Fourth Finger Injury

[Molinjir]

I had my fourth finger really start hurting after a competition about three months ago, swelling, making it painful to hold the foil, etc, basically along the finger on the inside from the knuckle up to the first joint of my finger.
I took about a week off, then tried fencing again, and was fine until DEs, when I had to drop out because of pain, and the resulting inability to hold my foil.
I then went to a good sports medicine doctor, who said the tendon was probably strained, gave me a brace and orders to ice/motrin after long periods of fencing. After this, I took about two and a half weeks off, and resumed fencing after that, with seemingly no ill effects, or at most slight discomfort.
However, just this past weekend, at the NAC, after much more intensive fencing than usual (my average fare is fairly light-weight) my hand was quite sore again.

I use uninsulated allstar belgian grips, taped. Could this potentially be the reason for my pain? Would switching grips help? I've heard belgian can cause hand problems for some, but I've never had the sensation of numbness that I've seen ascribed to Belgian grip use.

I don't have a death grip, but when fencing hard, I do tighten my grip on parries and flicks.
Holding the guard loosely in my hand doesn't hurt, but a tighter grip does.
Additionally, were I to switch grips to attempt to solve this problem, would I be able to use a viscounti on a belgian-cut blade?
Thanks

a wounded fencer

[Molinjir]

Should I re-post (riposte!) this in general discussions?

[Purple Fencer]

I had my fourth finger really start hurting after a competition about three months ago, swelling, making it painful to hold the foil, etc, basically along the finger on the inside from the knuckle up to the first joint of my finger.

That sounds like "trigger finger," an inflammation of the tendon sheath (IIRC)...aside from the pain, does your finger kinda lock up and not extend all the way??

I had that for awhile....not comfortable....I can understand why it might knock you out of a tourney.

I use uninsulated allstar belgian grips, taped. Could this potentially be the reason for my pain? Would switching grips help? I've heard belgian can cause hand problems for some, but I've never had the sensation of numbness that I've seen ascribed to Belgian grip use.

I use a Belgian myself...I think what was causing MY trigger finger was impact forces on the blade being transmitted into my hand through the grip. if you hit something long enough, you'll irritate it, and fencers take more impact to their hands through the blade in a tournament than they might otherwise in a week.

would I be able to use a viscounti on a belgian-cut blade?

That'snot a problem if you use outside hex nuts...although you may have to cut the tang a touch shorter so it doesn't project into your palm. If it's an inside nut it'll depend on how short the tang is, although the tang for a belgian is generally longer than one for a visconti, since the distance from the nose to the nut table on a belgian is longer than on a visconti.

[Rick Shellhouse]

cough cough



Zivkovic



cough cough...


Seriously....you should check the Zivkovics out..


R

[Mr. Bill]

Strained or bruised fingers can take a while to heal, as I'm finding out. I fenced one of my coaches, a larger, stronger fencer than myself; engaged in some spirited infighting, and came away with a sore finger. I'm not sure exactly what happened - we may have collided bells and the shock of impact bruised the knuckle, or maybe it was just the strain of close-in "sword wrestling", but it started to swell immediately. But, like a fool, I did two more bouts after that before I reached the point where I could barely hold my epee, and had to drop out of my pool. That was over a month ago, and I haven't been to the club since. It's getting better, slowly, but still lacks strength, and pressure from the wrong angle still hurts. One thing that's helped is sleeping with a hot-pad - one of those types that gets warm when you open it - taped to the finger. Tomorrow I may attempt my return to the club, but I'll be taking it easy. One aspect of this might actually be positive: the weak finger will encourage me to modify my bull-in-a-china-shop fencing style in favor of more finesse.

[Morale Officer]

cough cough

Zivkovic

cough cough...

Seriously....you should check the Zivkovics out..

R

^^^^I agree.

[Hauptman]

^^^^I agree.

I agree that you should check out every type of grip out there.

Personally, I don't like visconti grips which are probably the most popular style of the pistol grips; the Zivkovic feels just like a visconti variation to my hand.

I eventually found the russian grip which works perfectly for me, and that's the key. You need to find the grip that works best for you; trial and error being the only effective way to find that out.