Would you all say there are more, less, or about the same amount of injuries in the sport of swimming now than say 15 years ago?
It seems as if many posters have dealt with an injury during their swimming careers, whether it be shoulder (mainly) or knee problems. Some have alluded to the use of kickboards as being a source of shoulder pain.
What do you think can be done to further minimize the risk of injury in swimming? Or is it just the nature of the sport that there will always be shoulder injuries? Professional baseball pitchers take all the precautions in the world and some are still bitten by the injury bug. Likewise with your conscientious swimmers.
Just looking for ideas/thoughts from everyone on what they do to adequately prepare for and recover from the amount of shoulder activity that is necessary in swimming.
Thanks folks,
RM
I understand the issue and it's exactly why I mentioned the stretching. The problem stretches I'm talking about aren't some sort of strange things no one has ever heard of. The ones in the article, I've sense confirmed these impressions with my physical therapist, are the ones we see everyone do when we hit the pool.
Clasping the hands behind the back and lifting, putting one arm on the wall and "stretching the pecs", pulling one elbow across your body. I see people do it every time I go to the pool, the teacher in the local "dolphins" program has the kids do them. Both these children and adults like us are stretching our shoulder capsules (gladly I may add) all the while thinking we are helping ourselves.
You're asking why are we getting injured I'm saying this is part of it.
As to technique, there's a very important aspect of the high elbow style that can be overlooked and then lead us to injury. For shoulder health a high elbow recovery needs to go hand in hand with good hip rotation.
I've come to learn right here in this board that what's important is whether we break the coronal plane on recovery. "Coronal plane" is the plane that cuts through the shoulders and head and hips. If you stand back to the wall, the wall is the coronal plane. Breaking this plane when we swim is bad news. The source of many injuries.
So, for illustration purposes imagine swimming perfectly flat but using a high elbow recovery. One would have to break the coronal plane with the elbow to accomplish the recovery. Another way to think of it is that you're arm would be "behind" you as you recover it.
On the other hand, if we have good hip rotation we are on our sides when we recover our arm. For illustration assume you're all the way on your side, you could now recover your arm without breaking the coronal plane.
So to your question of does the high elbow cause problems? Among people who don't understand these nuances, probably so.
Hopefully a few people will see this on the board and recognize this as the source of their own problems.
I understand the issue and it's exactly why I mentioned the stretching. The problem stretches I'm talking about aren't some sort of strange things no one has ever heard of. The ones in the article, I've sense confirmed these impressions with my physical therapist, are the ones we see everyone do when we hit the pool.
Clasping the hands behind the back and lifting, putting one arm on the wall and "stretching the pecs", pulling one elbow across your body. I see people do it every time I go to the pool, the teacher in the local "dolphins" program has the kids do them. Both these children and adults like us are stretching our shoulder capsules (gladly I may add) all the while thinking we are helping ourselves.
You're asking why are we getting injured I'm saying this is part of it.
As to technique, there's a very important aspect of the high elbow style that can be overlooked and then lead us to injury. For shoulder health a high elbow recovery needs to go hand in hand with good hip rotation.
I've come to learn right here in this board that what's important is whether we break the coronal plane on recovery. "Coronal plane" is the plane that cuts through the shoulders and head and hips. If you stand back to the wall, the wall is the coronal plane. Breaking this plane when we swim is bad news. The source of many injuries.
So, for illustration purposes imagine swimming perfectly flat but using a high elbow recovery. One would have to break the coronal plane with the elbow to accomplish the recovery. Another way to think of it is that you're arm would be "behind" you as you recover it.
On the other hand, if we have good hip rotation we are on our sides when we recover our arm. For illustration assume you're all the way on your side, you could now recover your arm without breaking the coronal plane.
So to your question of does the high elbow cause problems? Among people who don't understand these nuances, probably so.
Hopefully a few people will see this on the board and recognize this as the source of their own problems.
