swimming freestyle with one arm

RE: swimming freestyle with one arm

joshua — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:45:22 GMT

I would appreciate suggestions for swimming freestyle with one arm . I cannot use my left arm due to a not correctable rotator cuff problem. Gil Gil, I am now 56. When I was 19 I was injured in combat during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Amongst other injuries I was shot by a snipper in my right brachial plexus (no ceramic vests back then). As a result I suffer from a large degree of paralysis in my right arm. For the past 20 years swimming has been my main physical activity (along with strength training). I swim all 4 strokes + side stoke. I swim freestyle and fly with my left arm only. Let me say that you will have to do alot of trial and error and modification. My technique in freestyle involves using alot of body roll and taking advantage of the fact that I am fairly tall at 1.88m. (6"2). I use a straight arm technique because I feel it gives me a longer reach. I also get forward movement with my right shoulder even though I can't stroke with my right arm. Lastly, and importantly, I work very seriously on my kick. For me the kick is of greater importance than for a "normal" swimmer. About 1/3 of every w/o I do is devoted to kicking (with and without fins). I swim freestyle fast for short distances but slow down quickly. I utilize a strong pushoff from the wall and lately have been working on my underwater dolphin. For long distances I prefer the side stroke (combat stroke). Hope this helped.

RE: swimming freestyle with one arm

Former Member — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:07:09 GMT

I am Irish (important: not the same as U.K. :) ) but I think we have a similar sense of humo(u)r - as least judging by my English boss. I live in the U.S. Irish (not the same as U.K.). Same principle here. I am Quebecer (or French Canadian like they sometimes call us) not purely Canadian. Well.... that's complicated. Anyway, we're cousin somehow. Or.... wait a minute. Is Elisabeth your Queen as well? I'm confused :confused: Our big boss is Michael Jean. She controls our army (well, 2 or 3 boats with a bunch of rusted tanks). She receives her orders from Elisabeth I suppose :canada:

RE: swimming freestyle with one arm

Former Member — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:41:54 GMT

It's funny, someone made the same comment on the other site. I'm flattered by I'm not sure I understand though... Would you happen to be based in UK as well? I am Irish (important: not the same as U.K. :) ) but I think we have a similar sense of humo(u)r - as least judging by my English boss. I live in the U.S. The clip is so great because it's like an "aha" moment - easy and obvious once you see it. And it's silly but serious at the same time (like Homer Simpson saying "it's funny because it's true").

RE: swimming freestyle with one arm

Former Member — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:35:55 GMT

Anyway, we're cousin somehow. Or.... wait a minute. Is Elisabeth your Queen as well? I'm confused :confused: Hah! We threw off the Yoke of Imperialist Oppression years ago. Well, except for Norn Iron (= Northern Ireland in a Northern Irish accent).

RE: swimming freestyle with one arm

__steve__ — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:22:23 GMT

Once you get the arm going with a good kick rhythm, it feels natural. Just make sure you breath to a side that does not aggrivate the good arm. Today I did bilateral breathing with one-arm drill for each arm and it really did a number on my bad shoulder when I breathed to the opposite side of stroking arm. Won't try that with one -arm drill again. Did your shoulder ever dislocate when you were younger? Curious

RE: swimming freestyle with one arm

Former Member — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:01:00 GMT

I would appreciate suggestions for swimming freestyle with one arm . I cannot use my left arm due to a not correctable rotator cuff problem. Gil Here's my progression from 0-Arm to Full Stroke. YouTube- Free Style Drill : 0-Arm-to-Full-Stroke Progression

RE: swimming freestyle with one arm

Former Member — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:32:00 GMT

SolarEnergy, your waltz drill is SHEER xxxxxx! It's funny, someone made the same comment on the other site. I'm flattered by I'm not sure I understand though... Would you happen to be based in UK as well? This gentleman here who just learned this drill progression inspired me to record this clip. His execution (both 0-Arm and 1-Arm) is very decent. But it still lacks this smooth rotation aspect, uninterrupted and smooth. Some like to refer to this as inside out swimming. Body rotation is something that must work standalone. Then every limb is timed around this smooth but powerful body action. On the following clips, you see three things. During the 0-Arm, body rotation amplitude isn't sufficient to bring the head in perfect breathing position. Therefore the subject has to twist the neck to breathe (NO-NO). Body rotation should be good enough so that you don't even need to turn your head to breathe. On the second clip, the rotation is interrupted. I believe that this is partly due to the fact that he's wasting great deal of time seeking for decent breathing position. It creates a dead spot in the front, which is bad. One purpose of 1-Arm drill is to learn to better catch the water, by first eliminating the dead spot. And finally, the subject overkicks. There are far more than 3 beat per rotation (6 beat per full cycle). Now you better understand where the 0-Arm swim waltz comes from. YouTube- 0-arm swim.MOD and YouTube- Single left arm.MOD

RE: swimming freestyle with one arm

Former Member — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:49:33 GMT

SolarEnergy, your waltz drill is SHEER GENIUS! Thank you so much for posting it. (OK, it's funny too.)

