I've been swimming for a long time - undefeated HS team in 1962. The older I get the more I think about stuff that used to be automatic, like freestyle arm stroke. I mainly do what I think is the currently popular technique with my fingers pointing to the bottom of the pool and my hand moving by my side and deep, but I can also do a version with fingers pointing toward the side of the pool and hand following the middle of my chest and stomach. I'd appreciate any comments on which is better. Also I get some shoulder pain and wonder which is easier on the shoulders.
TIA, Tom
Thanks again for all the replies.
It's not just straight pull vs scull - depending how I bend the elbow and rotate the shoulder, I can change the path of the hand continuously from pointing down to pointing sidewise and close to my center. Yes, I bend the elbow more for longer distance. I have a coach - he teaches the high elbow, fingers pointing down stroke. We haven't discussed the shoulder injury factor, just speed, so that's something to do.
The straight, high elbow pull does actually feel like it's making less strain and that's what I'm hearing. I know I didn't really describe my problem. Actually I'm just starting to look into this. The pain is in my upper arm so I think it's rotator cuff related. I'm going to see a physical therapist so should then have a much better idea.
The video is good. I was intrigued by the "hybrid freestyle". I'd noticed some asymmetry by Phelps et al but couldn't really say exactly what it was till now. I think I do a bit of that too.
Hi All,
I've been working on keeping my elbow right at the surface and making the straightest possible pull, pushing water right to the end. I seem to be going just as fast and getting less tired, which is great. Seems the idea that, even if the deeper catch is more powerful, its cancelled out by the greater resistance, is true for me. And, it feels better on the shoulders.
I find that when I work on EVF, I I'm so concerned with keeping my elbow high that I don't get as much extension and glide out of the front of my stroke. I swim open water and distance so getting some glide out of my stroke is important to me so that I take fewer strokes. I usually fall somewhere between a straight pull and EVF (sometimes with some of that "s" shape pull).
I was experiencing shoulder pain for a while and realized that my thumb first entry (leading to that internal shoulder rotation) was what was causing it. I took a few days off and then made a conscious effort to work on not rotating my shoulder (though apparently if you do thumb first entry by rotating only in your forearm - which I'm not really coordinated enough to do so I just cut thumb entry completely - you're not supposed to experience those shoulder issues). I haven't had any more shoulder issues while adding distance so that definitely helped me.
When I'm doing distance swims I sort of take turns really concentrating on EVF and just letting my stroke be what it is. I find that this lets my shoulders and elbows work in different ways throughout my hour+ continuous swims.
It's all constant tweaking and listening to your body I guess.
