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?
So anyway, I think we were doing a lot of cross training as kids before training for one sport year round came into vogue.
Maybe. But I ditched all other sports and did exclusively swimming beginning at age 12. I guess I did track in middle school as a mellow school sport. Nothing else though.
Kids do seem to specialize earlier. Age 12 seems to be a common time to pick a sport and focus on that if you're the competitive type. There are a few kids hanging on to multiple sports that are more seasonal (like wrestling). But even lacrosse and basketball and baseball are basically year round sports here. Soccer has been that way for a long time. It's almost impossible to do two sports at a high level. You'd end up injured and exhausted.
There are still kids on our summer swim league that do not swim year round. The emphasis in on fun, and it's a great mental break for the USS kids.
So anyway, I think we were doing a lot of cross training as kids before training for one sport year round came into vogue.
Maybe. But I ditched all other sports and did exclusively swimming beginning at age 12. I guess I did track in middle school as a mellow school sport. Nothing else though.
Kids do seem to specialize earlier. Age 12 seems to be a common time to pick a sport and focus on that if you're the competitive type. There are a few kids hanging on to multiple sports that are more seasonal (like wrestling). But even lacrosse and basketball and baseball are basically year round sports here. Soccer has been that way for a long time. It's almost impossible to do two sports at a high level. You'd end up injured and exhausted.
There are still kids on our summer swim league that do not swim year round. The emphasis in on fun, and it's a great mental break for the USS kids.
