injury or just sore?

First I think in general we tend to see or read how the elite swimmers swim and then try to duplicate ourselves. This can cause problems as every elite swimmer has great flexibility, is often hyper-mobile and can get their limbs into very effective positions. Major studies have shown that world record holders are usually the most flexible of their group. Popov, Thorpe, Gary Hall Jr etc tend to have an arm stroke where the hand is extended on entry far and the shoulder is shifted forward and the elbow raised up and rotated out as the catch is made. At the same time the hand which has been pitched thumb down is rotated so that the fingers point to the bottom of the pool and the palm faces directly back. At this point the elbow has been left as far forward and as high as possible. The hand and forearm are at 90 to the water surface with the upper arm almost parallel to the water surface. This arm position is very hard for most people to achieve and the shifting forward of the shoulder causes major shoulder impingement in people with average flexibility. I myself have swum this way with no shoulder problems, but i am lucky as i have very mobile shoulders. I started out coaching my swimmers this way, however, one of my swimmers developed shoulder problems and i quickly did a ton of research in the area of swimming and shoulder injury. I have now changed how i teach the arm stroke. One link I will give you which discusses this is- www.zoomers.net/new-distanceperstroke.htm " Swimming Fastest " by Ernest Magaschilo has very good info on this, also " Breakthrough Swimming " by Cecil Colwin has a lot of info on how the arm should move through the water. Both of these books are very new and up to date. I think that over-reaching can cause problems, the hand should not exert pressure against the water until the arm and forearm are facing directly backwards. The reasons are: 1- Increased drag is caused if pressure is applied to early as the body rises up. have you seen swimmers in meets whose upper body seems to rise and fall as the stroke. This movement up and down will slow you more than the propulsion that you get from the hand. 2- Applying pressure while the hand is fully extended puts a lot of strain on the shoulder joint. The time to apply pressure is when catch is made and then apply smooth continuos acceleration throughout the stroke until the end phase, where as the hand reaches the hip, pressure is released and the palm is turned into the body and recovery starts. There is no benefit in pushing past the hip as the forearm starts to create drag as it raises towards the water by pushing your body down. The hard part is waiting at the front end of the stroke until your arm is in the correct position but not pushing through this will take a lot of pressure off your shoulders. I tell my swimmers to have soft hand entry, let the body roll extend the hand and try to move into the catch position smoothly. Then you can apply power. Try to allow your shoulders to shrug forward SLOWLY as you move through the catch instead of a fast vigorous thrusting forward. In other words keep the high elbow but instead of deliberately forcing that position allow it to happen naturally as your hand moves down and backwards. Phew, i am exhausted from writing this. the books i mention have loads of info on this. One thing that you may not have thought of is keeping the muscles of the upper back esp between the shoulder blades strong. The 4 strokes over develop the front of the chest and balancing the muscles out is important. The regular rotator cuff stretching and strengthening is important but don't force your flexibility too fast. I hope this helps, keeping a high bent elbow on recovery and a flatter hand entry will also help. Not using paddles in the first 500m of a workout and not over using paddles will also help. Good luck, Gareth Eckley.

First I think in general we tend to see or read how the elite swimmers swim and then try to duplicate ourselves. This can cause problems as every elite swimmer has great flexibility, is often hyper-mobile and can get their limbs into very effective positions. Major studies have shown that world record holders are usually the most flexible of their group. Popov, Thorpe, Gary Hall Jr etc tend to have an arm stroke where the hand is extended on entry far and the shoulder is shifted forward and the elbow raised up and rotated out as the catch is made. At the same time the hand which has been pitched thumb down is rotated so that the fingers point to the bottom of the pool and the palm faces directly back. At this point the elbow has been left as far forward and as high as possible. The hand and forearm are at 90 to the water surface with the upper arm almost parallel to the water surface. This arm position is very hard for most people to achieve and the shifting forward of the shoulder causes major shoulder impingement in people with average flexibility. I myself have swum this way with no shoulder problems, but i am lucky as i have very mobile shoulders. I started out coaching my swimmers this way, however, one of my swimmers developed shoulder problems and i quickly did a ton of research in the area of swimming and shoulder injury. I have now changed how i teach the arm stroke. One link I will give you which discusses this is- www.zoomers.net/new-distanceperstroke.htm " Swimming Fastest " by Ernest Magaschilo has very good info on this, also " Breakthrough Swimming " by Cecil Colwin has a lot of info on how the arm should move through the water. Both of these books are very new and up to date. I think that over-reaching can cause problems, the hand should not exert pressure against the water until the arm and forearm are facing directly backwards. The reasons are: 1- Increased drag is caused if pressure is applied to early as the body rises up. have you seen swimmers in meets whose upper body seems to rise and fall as the stroke. This movement up and down will slow you more than the propulsion that you get from the hand. 2- Applying pressure while the hand is fully extended puts a lot of strain on the shoulder joint. The time to apply pressure is when catch is made and then apply smooth continuos acceleration throughout the stroke until the end phase, where as the hand reaches the hip, pressure is released and the palm is turned into the body and recovery starts. There is no benefit in pushing past the hip as the forearm starts to create drag as it raises towards the water by pushing your body down. The hard part is waiting at the front end of the stroke until your arm is in the correct position but not pushing through this will take a lot of pressure off your shoulders. I tell my swimmers to have soft hand entry, let the body roll extend the hand and try to move into the catch position smoothly. Then you can apply power. Try to allow your shoulders to shrug forward SLOWLY as you move through the catch instead of a fast vigorous thrusting forward. In other words keep the high elbow but instead of deliberately forcing that position allow it to happen naturally as your hand moves down and backwards. Phew, i am exhausted from writing this. the books i mention have loads of info on this. One thing that you may not have thought of is keeping the muscles of the upper back esp between the shoulder blades strong. The 4 strokes over develop the front of the chest and balancing the muscles out is important. The regular rotator cuff stretching and strengthening is important but don't force your flexibility too fast. I hope this helps, keeping a high bent elbow on recovery and a flatter hand entry will also help. Not using paddles in the first 500m of a workout and not over using paddles will also help. Good luck, Gareth Eckley.