Tape following my Iliotibial Band

Tape following my Iliotibial Band

Like many in the Killington area, I swear by Vermont Orthopedics and Vermont Sports Medicine.

A couple of summers ago now, I had my left shoulder surgically repaired from a ski injury. (Rotator cuff and ruptured biceps muscle). Vermont Orthopedics did the surgery, Vermont Sports Medicine took care of the rehab. In the process, not only did I rehab the shoulder that had surgery, I also rehabbed my other shoulder, which had sustained a separation over 15 years earlier.

Having started playing golf when I was 10 years old, a major component of my summer recreation has always been chasing the little white ball down some green fairway somewhere on the planet. Lately it's been at many of the really nice golf courses in Vermont, mostly in Killington at Green Mountain National. But where ever, golf, like skiing in the winter, has had my attention for quite a while in my life.

Prior to my second second injury, the shoulder separation from years gone by had caused some bad things for my golf swing. Primarily, my golf swing develop a sharp hook from right to left. During the years while I was dealing with this, my golf handicap went from a 7 to 20 something, before settling in at a mediocre 18. (If you can't control the ball flight in golf, you just can't score.)

The good news is that my golf experience is changing for the better. After 2 years of maintaining a physical therapy routine for my upper body, my golf swing has come roaring back this year. I am doing well on all my club matches at Green Mountain National. I am hitting the ball longer and straighter than any time in the last 15 years. And my handicap is coming down appropriately in the process. (Down to a 14 in the last 30 days.)

But sometimes, good news is followed by bad news. With my upper body strong, this golf season I have had to change quite a bit of my swing to get rid of bad habits picked up during the years when I was bothered by upper body injuries. I have gone from an open stance originally adopted to compensate for the sharp hook from my bad shoulder, to a much stronger, straighter stance aligned properly with my intended ball flight. Unfortunately, that has created all kinds of stress on my left knee, which has left me hobbling around Killington, not to gracefully, for the last couple of weeks.

But hopefully that will all change.

After a visit to Vermont Orthopedics to make sure that nothing was injured mechanically, I was dispatched to Vermont Sports Medicine for some physical therapy. After an evaluation, a therapy session, and some training on some new exercises to strengthen the leg muscles, on went "the tape".

You may remember from the just completed London Summer Olympics that many of the athletes were taped with "Kniesio" tape. A flexible adhesive tape, it is meant to provide some extra external support to muscles and tendons to help recover from (or prevent) injuries. While the Olympic Athletes sported tape in all colors of the rainbow, mine is just a simple flesh toned.

(On the side, when Mary saw the tape she asked if the therapist "shaved my leg". I told her she did not... to which Mary replied "oh..that could be nice to take off in a couple of days!" So it goes....)

Wether or not the tape works remains to be seen. Is it a fad.. who knows? But it is an example of a little bit of olympic medicine that is trickling down to the hinterlands to try to help keep aging baby boomers bodies moving in the right direction, or in this case to help me walk without a limp while still enjoying a good game of golf.

Where ever you may be keep it in the fairway, and don't forget your sun screen!