haven't gone.
I played through my problem and now I have a knot on my knuckle(middle finger) that never goes away. I thought maybe the intense throws actually caused a slight break in that location. A lot of pain came with this and it took along time to heal, I wrapped my finger before I played for several months. This injury will never go away, Maybe the grip is not tight enough?. Who's got the answer?

Man I know I'm might be losing my mind..20460chase & Juliwithnoe have registrations the same day and time?

Best of luck SUPERGIRL!!!

what the x-ray / DR say??

Man I know I'm might be losing my mind..20460chase & Juliwithnoe have registrations the same day and time?



Krazyeye -

Everyone that was registered on the PDGA message board when it switched to this format on 11/03/03 also has the exact same log in date and time. :)

Well thanks. That helps my paranoia. /msgboard/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

We went to the doctor yesterday. He examined her finger and took x-rays. If the x-ray shows a break in the bone, his office will call us with the results. Otherwise we are supposed to go back on Nov 7th for a follow-up visit. Until then she is supposed to do the following:

1. Refrain from any activity that might cause pain in her finger.

2. Take a teaspoon of liquid Advil everyday after breakfast and dinner (to lesson the pain and help reduce the swelling).

3. Soak her hand in warm water every night. While the hand is in the water, he wants her to flex the joint by slowly opening and closing her hand. I think this is to maintain flexibility. He said she could also gently squeeze a ball under water to strengthen the muscles in her fingers.

I also spoke with a coach from Nicole's soccer club. He believes it is a tendon injury. He said tendon injuries need rest and rehabilitation. He said if you try to play through a tendon injury, you start to build up a lot of scare tissue in the area. This makes the area weaker and more susceptible to re-injury. It can also make the area become a chronic problem.

I already told Nicole that she is missing Texas States this weekend. It looks like I also need to tell her that she will miss the Oklahoma Open (she wanted to play some of the courses that will be used in Am Worlds 2006) and the TX10 final in Live Oak. I am sure she will be very disappointed.

The other concern I have is the upcoming basketball season. Nicole plays point guard and led her team in scoring, assists, and steals last season. She really loves basketball. Nicole and I usually start doing basketball drills around the 1st to November. I am worried that the injury will affect her basketball season, since the injury is to the middle finger on her shooting hand. In basketball you use your fingers for everything (pass, catch, shoot, and dribble). I am not going to mention this concern to Nicole until after we see the doctor again.

I want to thank everyone for their well wishes and I will keep you all up to date. Bruce, I told Nicole that Kira might come down to play in the Texas Women�s Championship. She was absolutely thrilled at the prospect of finally meeting Kira. Nicole understands that Kira is a much better player than she is, but Nicole uses that as motivation to improve. Nicole really hopes Kira can make it down to the TWC. By the way, how old is Kira. Nicole has been trying to guess Kira�s age by the tournament age groups she has played in (under 13 etc). Nicole turned 10 yrs old this past August.

Thanks���..Rick

Kira turned 11 in February. She played a lot of divisions this year but mostly played Intermediate Women. She won the IOSeries in Intermediate Women.

And I'm serious about the left handed. Recently Kelsey has only been throwing lefthanded because she has seen how good I've gotten at it in just a year of throwing left handed. Maybe she does not want to play the next tournament left handed, but if she cannot practice basketball, she might as well play disc golf lefty.

Hi all,

I just wanted to update everyone on SuperGirl's finger injury. I am very happy to say that she has fully recovered from her injury! She played in a tournament this past weekend (the FlynHighDiscGolf.com MacGregor Hardcore Classic in Houston, TX) and felt no pain and no soreness in her finger. This was the first time in almost 7 months that she has been able to throw with no pain or discomfort.

This past weekend from the long tees (1st round), she had her highest rated round ever (731). The big part was that she was able to play without thinking about her finger. It was great to see her play her game and not hold back on her throws. Although she could not sustain that level of play in the 2nd round (from the short tees), she finished 2nd in the rec women's division and had a great time.

She told me after the tournament, that she thinks 2006 is going to be a great year.

Thanks...........Rick

Great to hear, Good Luck this year!!!!!!!!

Hey richard are you and SG going to the Pleasure Island tournament? If so I would like to play some practice holes with Nicole and maybe help her shave some strokes. :D

Hey richard are you and SG going to the Pleasure Island tournament? If so I would like to play some practice holes with Nicole and maybe help her shave some strokes. :D



Matt,

Sorry for the late reply, but I haven't logged on to the message board in weeks. I appreciate the offer and Nicole said she would love to get some pointers from you. Unfortunately Nicole will not be playing in the Pleasure Island tournament this weekend.

Nicole is way over booked this weekend. This is what she had going on the weekend of Feb 11th and 12th before I did some rescheduling and some canceling.

1. Her indoor soccer team had a game scheduled for Feb 11th. (I rescheduled the game)
2. She has a basketball game on Feb 11th.
3. Her club soccer team has a soccer tournament on Feb 11th and 12th.
4. Her grandmother (my mother-in-law) in having her 70th birthday gala on Feb 11th.
5. Her 3v3 soccer team qualified to play in the 3v3 National Championship tournament in San Antonio on Feb 11th and 12th. However my wife made in very clear that it was mandatory that Nicole and I stay in Houston and attend the birthday gala of Nicole's grandmother. Therefore Nicole had to withdraw from the 3v3 National Championship tournament. Since Nicole is the captain of the 3v3 team, the team decided not to play without her. Therefore the whole team (4 girls + Nicole) decided to withdraw from the tournament.
6. Nicole is organizing a Walk-a-Thon at her school to raise money for breast cancer research (one of her teachers died of breast cancer last year). She is basically doing this on her own. She designed the flyers, she worked with the printers, and she raised over $800 dollars in corporate sponsorship. My only involvement was to hand her the phone when one of the companies called her to finalize some details. Since the Walk-a-Thon is next week she will be busy working on last minute items.

So SuperGirl will not be able to attend the Pleasure Island tournament weekend. Hopefully you can give her some pointers at a future tournament. Good luck this weekend.

Thanks........Rick

WoW , that is very impressive!! keep up the good work Nicole!!
<marquee><font color="blue"> SUPERGIRL!!!! </font></marquee>

I got tied just reading that.

You call that overbooked? :D:p :D