Possible injury?

[adirondack46r]

Quite a while back I posted a question about an annoying little pop in my shoulder when drawing. I have spent alot of time trying to isolate what in my draw causes this, and whether or not I can eliminate  it.

It seems that the pop originates under my right clavicle. (I'm right handed.) It does NOT originate in the shoulder itself. The pop is after I reach full draw and when I am sort of transitioning from my draw to my anchor. I can easily anticipate exactly when it will happen, and it is very distracting, but not painful at all.

I normally draw with a set arm and draw straight back to anchor. I have found that if I draw with my drawing arm lower as if I were going to anchor below my chin, and then raise my draw arm, the pop is much less likely to occur, i.e. I can eliminate 90%.

A couple of questions. Does anyone have any idea what anatomically my be going on? And does anyone have the same issue and if so, how did you deal with it?

Thanks!

[mrkbsm]

adirondack46r - I might have something similar with my shoulder on occasion... seems similar anyways, according to what you mentioned.  I haven't been doing archery long, and it was worse when I had just started shooting.  I started doing a variety of workouts to build upper body strength (bow-fit, "rowing" with small dumbbells, butterfly/reverse butterfly on weight machines to a smaller extent) and it seemed to get better.  But I would enjoy an explanation if somebody has one!

[adirondack46r]

Mark,

Good point about the conditioning. I am not shooting a heavy weight bow - 50@28 - and I thought that once I got the back muscles conditioned it would happen less. At this point I can anchor and hold for 30 secs plus, however, it seems that in my case the problem is as prevalent as when I was not as well conditioned.

Let's see what some others have to say.

Thanks!

[jhansen]

The "pop" is probably coming from your sterno-clavicular joint.  Sorry, I'm an old retired paramedic and the medical lingo just slips out.  It's the joint between your collar bone and breastbone.  It could be from an old injury, genetics, or age.  It probably comes from allowing your shoulder to collapse slightly on drawing which is why you don't have the problem as much in a swing-draw.  Try concentrating on using your back muscles more during the draw.  Otherwise, since it isn't painful, it shouldn't be a problem unless it is loud enough to scare deer!  You should hear my knees when I climb stairs.
John

[adirondack46r]

Thanks, John. I did a quick search of the web for some illustrations, and it looks like that could be the general region that the pop is coming from. I think the collapse - if that is indeed what is going on - might come after I reach full draw and just before I settle in to my anchor.

You're right, since there's no pain I'm not that concerned. The biggest problem is that it almost acts like a "clicker" and my reaction (almost involuntary) is to release prematurely.

Go figure. I guess in the grand scheme of things it's pretty minor. Thanks for your input.

[Orion]

I may have had something similar a few years ago.  A physical therapist at the gym suspected I had a calcium buildup on the clavicle (kind of like a bone spur) and that a tendon was making the popping noise as it slipped over it as I came to full draw.  I think he said calcium, but he might have called it something else.  Don't remember.  Regardless, I shoot fairly heavy bows and it did hurt.  The therapist gave it some heavy, and I do mean heavy and painful massages, but it apparently broke up whatever was there because it stopped making noise and hurting after that treatment, which was three or four massages over about a week, if memory serves.