Last week, I was visited by a tennis coach who had a sharp pain in his left shoulder. He was unable to reach out wide to his left side and unable to get to the end of his back swing and the end of his follow through on his backhand (he has as a double-handed backhand).
So not only was this painful, but it was limiting his ability to work with some of his more elite players.
His pain had lasted about 3 months.
On his visit last week, I ran a few assessments, then I began palpating and treating the muscles around his left shoulder with Active Release Technique®. He clearly had tight anterior shoulder, so I began releasing these muscles, as well is his latissimus dorsi muscle.
I also looked to release any potential nerve entrapments around the shoulder and arm pit region. I also treated his teres minor and infrapsinatus muscles.
As the session went on, his range of motion slowly increased and by the end of the session he seemed to have full range of motion and he reported an 80% reduction in pain. This meant he was able to go back to work without the pain and able to ‘hit’ with is more elite level players.