Hi. This is a great discussion board. I'm so glad to have found it.
Anyway, I'm a novice swimmer. I just started in summer when I began to get knee pain from running. I took some lessons in the fall. I was told my breaststroke is quite nice, and I can swim it endlessly. But freestyle is still very difficult for me.
I've read most of the threads, and there's a lot of very good advice for beginners that have precisely the same issues as I do.
However, my flutter kick is still quite weak and I'm having trouble managing many of the popular freestyle drills because of this. The usual advice I've seen is to do these drills while wearing fins. But I simply can't do this because even five minutes very gentle kicking in fins causes a flare up of ITBS in my right knee.
I haven't seen any mention this particular problem as it relates to swimming. Does anyone else have any experience with it? Or any off the cuff suggestions/advice?
I have seen a sports med spec, and his suggestion after seeing me twice was the classic "Well, don't swim then. Try cycling instead." Grrr. I live in Canada, so I don't really have the option of finding a physician with a bit more sympathy who might understand that cycling is cycling and swimming is a very powerful addiction. :(
Thanks. :)
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Thanks for your replies!
msgrupp, yes.
kernow, I like your advice. Lifting does give a much needed lactic acid fix. Trying to "run through the pain" in my knee gave me a twinge in my groin, made worse by the whip kick, so breaststroke is on hold until that heals... Well, I can manage it with a very bad and inelegant dolphin kick. Or only pull with a buoy, which makes it almost as challenging for me as freestyle. ;) Technique needs serious work. No question.
No coach/club until I've improved some more. One of the local Masters swimmers flattered me by suggesting I should join, but I've seen them at work and it's a busy club with a wait-list for new members. I can't imagine they have room for a lane slow enough to accomodate my freestyle or backstroke.
Originally posted by Sam Perry
Call me crazy, but if you are havng a knee problem, wouldn't the rotation on a bicycle only aggravate it?
I for the life of me can't imagine why your knee would bother you kickinbg fluttter but not breastroke. Sounds like a strengthening issue or maybe a technique flaw that might cause it.
Absolutely. I thought the bike would give me trouble, too. But it doesn't. Strictly speaking, I can flutter kick painlessly (though ineffectively) as long as it doesn't hurt at all when I start. It's the fins that cause the problems. And I'm perplexed as to why, since I've been told that they ought to help instill more correct technique. What I think might be happening is that by putting on fins, I just added a huge amount of resistance to a very fundamentally bad kick.
So, you're totally right. There's definitely a BIG FLAW in my technique somewhere, though, to be sure, the instructors have insisted that the solution is to KICK HARDER AND FASTER!!! *laughs* Myself, I expect that fluttering like a bumblebee might well be what's causing me to be winded after 50m. If I get out of this alive, I'll at least have strong legs.
Perhaps I need to lay out the cash for some private lessons to isolate the specific problems. Though I admit I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to assess potential instructors' credentials.
Thanks for your replies!
msgrupp, yes.
kernow, I like your advice. Lifting does give a much needed lactic acid fix. Trying to "run through the pain" in my knee gave me a twinge in my groin, made worse by the whip kick, so breaststroke is on hold until that heals... Well, I can manage it with a very bad and inelegant dolphin kick. Or only pull with a buoy, which makes it almost as challenging for me as freestyle. ;) Technique needs serious work. No question.
No coach/club until I've improved some more. One of the local Masters swimmers flattered me by suggesting I should join, but I've seen them at work and it's a busy club with a wait-list for new members. I can't imagine they have room for a lane slow enough to accomodate my freestyle or backstroke.
Originally posted by Sam Perry
Call me crazy, but if you are havng a knee problem, wouldn't the rotation on a bicycle only aggravate it?
I for the life of me can't imagine why your knee would bother you kickinbg fluttter but not breastroke. Sounds like a strengthening issue or maybe a technique flaw that might cause it.
Absolutely. I thought the bike would give me trouble, too. But it doesn't. Strictly speaking, I can flutter kick painlessly (though ineffectively) as long as it doesn't hurt at all when I start. It's the fins that cause the problems. And I'm perplexed as to why, since I've been told that they ought to help instill more correct technique. What I think might be happening is that by putting on fins, I just added a huge amount of resistance to a very fundamentally bad kick.
So, you're totally right. There's definitely a BIG FLAW in my technique somewhere, though, to be sure, the instructors have insisted that the solution is to KICK HARDER AND FASTER!!! *laughs* Myself, I expect that fluttering like a bumblebee might well be what's causing me to be winded after 50m. If I get out of this alive, I'll at least have strong legs.
Perhaps I need to lay out the cash for some private lessons to isolate the specific problems. Though I admit I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to assess potential instructors' credentials.
