I learned to swim as an adult a couple of years ago. When I started the front crawl, I would focus on being "long" in the water - i.e., really reaching with the forward hand on each stroke, and not pulling until the trailing hand entered the water (the TI front quadrant swimming concept).
But over time, my shoulders would bother me. And I recently learned that swimming with high elbows (envisioning your arm going over a barrel) is better for your shoulders. I was definitely dropping my elbows before.
The problem I'm having is that when I swim with high elbows, I feel like I'm not as "long" in the water, that I get less glide, and that generally, I have to work a lot harder (though my shoulders feel better). One obvious thing I've noticed is that with a high elbow stroke, I can't seem to keep my leading arm out in front until my trailing arm catches up.
Any thoughts? Thanks.
Edit: I should add that I'm a recreational swimmer, so technique that is easier on the shoulder is preferred to a technique that may be better for competitive swimmers but is more stressful to the shoulder joint.
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My apologies Solar. I wasn't paying attention. no probs. Speaking about flat body and TI. I don't know if yourself are representing some branch of TI, but here...
Strangely enough, this clip here (referred to by CoachT earlier) is explicitly advocating perfectly flat body position for favoring high elbow, and it comes from TI Israel ... (reach out for minute 1:50) YouTube - How to swim with a High Elbow Catch/EVF - Total Immersion Israel
Has TI (head office) lost control over its branches?
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Yeah, understood. I'll try to take a video of me attempting EVF. What angles should I get video from - underwater side and front views? Serpio, I think that we all forgot to ask you few important questions:
- Which one of your shoulders is getting painful?
- Do you breathe only on one side, if yes which one?
You seem to have read somewhere that the famous dropped elbow pulling (which typically occurs to those wanting to glide too much upon arm entry) can be the cause of shoulder pain. And I agree (to a large extent) with this statement. However, like many members participating to your thread have pointed out, EVF may be little too extreme as a solution to solve the dropped elbow flaw.
So if you're asking me what I would like to see, I'd like to see you swimming as naturally as possible. Say I show up during one of your swim session, say I have a camera but you didn't see me. I'd film you without you even noticing? It is this stroke I'd like to see.
My apologies Solar. I wasn't paying attention. no probs. Speaking about flat body and TI. I don't know if yourself are representing some branch of TI, but here...
Strangely enough, this clip here (referred to by CoachT earlier) is explicitly advocating perfectly flat body position for favoring high elbow, and it comes from TI Israel ... (reach out for minute 1:50) YouTube - How to swim with a High Elbow Catch/EVF - Total Immersion Israel
Has TI (head office) lost control over its branches?
- - -
Yeah, understood. I'll try to take a video of me attempting EVF. What angles should I get video from - underwater side and front views? Serpio, I think that we all forgot to ask you few important questions:
- Which one of your shoulders is getting painful?
- Do you breathe only on one side, if yes which one?
You seem to have read somewhere that the famous dropped elbow pulling (which typically occurs to those wanting to glide too much upon arm entry) can be the cause of shoulder pain. And I agree (to a large extent) with this statement. However, like many members participating to your thread have pointed out, EVF may be little too extreme as a solution to solve the dropped elbow flaw.
So if you're asking me what I would like to see, I'd like to see you swimming as naturally as possible. Say I show up during one of your swim session, say I have a camera but you didn't see me. I'd film you without you even noticing? It is this stroke I'd like to see.
