I thought I would post my daughters story here because I'm sure many of you are or have experienced something similar through your swimming. Ellen has returned to swimming after an 8 month layoff due to shoulder pain/popping. She was diagnosed with tendonitis back in August at which point six weeks of PT combined with no swimming was prescribed. After six weeks of PT she was cleared to start breastroke. After two weeks of pain free breastroke she was cleared to start swimming freestyle. At the time, Ellen's freestyle included the following faults:
-very little core/shoulder rotation
-internal rotation during recovery - thumb first hand entry with right arm.
-forceful outward scull at start of catch/pull with right arm.
-Tended toward left side breathing.
-Dropping right elbow during catch/pull during left side breathing.
-High head position.
Three practices in, the symptoms returned. At that point we decided to pull her from the team and focus on further strengthening and technique changes.
Ellen started swimming with a new team at the beginning of June. Her new coach has helped her eliminate many of the above issues. Currently he has her spending much of her time swimming with a freestyle snorkel to help correct her head/upperbody position as well as work on core/shoulder rotation. He has placed a strong emphasis on using her large muscle groups (back and chest) during her freestyle pull. She has responded positively to this. She has had a couple of back to back two hour practices without any popping/pain. However, she has also had practices were she starts hurting a half hour into the practice although the popping seems to have been eliminated. She never experiences pain afterwards. Her pain only occurs as she is swimming. As soon as Ellen starts to hurt, she shuts down and tells her coach and he gives her something to work on that takes her shoulder out of the equation.
I took her to a new doctor a couple of weeks ago. Her exam was pain free but her doctor did feel some of the clicking/popping and felt that warranted an MRI to check for labrum damage. The MRI showed no labrum damage but did show "thickening of the rotator cuff tendon consistent with overhead athletes". He suggested, continuing working hard on strengthening which she is doing with particular emphasis on scapular stabilizers and external rotators.
Ellen is not on an elite track, she for the most part is a "BB" swimmer who just enjoys being part of a swim team. Oddly, after only a month of practice she achieved her first "A" time in 50 Freestyle LCM which she is very excited about.
So, how do you guys deal with this condition? Is there any hope of correcting this? Any success stories to help inspire Ellen?
Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance for any help.
