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
Parents
Former Member
Kevin,
I forgot to ask another thing from you Kevin, considering you seem to have some expertise in this discussion...
I've never been big on stretching, I rarely stretched prior to swimming and still don't, preferring to use real slow swimming to let the muscles and joints loosen up. It's basically been the same with anything I do or have done, run, bike, baseball... personally I've never had a sports-related injury of these sorts. Mine (3) have always been impact related and only one was actually during a sports activity. You can't prepare for banging knees.
Needless to say, I'm of the opinion that stretching is grossly overrated. I've also read articles that have alluded to the fact that stretching may not prevent injuries at all. Where this is an issue for me is being an age-group coach, the other coaches like to run stretching and I tend to just let it go by the wayside. A couple reasons... 1. (above), 2. The kids usually are using iomproper stretch technique and/or don't care to stretch properly, 3. Hey, at 12 years old, those kids are already stretched out. 400 yds of slow warm-up will suffice to get the muscles prepared for a workout.
Plus, some of those stretches you've mentioned are the ones that we teach to kids to use for stretching prior to practice and meets. Stretching the shoulders and pecs and tries and lats seems to put a lot of stress on the involved joints. Stress that I'm not so sure an age-group level swimmer needs.
What would you suggest? I think I made mention previously, I think some blood flow and range-of-motion are far more important than flat out stretching prior to practice. Do you think some stretching is necessary, and under what guidelines would you add stretching to your pre-practice regimen?
Thanks,
RM
Kevin,
I forgot to ask another thing from you Kevin, considering you seem to have some expertise in this discussion...
I've never been big on stretching, I rarely stretched prior to swimming and still don't, preferring to use real slow swimming to let the muscles and joints loosen up. It's basically been the same with anything I do or have done, run, bike, baseball... personally I've never had a sports-related injury of these sorts. Mine (3) have always been impact related and only one was actually during a sports activity. You can't prepare for banging knees.
Needless to say, I'm of the opinion that stretching is grossly overrated. I've also read articles that have alluded to the fact that stretching may not prevent injuries at all. Where this is an issue for me is being an age-group coach, the other coaches like to run stretching and I tend to just let it go by the wayside. A couple reasons... 1. (above), 2. The kids usually are using iomproper stretch technique and/or don't care to stretch properly, 3. Hey, at 12 years old, those kids are already stretched out. 400 yds of slow warm-up will suffice to get the muscles prepared for a workout.
Plus, some of those stretches you've mentioned are the ones that we teach to kids to use for stretching prior to practice and meets. Stretching the shoulders and pecs and tries and lats seems to put a lot of stress on the involved joints. Stress that I'm not so sure an age-group level swimmer needs.
What would you suggest? I think I made mention previously, I think some blood flow and range-of-motion are far more important than flat out stretching prior to practice. Do you think some stretching is necessary, and under what guidelines would you add stretching to your pre-practice regimen?
Thanks,
RM
