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
Jamie,
In the words of those great practicioners of medical science, the Marx Brothers:
Chico: "Doctor, doctor! It hoits when I do this."
Groucho: "Don't do that."
A shoulder problem for a YEAR? Related to the amount of butterfly work your daughter does?! What is her alleged coach's take on this? Is he planning on putting her in the hospital, or simply waiting for her to become tired of it and quit on her own? PLEASE, get her to a doctor who has some experience treating swimmers with shoulder injuries, and get her condition addressed. In the meantime, why is swimming any fly at all necessary right now? Don't let anyone JIVE you about she needs to do it because everyone else on the team is, and that's the workout.
Leaving aside for the moment the issues of her health and her interest in swimming without necessarily being a flyer, she does not have to pound fly yardage to the point of injury, even if she is still interested in being a flyer! A number of coaches are now advocating doing less total yards of fly, but ensuring that every stroke is high quality butterfly, instead of a lot of tired "butterstruggle." May I recommend three articles to you. First, Emmett Hines has written an excellent pair of articles, posted on his team's web site (http://www.h2oustonswims.org/) on his philosophy of practicing fly: "Slip Slid'n' Away" and "Vive Le Papillon." Go to the web site, click the "Articles" tab, and they are listed alphabetically by title. Second, Fitness Swimmer magazine did an article some time ago on Thomas Boettcher's methods for training that enable him to swim a 5K fly! I don't recommend your daughter adopt his goal of super long distance fly, but his training methods that emphasize swimming fly with your core rather than your arms are worthy of study. You can link to it at (www.thomasboettcher.org/.../default.htm).
What is possible? I seem to remember that Pablo Morales won the 100 fly at the '92 Olympics. What was remarkable at the time was: (1) he was a bit older than your typical Olympic swimming Champion at the time, and (2) because he had a real life, he and his coach intentionally mapped out a conditioning plan that required less time, and consequently fewer total yards, than what was then considered necessary for a world class swimmer. That was the beginning of many coaches questioning whether mega-yards were the answer for everything. Now, I'm sure Pablo was doing WAY more yards fly that you, I and your daughter put together, and she does not have the same goals as he did. But, the point is that he was doing way less than his competition, and he won.
Matt
Jamie,
In the words of those great practicioners of medical science, the Marx Brothers:
Chico: "Doctor, doctor! It hoits when I do this."
Groucho: "Don't do that."
A shoulder problem for a YEAR? Related to the amount of butterfly work your daughter does?! What is her alleged coach's take on this? Is he planning on putting her in the hospital, or simply waiting for her to become tired of it and quit on her own? PLEASE, get her to a doctor who has some experience treating swimmers with shoulder injuries, and get her condition addressed. In the meantime, why is swimming any fly at all necessary right now? Don't let anyone JIVE you about she needs to do it because everyone else on the team is, and that's the workout.
Leaving aside for the moment the issues of her health and her interest in swimming without necessarily being a flyer, she does not have to pound fly yardage to the point of injury, even if she is still interested in being a flyer! A number of coaches are now advocating doing less total yards of fly, but ensuring that every stroke is high quality butterfly, instead of a lot of tired "butterstruggle." May I recommend three articles to you. First, Emmett Hines has written an excellent pair of articles, posted on his team's web site (http://www.h2oustonswims.org/) on his philosophy of practicing fly: "Slip Slid'n' Away" and "Vive Le Papillon." Go to the web site, click the "Articles" tab, and they are listed alphabetically by title. Second, Fitness Swimmer magazine did an article some time ago on Thomas Boettcher's methods for training that enable him to swim a 5K fly! I don't recommend your daughter adopt his goal of super long distance fly, but his training methods that emphasize swimming fly with your core rather than your arms are worthy of study. You can link to it at (www.thomasboettcher.org/.../default.htm).
What is possible? I seem to remember that Pablo Morales won the 100 fly at the '92 Olympics. What was remarkable at the time was: (1) he was a bit older than your typical Olympic swimming Champion at the time, and (2) because he had a real life, he and his coach intentionally mapped out a conditioning plan that required less time, and consequently fewer total yards, than what was then considered necessary for a world class swimmer. That was the beginning of many coaches questioning whether mega-yards were the answer for everything. Now, I'm sure Pablo was doing WAY more yards fly that you, I and your daughter put together, and she does not have the same goals as he did. But, the point is that he was doing way less than his competition, and he won.
Matt
