Lead Thumb Pain

[KD1]

(Obviously not looking for medical advice)

 

Anyone ever experience issues with pain around the lead hand's "metacarpophalangeal joint"... thumb knuckle?? I can pound irons into mats all day long but after a few (chunk free) driver swings this knuckle on my thumb hurts! Any ideas on swing/grip flaws that can lead to this?

 

 

 

Edited September 10, 2024 by KD1

[iacas]

3 hours ago, KD1 said:

(Obviously not looking for medical advice)

 

Anyone ever experience issues with pain around the lead hand's "metacarpophalangeal joint"... thumb knuckle?? I can pound irons into mats all day long but after a few (chunk free) driver swings this knuckle on my thumb hurts! Any ideas on swing/grip flaws that can lead to this?

 

 

 

Uhhh, yes.

 

 

You can search for skiers thumb, that’s pretty common. Left thumb very important in transition.

 

Rest. A lot.

 

Edited September 10, 2024 by iacas

[Jeselnik]

No idea……..loose / poor right hand.

 

JNIK

[GungHoGolf]

3 hours ago, KD1 said:

(Obviously not looking for medical advice)

 

Anyone ever experience issues with pain around the lead hand's "metacarpophalangeal joint"... thumb knuckle?? I can pound irons into mats all day long but after a few (chunk free) driver swings this knuckle on my thumb hurts! Any ideas on swing/grip flaws that can lead to this?

 

 

 

Is that joint flush against the grip in your grip, or is it raised off the grip? The former is more of a “long thumb” grip, the latter more “short thumb.”

 

No idea what’s causing your pain, but switching up your grip to the other one may be worth a try.

[Nels55]

I hurt my lead thumb playing baseball when I was a kid.  I have had trouble with it ever since.  I have tried a lot of different grips and also different sizes of grips.  I am having pretty good luck with a butterfly grip with both thumbs on top using a mid size grip on the club at the moment.  I know one guy who wraps his lead thumb baseball style to alleviate the pain.  Just something you have to figure how to deal with I guess.

[KD1]

On 9/10/2024 at 4:38 PM, iacas said:

Uhhh, yes.

 

 

You can search for skiers thumb, that’s pretty common. Left thumb very important in transition.

 

Rest. A lot.

 

 

On 9/10/2024 at 5:41 PM, GungHoGolf said:

Is that joint flush against the grip in your grip, or is it raised off the grip? The former is more of a “long thumb” grip, the latter more “short thumb.”

 

No idea what’s causing your pain, but switching up your grip to the other one may be worth a try.

 

@iacas I stole this screenshot from your post on another thread. In the screenshot how much of this gap between the thumb knuckle and the grip (circle) do you all have? I think that the pressure from the right palm on top of the thumb (arrow) may be the issue. @GungHoGolf I've been a short thumb gripper and playing around with long thumb. "extra" long thumb allows me to rest the knuckle on the grip which does alleviate the pressure...

 

 

[KD1]

fwiw my thumb still isn't quite right but the pain has really subsided since I moved to a longer thumb grip.

 

I like to smush my fingers down toward my palm to pop all my knuckles [for example]... except for that lead thumb. If I tried to do that with my lead thumb it feels like something would break before I got the knuckle to pop. I'm fairly confident I'll never pop this knuckle again... That's about the only time I experience pain there these last few weeks.

Edited March 26 by KD1

[PedronNiall]

On 3/6/2025 at 11:35 AM, KD1 said:

 

 

@iacas I stole this screenshot from your post on another thread. In the screenshot how much of this gap between the thumb knuckle and the grip (circle) do you all have? I think that the pressure from the right palm on top of the thumb (arrow) may be the issue. @GungHoGolf I've been a short thumb gripper and playing around with long thumb. "extra" long thumb allows me to rest the knuckle on the grip which does alleviate the pressure...

 

 

 

You're saying that your trail hand is set in such a weak/topside position you're actually pressing almost directly down on your thumb joint with it when you take your grip? 

 

 

 

There's nothing about our hands designed to take the force necessary to keep the club in control with the trail hand or that results from the club setting and changing direction at the top of the swing being directed through the lead hand thumb joint. The thumb pads should be providing a nice holding force the same way they do when holding a weight or securing anything else. The trail hand thumb pad can press down directly on the the end segment of the lead thumb and help provide more stability; if you're pressing it down through the joint you're begging for an injury. 

