I am a bilateral breather but have always been weaker breathing to my left. Almost inevitably, since I have increased my yardage significantly, I have developed some shoulder pain in my right shoulder. The pain is felt mostly when I breathe to the left when it feels as though there is maximum strain on the right shoulder. Now i have been taking it easy this past week trying to figure out what is going on. Probably most significantly, I do not feel any pain when I am doing catch-up drill and my stroke feels much better. What does this tell me? I have also been focusing on finger-tip drills to keep my elbows up and have abolished my habit of thumb first hand entry, with some success. Any more suggestions in terms of drills to work on this, particularly increasing body roll on that side.
This is very much the blind leading the blind, but I had much the same issue as you, as a fellow bilateral breather strong right side pain in r shoulder. Mine was poor technique straining the shoulder, with a low elbow during the pull, not enough roll, and reaching with the arm too much versus reaching with the shoulder and arm. Reaching with the shoulder sounds goofy, but try it and you'll feel what I mean.
Mainly, using a pull buoy so I could focus on stroke, I worked on keeping the elbow high during the pull; that was instant relief and fixed almost everything. Rolling the full 45 and reaching with the shoulder and arm fixed the rest.
Obviously, rest it as much as you can and DON'T aggravate it.
This is very much the blind leading the blind, but I had much the same issue as you, as a fellow bilateral breather strong right side pain in r shoulder. Mine was poor technique straining the shoulder, with a low elbow during the pull, not enough roll, and reaching with the arm too much versus reaching with the shoulder and arm. Reaching with the shoulder sounds goofy, but try it and you'll feel what I mean.
Mainly, using a pull buoy so I could focus on stroke, I worked on keeping the elbow high during the pull; that was instant relief and fixed almost everything. Rolling the full 45 and reaching with the shoulder and arm fixed the rest.
Obviously, rest it as much as you can and DON'T aggravate it.
