Topic: Muscle strain from foosball?

[Old Meister]

I'm suffering alot from pain in my upper right chest area(on the inside near the arm pit) and was wondering if anyone is familiar with such a thing. No, it's not heart, I already went through that.
This is muscular/skeletal and the pain definitely comes when I do hard shots. I was practicing hard for a big tournament up in Seattle and noticed a this pain start up and on certain shots and soon became very evident that I needed to hold off on those shots. So I thought I would ask the collective foosball brain trust if anyone is familiar with this.

[foozkillah]

OM,

That's pretty typical.. I've suffered that a while back, when I was overpracticing my 7 stroke on pull to split a standard config D (21 on the 2bar blocking the straights) and stroke the shot back to the 1/4 hole.  I was also practicing snakes and I was overcompensating on the overshot of the pullside snake.  Lots of Miracle Ice and lay off the return motion is what I did..  Seemed to work, and hopefully you haven't pulled anything too badly.

After several dozen experimental strokes, I finally figured out how to do a very square or deadbar pullside rollover using only forearm position and its angle.  No recoil necessary ever.  Then I looked over several dozen vids on pullshots and switched back over to a wrist snap I used to actually also do on Deutscher Meisters that doesnt hurt on the pull, ever.

What's funny is that the deadbar or plain square is so much easier with the correct takeoff.  And it also helps the mind ... solved all my tenseness problems, when I learned to concentrate on the mechanics of the shots and trying to duplicate the "feel" of the hundreds and hundreds of successful practice shot.... no matter how tight or close our DYPs or BYPs got...  I learned to switch to a mechanical not really thinking mode...  weird....

[Old Meister]

These are painful lessons, I thought I was getting better and then sneezed and it brought me to my knees. I informed my partner about it and gave him a chance to get someone else but he's a class act and we will re-evaluate on Wednesday. I'm playing back and defense isn't the problem, just those hard cuts and pushes. The old in Old Meister sure is a bitch,,,

[foozkillah]

OM,

Sorry to hear that, but if you still wish to play nets, I'd recommend you practice up your quickset palmroll shots, those that use mostly the fingers, such as when you're playing front in a pickup game, and do a timing tic-tac into a palmroll pushkick, which is closer to a pushing bump-kick.  No real push but a bump kick from goal.  If you can practice enought to consistently palmroll to shoot at, or just past, the big dot, you should be okay with some offense.

If you both decide to continue, I'd suggest you make sure you can mix up short brush shots (spray) and "fakey" square shots behind the defending 3bar, so you can at least clear without pain.  I'd forget any long shots and stick to the short release ones using your wrist and forearm muscles only ..  Hopefully you both have a good pass series, perhaps this time only to the 5bar.

On 3bar D, if you're one of those who tries motion and then runs to the release point of the attacking forward, you might have to switch instead to a pure percentage D.  By this I mean a steady motion to cover the three most basic release points of rollover shooters: the two posts and the middle.  Most good practiced snakers can hit any of those three holes or release points blindfolded, or looking away.   The important thing is to try to ignore the natural urge in D to jump to a hole at the attacker's release, but always be covering 2 of the 3 holes in your motion, without jumping or lunging to those holes.  If the opposing forward has a reliable square long or deadbar on either side, I'd suggest shading and shifting your motion to deny that side.  If that forward has reliable square long deadbars past both posts, then you'd just have to settle for making a wider motion.

Note that if that forward can hit the big dot, and square the lanes between the posts and the center, along with reliable longs on either side, you're not going to survive that anyway.... you're doomed.  And you'll have to rely on your forward minimizing passes and catches to the opposing forward.

Best of luck.

[Old Meister]

Solid advise 'killa. I'm already going to the palm shots and you're right, it does work, might even throw in a few banks since I'm in the mode. I don't seem to hurt too much on moving my defense so I feel good there. My partner says that all I need to do is clear it  but I usually score some from in back and will do my best. I do want to thank you for your post though as I was getting kind of worried. It's good to hear that it isn't unusual for us boomers to have such a thing happen.

[Ronzilla]

I don't want to scare you, but I went through VERY similar pain for a couple years, until I eventually went to the Dr, telling him I played foosball, and that I thought I'd torn muscle.  I went in for an MRI, and they found a tumor- Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, Stage 4.  I had to do Chemo and Radiation for 10 months, and am lucky to be alive and in remission.  My pain was on my right chest wall, under the armpit.

GO TO THE DR!  Don't self-diagnose!  I did that, and let it go for too long, and by the time they found it, it had spread into nearby muscle.  The tumor had also broken a rib, and the pain from the sneeze you described was the same as mine to the letter.  I kept telling myself and everyone else it was from playing foos too much, and it even started during a tournament I went to in Nebraska, it was easy to blame on a muscle strain.

The Dr that self diagnoses has a fool for a patient.

Go to the Dr.!!!!  You probably don't have cancer, but you don't know what's going on.  Honestly.

Good luck!

Ron Olson

p.s. I was only 34, I don't know how old you are.....it was easy for me to not think of such things as cancer........

[satishakumar]

I am experiencing through the same pain. The pain actually starts under the armpit and till the mid chest. And pain is only localised to right part of chest.

Now I started feeling the huge chest pain on right side even when I sneeze, when bumps on road and etc. I only see the pain in right chest ribs.

I am playing foosball almost year. I always play in defence position and I usually try to hit shot from right hand with high force.

I stopped playing foosball and trying to take rest and hoping it will recover soon.

May I know the solution how can I continue to play foosball without pain and I want know is this serious case (why its paining?).