 

You can adapt the way the hands fit together slightly if you prefer a long rather than short thumb, but either way the pressure should be applied through the trail hand into the end segment of the lead thumb, not into the joint where the thumb meets the hand. It's literally the weakest point of that system and pressing directly down on it is channeling all the force you and the swing can muster into it. That's a tear or fracture waiting to happen. 

 

I'd prefer the short thumb so you're putting the lead hand thumb joint in the most sound structure possible and so you're not stretching the ligament before applying force with every swing and impact. 

[ThinkingPlus]

I have a similar problem. I get that same gap between base of thumb (first knuckle) and the shaft. Trail hand pressure on that knuckle can be very painful. Especially after hitting a couple large buckets at the range.

 

It helps if I let the thumb move around to the trail side of the shaft (slightly stronger lead grip position). It also helps to go long thumb, but that feels so awkward that I haven't gone down that path. 

[KD1]

3 hours ago, PedronNiall said:

You're saying that your trail hand is set in such a weak/topside position you're actually pressing almost directly down on your thumb joint with it when you take your grip?

 

I gotta say it never occurred to me how awkward it is to try and take photos of your own grip by yourself!

 

Here is/was my short thumb grip. Pretty much the whole thumb pad hovered off the grip. As you can imagine the trail hand applying pressure creates a lot of stress. Even without the the trail hand just changing directions puts a lot of stress through the thumb:

 

And here is my long thumb grip. It's layed down against the shaft, pressure from the trail hand doesn't put a tone of stress on the joint:

 

As I've mentioned it's been a few weeks and things are feeling much better.

 

My check point now is that I make sure the end of my left thumb lines up with the right middle finger. Or in other words I see two fingers next to my left thumb. I spent a little time trying to catch a peek at pros' thumbs in actual swings (not just people talking about grip) and just about all of the ones I could get a good look at had this "two finger" look.

 

Edited March 28 by KD1

[Nels55]

I have noticed that my lead thumb pain will often seem to be cured by a grip change.  But after a while the pain will come back.  I can switch back to the previous grip and the pain will disappear for a while.  

 

The pain does seem to be caused in the follow through slowing the club down.  The one thing that does help is to set my trail hand so that the pressure gets taken up by the space between my trail thumb and first finger.  To do this I hold the trail thumb tight against the finger as opposed to spread out and around the shaft.

[KD1]

11 minutes ago, Nels55 said:

I have noticed that my lead thumb pain will often seem to be cured by a grip change.  But after a while the pain will come back.  I can switch back to the previous grip and the pain will disappear for a while.  

 

The pain does seem to be caused in the follow through slowing the club down.  The one thing that does help is to set my trail hand so that the pressure gets taken up by the space between my trail thumb and first finger.  To do this I hold the trail thumb tight against the finger as opposed to spread out and around the shaft.

 

Interesting. I'm fairly confident my pain was being triggered during transition.

 

Are you describing like the pinching of your left thumb into the side of your left pointer finger? So is the pressure into the shaft a little off of the thumb and into the first knuckle of the pointer finger?

[Socrates]

4 minutes ago, KD1 said:

 

Interesting. I'm fairly confident my pain was being triggered during transition.

 

Are you describing like the pinching of your left thumb into the side of your left pointer finger? So is the pressure into the shaft a little off of the thumb and into the first knuckle of the pointer finger?

I remember, a long time ago in my youth, I was going to smash a tee marker and stopped myself mid swing.  Tore a ligament in my left thumb that took months to heal in the middle of summer.  Only hurt golfing.  What did I learn?  Don't stop your follow through mid swing!  Even if it is a dumb thing you are going to do.🙄

[Nels55]

11 minutes ago, KD1 said:

 

Interesting. I'm fairly confident my pain was being triggered during transition.

 

Are you describing like the pinching of your left thumb into the side of your left pointer finger? So is the pressure into the shaft a little off of the thumb and into the first knuckle of the pointer finger?

Yes, except that I am using the the trail hand which is the right hand for me to take the pressure off of the lead thumb basically as you describe.