I didn't think it was possible, certainly not likely but I did it. I don't mean slipping on the deck and breaking an arm. I mean "while swimming".
Two nights ago, going into my backstroke turn in the middle of my 200IM, I realized too late that the backstroke flags had been taken down. I arched my neck to look upside down toward the wall to guage the distance, BAM, I slammed face first into the wall. I came up with a pretty small gash on my nose and cut on my forehead. It wasn't so much painful as startling and certainly embarrassing. Once the bleeding stopped, I thought I should go see about getting it stitched at our local, friendly ER. While in the waiting room, I realized my face hurt...ALOT, so they did an x-ray and sure enough a broken nose.
I've never broken a bone in my life (knock on wood). I quit running 18 months ago b/c I had become so injury prone in my late 30's/early 40's. It's not so bad though, as broken bones go. I'll be back in the pool in a few days once my stitches are gone. The bone will take 4-6 weeks to heal but that shouldn't keep me out of the pool.
Just curious if I'm unique in this regard.
When I was back in high school, I remember glancing hands with a teammate in the next lane (freestyle recovery). Found out that I had broken his hand, which was rather unfortunate because it wasn't that solid of an arm collision.
Had a friend bloody-but-not-break the nose of someone who tried sneaking into the wall just as my friend was doing a backstroke start. The arms swinging away from the blocks caught the guy in the face.
Had a college roommate break his hand blocking a shot during man-down defense in a water polo match. Didn't notice until the end of the quarter that his hand was overly "foldy". Spent several hours in the Annapolis hospital waiting room before they put a cast on his arm.
When I was back in high school, I remember glancing hands with a teammate in the next lane (freestyle recovery). Found out that I had broken his hand, which was rather unfortunate because it wasn't that solid of an arm collision.
Had a friend bloody-but-not-break the nose of someone who tried sneaking into the wall just as my friend was doing a backstroke start. The arms swinging away from the blocks caught the guy in the face.
Had a college roommate break his hand blocking a shot during man-down defense in a water polo match. Didn't notice until the end of the quarter that his hand was overly "foldy". Spent several hours in the Annapolis hospital waiting room before they put a cast on his arm.
