My daughter swims for USS Swim Club in Ohio. SHe has been dealing with a Rhomboid strain in her shoulder for almost a year now. This injury mostly occures when swimming butterfly. However repetitive motions for a prolonged period also seem to irritate the shoulder.
I am looking for advice because the problem seems to stem from Swimming butterfly. Long Course season started and she was doing very well - no shoulder pain until they swam fly in the last practice.
My questions are as follows:
1.) Is there a way that she can train and continue to provide additional strength with butterfly? Or is it best to just not deal with the butterfly until the shoulder is in better condition and closer to full recovery?
2.) What would be the best training method for a swimmer with shoulder injury?
3.) Is more laps always better training? Can she achieve the same benefit or better training by swimming less laps with a specific purpose during practice?
Coaching advice is welcome and appreciated - as I am concerned for her welfare. She has very high goals and I would like to help her achieve her goals without injury.
Thank you!
Parents
Former Member
I'm by no means an expert on anything, but I do have a suggestion here.
After reading Leonard Jansen's recommendation of it on this board, I recently bought a book called The 7 Minute Rotator Cuff Solution that explains the structure of the shoulder and how injuries occur. It outlines a program to avoid shoulder problems and rehabilitate one that has been injured.
It's out of print now, but you can still buy it used through Amazon.com:
www.amazon.com/.../002-7993769-8475261
Hopefully that link will work. If not, cut and paste, or just go to Amazon and search for it. It's a little expensive at $35, but I've only just read it and already think it's worth the expense.
A while back I tried to increase my butterfly distance and ended up unable to lift my left arm for two days. I came back fairly quickly, but I realized later that the problem stemmed from my stroke: I was internally rotating my shoulders, so that my hands entered the water thumbs down. That's the worst possible type of motion for the shoulders and an easy way to irritate the structures in there. The book explains in pretty good detail why.
Unfortunately the book actually recommends against butterfly, but perhaps your kid can learn enough about what's going on in there to modify her stroke to avoid the problems.
I'm by no means an expert on anything, but I do have a suggestion here.
After reading Leonard Jansen's recommendation of it on this board, I recently bought a book called The 7 Minute Rotator Cuff Solution that explains the structure of the shoulder and how injuries occur. It outlines a program to avoid shoulder problems and rehabilitate one that has been injured.
It's out of print now, but you can still buy it used through Amazon.com:
www.amazon.com/.../002-7993769-8475261
Hopefully that link will work. If not, cut and paste, or just go to Amazon and search for it. It's a little expensive at $35, but I've only just read it and already think it's worth the expense.
A while back I tried to increase my butterfly distance and ended up unable to lift my left arm for two days. I came back fairly quickly, but I realized later that the problem stemmed from my stroke: I was internally rotating my shoulders, so that my hands entered the water thumbs down. That's the worst possible type of motion for the shoulders and an easy way to irritate the structures in there. The book explains in pretty good detail why.
Unfortunately the book actually recommends against butterfly, but perhaps your kid can learn enough about what's going on in there to modify her stroke to avoid the problems.
