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.
Parents
Former Member
So, how do you guys deal with this condition? Is there any hope of correcting this? Any success stories to help inspire Ellen?
Just my two cents: I have spent a lifetime dealing with bad shoulders. As a competitor I was a backstroke specialist and thus was stressing my shoulders maximally every workout. I also loved pull, so I slapped on the paddles and pull bouy every chance. There was entire years that I could not survive a work-out without icing shoulders after.
I did the physiotherapy, the icing, the rehab and everything in between. They are great and necessary, but they only address the problem, they do not prevent the problem. (BTW: I competed in a time when coaches said such gems as "There are only two types of shoulder problems: those you swim through and those that need surgery. You have the type that you will swim through, Fleming, no matter what your doctor says!!")
My solution (I doubt you will like this): get a stroke coach and correct the strokes now while your daughter is young and can still be molded. Allow the coach to step back her training and focus on correctional drills and accept the fact her times will, for a very brief period, slow down as she finds the "new" groove. The difference between the champions and the "couldhavebeens" is always technical: the champions have better strokes, therefore they swim much faster and they have far few injuries. Even subtle corrections can make immense changes in swimming skill, speed and incidence of injuries. Over the last few years I have remodelled my front crawl completely and I am, for the first time in my life, injury free despite training hard every day and being thirty years older than I was when I was competing at age group level.
So, how do you guys deal with this condition? Is there any hope of correcting this? Any success stories to help inspire Ellen?
Just my two cents: I have spent a lifetime dealing with bad shoulders. As a competitor I was a backstroke specialist and thus was stressing my shoulders maximally every workout. I also loved pull, so I slapped on the paddles and pull bouy every chance. There was entire years that I could not survive a work-out without icing shoulders after.
I did the physiotherapy, the icing, the rehab and everything in between. They are great and necessary, but they only address the problem, they do not prevent the problem. (BTW: I competed in a time when coaches said such gems as "There are only two types of shoulder problems: those you swim through and those that need surgery. You have the type that you will swim through, Fleming, no matter what your doctor says!!")
My solution (I doubt you will like this): get a stroke coach and correct the strokes now while your daughter is young and can still be molded. Allow the coach to step back her training and focus on correctional drills and accept the fact her times will, for a very brief period, slow down as she finds the "new" groove. The difference between the champions and the "couldhavebeens" is always technical: the champions have better strokes, therefore they swim much faster and they have far few injuries. Even subtle corrections can make immense changes in swimming skill, speed and incidence of injuries. Over the last few years I have remodelled my front crawl completely and I am, for the first time in my life, injury free despite training hard every day and being thirty years older than I was when I was competing at age group level.