RE: swimming freestyle with one arm

Former Member — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:06:04 GMT

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. I will certainly try the different approaches until I fine one that works for me. Gil

RE: swimming freestyle with one arm

orca1946 — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:04:45 GMT

WOW ! This will be hard. How do you plan to flip or just do open turns. You must really like swimming. Are you sure that the problem cannot be worked on ?

RE: swimming freestyle with one arm

Former Member — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 07:02:54 GMT

Gil, one last thing I may add if you don't mind. Carefully design rehab workouts. You don't have to avoid completely swimming using your injured arm though. Using it could be part of the rehab. Here's an example of a carefully design rehab swim workout for someone that has rotator's cuff niggles: Wup (Dry) Arm circles Upper body stretching Wup (Wet) 100 Free very easy nice and smooth. No pressure on the catch (**important**) 100 kick backstroke. Have fun SDKing during this 2x50m BreastStroke pulling / Fly or FreeStyle kicking. No pressure during the pulling. Just move the hands but don't put too much weight doing this Main Set Drill (Wet) Rest: 10-20sec 8x25 sculling with flutter kick (the kick will help you maintaining warm body temperature) 8x50 @ 25m backstroke kicking / 25m 0-Arm kicking 8x50 @ 25m 0-Arm kicking / 25m 1-Arm kicking 4x50 (VERY EASY) @ 25m 1-Arm (injured arm this time) / 25m very soft full stroke More breaststroke pulling/flutter kicking or SDK may be added. *** stroke pulling is good to reinforce back (scapula) region muscles. Avoid backstroke pulling which tends to squeeze these small muscles even more than if you were free style pulling. Main Set Drill (Dry) using swim cords (that's the most important set of the whole workout) Use swim cords to perform internal/external rotation exercises. These greatly help reinforcing your rotator's cuff muscles. They should be performed with arm flexed as well as arm extended like shown in the first 4 exercises of the post below: www.tritalk.co.uk/.../viewtopic.php Then go home, put some ice and come back as early as possible for another workout. As your shoulder gets better, add more 1-arm using the arm that is injured. This approach is similar to performing physio in the pool. It involves adding just a tiny bit of stress to the injured side in order to make the rehab persistent. It also involves drilling a lot to hopefully get rid of the technical flaws that may have led to this injury. 1-Arm is perfect to achieve this goal.

RE: swimming freestyle with one arm

Former Member — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 06:38:15 GMT

It sounds like you are looking for the most efficient one-arm freestyle technique? Is this permanent, or temporary? When we do drills, one-arm free means placing your non-swimming arm at your side, breathe to your non-swimming arm side, and pull as you normally would with your swimming arm. I wouldn't say this is efficient. If I had to be efficient, for example, say I injurned my arm in open water and needed to swim to shore quickly, I guess I would try and place my injured arm out in front of me, leaving it there, and pull with my good arm. If I couldn't place my injured arm out in fron of me, I would do back stroke with my good arm and keep my injured arm by my side, doing whatever sculling I could with my hand. I would alternate this will freestyle as well, but breathing to my pulling arm side (unlike my drill mentioned above). I am sorry to use the term "injured." I don't want you to think I am implying that you are injured.

RE: swimming freestyle with one arm

Former Member — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 06:36:56 GMT

Nice video! Didn't think to go no arms and work on the rotation like that. I like how that drill progresses. I'll have to start throwing in 100's of that drill. The 0-Arm portion isn't easy to master. Few things: 1. Persist. Ultimately, it becomes easier and easier 2. Notice on the clip how I add gentle sweeps with my hands. This is a key element that favor forward momentum 3. Focus on making the body rotation continuous and smooth. There should be no pause. It should move from left to right to left to right with no pause. I should not be able to read your kicking pattern in your shoulders 4. The little sweep (sculling) can (and should) be used during the 1-Arm execution also (like shown on the clip, although it is very subtle) Of course, sets are very easy to design: 10x100 @ 25m 0-Arm; 25m L-Arm; 25m R-Arm; 25m full stroke (6beat kick all the way) or 5x200 @ 50m each The longest distance I've made so far has been 4kilo (1 kilo each). Enjoy! Recently, I made a real fool of myself in trying to outline the 3beat per rotation nature of the drill. The clip was first posted on a Triathlon specific website, aimed at helping triathletes to master the 0-Arm execution. Here's the clip. It's called 0-Arm swimming waltz. Its purpose is to stress on the importance of achieving a continuous and smooth body rotation whilst synchronizing the 6beat kick with it. You're allowed to laugh a great deal and make fun of me of course: YouTube- 0-Arm Swimming Walzt

RE: swimming freestyle with one arm

Former Member — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 06:19:29 GMT

Here's my progression from 0-Arm to Full Stroke. YouTube- Free Style Drill : 0-Arm-to-Full-Stroke Progression Nice video! Didn't think to go no arms and work on the rotation like that. I like how that drill progresses. I'll have to start throwing in 100's of that drill.

RE: swimming freestyle with one arm

Former Member — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:53:20 GMT

You'd probably be faster swimming one-armed butterfly. The only one-armed Free I do is a drill where I breathe to the opposite side of whichever arm I'm using.....its to work on not letting your arm cross over out front on the catch, body roll, and keeping a continuous kick.