Awhile ago, Terry asserted that there was an "epidemic" of shoulder injuries among young USS swimmers, which he asserted were all due to stroke defects. Is he right?
Lately, I've been polling parents of 12-15 year old girls and I have learned that they all seem to have nagging injuries, particularly shoulder problems: Tendonitis, scapular pain, knee pain, etc. From what I know about the practice schedules, I don't think the injuries are due to overtraining, although some put in yardage or have some pretty hard practices. None of the girls I know do doubles. They all appear to be in puberty, and perhaps the changes in their bodies account for some of this pain. I'm sure some of it is due to bad technique too. I see a lot of lack of sufficient rotation on freestyle for example. But it's very annoying. Everyone is in PT or pain. I worry that some of these girls, including my own, will quit because they are tired of battling pain.
Another thought. Elsewhere I read that one program started their girls on RC stuff beginning at age 10 and kids doing these exercises have had fewer shoulder problems. Should this be started at a young age? I know my kid is doing them.
I have also heard of this problem mainly among girls. I don't know boys with shoulder problems. But that is likely due to the fact that I know more girls because I have a girl.
Thoughts?
Parents
Former Member
I don't think anyone truly knows why there may be an epidemic of shoulder injuries whether it be girls or boys. Something I want to mention here is young children swimming. I know that toddlers don't even have fully developed knee caps until, I believe, two years of age? I read that somewhere. This leads me to wonder if poor technique while a child is growing and has not yet reached puberty, if this could be an attributing factor. It takes awhile to get technique perfected, and as a person grows, they have to make swim stroke changes to accommodate that growth, so they are usually searching for ongoing stroke perfection along the way in conjunction with growth.
Once growth stops, and hopefully stroke perfection achieved to a large degree, then it may be overuse. I know I swam competitvely from age 9 until now; that's 50 years of swimming. My shoulder surgeries came about in the mid-1990s when I was a youngster in my mid-40s. That's almost 40 years of non-stop swimming; lots of mileage, lots of joint rotation, shoulder just couldn't withstand anymore.
I certainly am an advocate of great stroke technique; I see people swimming down here and they are twisting this way and that way and in my mind, I go OUCH. And at a bare minimum, great stroke = faster times. I also know that with children their objective is to get to the end of the pool faster than their friends so many times stroke technique goes out the window. I think shoulder injuries are both poor technique and overuse. And I am the queen of overuse right now building toward an 18 mile swim, but I'll probably retire my swimsuit after that one.
I don't think anyone truly knows why there may be an epidemic of shoulder injuries whether it be girls or boys. Something I want to mention here is young children swimming. I know that toddlers don't even have fully developed knee caps until, I believe, two years of age? I read that somewhere. This leads me to wonder if poor technique while a child is growing and has not yet reached puberty, if this could be an attributing factor. It takes awhile to get technique perfected, and as a person grows, they have to make swim stroke changes to accommodate that growth, so they are usually searching for ongoing stroke perfection along the way in conjunction with growth.
Once growth stops, and hopefully stroke perfection achieved to a large degree, then it may be overuse. I know I swam competitvely from age 9 until now; that's 50 years of swimming. My shoulder surgeries came about in the mid-1990s when I was a youngster in my mid-40s. That's almost 40 years of non-stop swimming; lots of mileage, lots of joint rotation, shoulder just couldn't withstand anymore.
I certainly am an advocate of great stroke technique; I see people swimming down here and they are twisting this way and that way and in my mind, I go OUCH. And at a bare minimum, great stroke = faster times. I also know that with children their objective is to get to the end of the pool faster than their friends so many times stroke technique goes out the window. I think shoulder injuries are both poor technique and overuse. And I am the queen of overuse right now building toward an 18 mile swim, but I'll probably retire my swimsuit after that one.
