Are shoulder injuries caused solely by improper stroke mechanics? Can we avoid all pain using perfect technique? Can we throw away the ice pack forever? Or can shoulder pain be caused by other factors as well? Vote if you have an opinion.
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Former Member
I think Terry has introduced an expansion of the technique issue, and I think it would be unfortunate if it were overlooked due to the recent volume of posts.
To put it in my own words, one has to consider not only a swimmer's technique as exemplified when swimming a 25 when well rested, there is also the technique they are swimming the final 25 of the last 200 in a 10x200 set! Ok, not many of us do such sets but I have seen a few people talk about having done them, and more importantly many of us will suffer deterioration of technique even on much more modest sets. So, a defensible hypothesis would be that some of the people who find butterfly is hard on their shoulders even though they have good technique are actually suffering from training butterfly beyond the point where they could maintain their good form.
Craig also made some good points about the effect of age on shoulders. Which leads me to wonder whether it is really productive to debate the ranking of causes, in the end one has to address the specific case of the swimmer in question, and you should really look at all the common problems and their solutions to see if they apply.
Leslie: in your case I seem to recollect you commenting that your shoulder problems occurred after doing major fly sets, I think you may have even refered to overdoing them? So, assuming that you are correct that your technique is sound perhaps a good question is whether you did some sets that pushed beyond what you could maintain strict technique on? Or perhaps just that the sets so tired out some of the stabilizing muscles that they couldn't subsequently do their job properly.
I think Terry has introduced an expansion of the technique issue, and I think it would be unfortunate if it were overlooked due to the recent volume of posts.
To put it in my own words, one has to consider not only a swimmer's technique as exemplified when swimming a 25 when well rested, there is also the technique they are swimming the final 25 of the last 200 in a 10x200 set! Ok, not many of us do such sets but I have seen a few people talk about having done them, and more importantly many of us will suffer deterioration of technique even on much more modest sets. So, a defensible hypothesis would be that some of the people who find butterfly is hard on their shoulders even though they have good technique are actually suffering from training butterfly beyond the point where they could maintain their good form.
Craig also made some good points about the effect of age on shoulders. Which leads me to wonder whether it is really productive to debate the ranking of causes, in the end one has to address the specific case of the swimmer in question, and you should really look at all the common problems and their solutions to see if they apply.
Leslie: in your case I seem to recollect you commenting that your shoulder problems occurred after doing major fly sets, I think you may have even refered to overdoing them? So, assuming that you are correct that your technique is sound perhaps a good question is whether you did some sets that pushed beyond what you could maintain strict technique on? Or perhaps just that the sets so tired out some of the stabilizing muscles that they couldn't subsequently do their job properly.
