If you play golf at the Indian Wells Country Club or tennis in Palm Desert, you might be familiar with that unsettling sound: a click, a pop, or a grinding noise in your shoulder when you reach overhead or wind up for a swing.
For many of our active patients, the noise is the first warning sign. You might be searching Google for “clicking and popping in shoulder” or “crunching noise in shoulder” hoping it will go away.
The good news? Not all noise is bad. The bad news? If you ignore the wrong kind of noise, it can lead to a rotator cuff tear.
Here is how we differentiate between harmless noise and a mechanical warning sign at our Indian Wells practice.
First, let’s clear up the confusion between a “good pop” and a “bad click.”
If your shoulder pops or clicks infrequently (less than once a day) and feels relieved afterward, this is often just gas releasing from the joint (cavitation). It is generally inconsequential.
However, repetitive snapping is different. If you experience shoulder snapping along with pain or soreness, specifically after an activity, it requires evaluation.
For example:
You feel a snap during the wind-up of your golf swing.
You hear a click during a tennis serve or pickleball backhand.
After the game, you feel a dull ache or soreness.
If this sounds like you, you likely have dysfunctional movement patterns. These patterns place increased stress on your tendons and bursae. If left untreated, that repetitive mechanical stress can decline the structural integrity of the joint, leading to a rotator cuff tear or worsening symptoms down the line.
Shoulder snapping is rarely “random.” It is usually caused by anatomical or functional abnormalities involving the bursae, tendons, or muscles.
Common causes we see in active adults include:
The Snapping Bursa: The bursa (a fluid-filled sac) can rapidly slide or displace beneath ligaments during movement, producing a snap. This is common in physically active individuals.
Thickened Tissue: If the bursa becomes thickened or fibrotic, it can snap between muscles during rotation.
Tendon Issues: Tears in the rotator cuff or labrum can create loose flaps that catch and snap.
Structural Variants: sometimes, anatomical variations in the scapula or ribs can cause mechanical impingement.
While the anatomy explains what is clicking, it doesn’t explain why it started.
In sports like golf and tennis, repetitive overhead motion is the trigger. But the cause is often forward rounded shoulders or weakness in the shoulder stabilizers.
When your posture is compromised (shoulders rolled forward), you lose the necessary space in the shoulder joint. When you try to force a tennis serve with poor posture, you create an impingement. The click is the sound of a tendon or bursa being mechanically irritated.
Many patients ask us, “How to fix a torn rotator cuff without surgery?”
The answer is often YES—but it requires a precise diagnosis.
Conservative treatment is always the best first step. We can successfully manage partial rotator cuff tears, labral (SLAP) tears, and biceps tendon tears without surgery in many cases.
But here is the secret most patients don’t know: Often, a patient will have an MRI that shows a partial tear, but that tear is “old” and asymptomatic (not the cause of your pain).
The actual cause of your pain might be an impingement of the suprascapular or axillary nerve. This nerve entrapment causes mechanical sensitivity in the shoulder. If you just look at the MRI, you might get surgery for a tear that wasn’t bothering you, while the nerve entrapment goes untreated—meaning your pain returns after surgery.
At our practice, we test, we don’t guess. We evaluate:
Nerve entrapments.
Cervical spine factors contributing to symptoms.
Motor coordination defects.
By fixing the function, we can often prevent surgeries that may be unnecessary.
If you are dealing with forward rounded shoulders, you need to retrain your brain and body to control your range of motion. This is a difficult coordination exercise, so be patient.
The Wall Uprighting Drill:
The Setup: Sit on the floor with your back flat against a wall. Stretch your legs out in front of you (slight knee bend is okay if hamstrings are tight).
The Anchor: Scoot back until your sacrum (tailbone), low back, mid-back, and head are ALL touching the wall. Look straight forward.
The Reach: Extend your arms straight out in front of you, thumbs pointing up.
The Movement: Slowly raise your arms toward the ceiling. Crucial: Do not let your low back, thoracic spine, or head lose contact with the wall. Do not let your hands drift apart.
The Limit: Stop raising your arms the moment you feel your back arch or your head pull away. That is your current limit of “clean” motion.
The Hold: Hold that highest point for 3 deep breaths. Lower and repeat 10 times.
Why this matters: If your arm extends past this point during your golf swing or tennis serve, you are likely compensating by arching your back or craning your neck to get there. That compensation causes the click—and eventually, the injury.
If your shoulder clicking is accompanied by pain, stiffness, or weakness, don’t wait for it to become a surgical case.
Schedule your comprehensive biomechanical exam today. Let’s find the root cause, treat the dysfunction, and keep you on the course/court.
