Just went to a PT who advocates swimming within the scapular plane. Doing all strengthening exercises within the scapular plane (never doing I, T's, or Ys above shoulder level, which I have, alas, been doing). No need, in his opinion, to do internal rotation with therabands; external rotation just 3/4 from front to 45 degrees past waist). No need for overhead rotation exercises; just stresses the shoulder joints.
What does scapular swimming mean? He demonstrated. No high elbows. No EVF.
Use rotation; use lats; use core. Let your arms swim wide and pretty straight during the recovery, but relaxed, with the momentum of your rotation. Don't bend your arms as you pull through the water. Let your lats/core/rotation/and your entire arm be your anchor. (If the lane is crowded he tightens up his recovery a little so he doesn't whack people.)
He was a national champion backstroker/Division I college swimmer. His way of swimming seems revolutionary. He said this is how Janet Evans swam, how Natalie Coughlin swims, how Torres swims, and how Phelps changed his recovery of fly, from bent elbow recovery to swinging over the water momentum recovery.
He says it could avoid a lot of shoulder problems. For me, it will mean relearning to swim.
Hum di dum. Any of you guys ever heard of this approach? At least in demonstrating, his freestyle pulling arm never had a high elbow or bend; he said he was much faster doing backstroke this way and that if I could learn how to do it correctly, I probably would be faster too. And that it would take the stress off my shoulders.
So the idea is never let the arms get above the scapular plane of the body. I need to e-mail him about breaststroke, because I don't see how you can pull without either a fair amount of internal rotation or using high elbows.
Always learning....
He is highly credentialled (sp). I think because he was an elite swimmer, he has the strength of core, lats, and understanding of anchoring the pressure on the less-bent arm at the right time. I'm not sure I could relearn to swim the way he demonstrated.
When I stood with my right arm extended onto his tall, above-me shoulder, and initially tried a pull, a lot of stress at shoulder. Then he instructed me to really engage my core and lats, and I could see the strain was greatly reduced.
His theory was that rotation is what gets you through the water, not bent EVF arms. Though when I looked at Phelps's videos of free and back underwater, there is no doubt that he uses the bent, high elbow arm.
I'll have to e-mail this guy about this. But in his land demonstration (and possibly he is doing something different in the water, but not aware of it), he looked like Tarzan a little, swinging his arms out wide (no fingertip drag drills for him; I asked), and said that the rotation keeps the entry at the proper place. He then said he swings his arms relaxed and slightly bent through the water and uses his core for power. His main point was that high elbow and EVF and all the things being taught are getting the arm out of (above) the scapular plane, and thus really straining the AC joint.
It was a quick, free demo, so I really need to go watch him swim and get more info. He has given talks at the Harvard SCY championship meet in years past. He is highly regarded. I may be misrepresenting him. But I know he clearly said the high elbow recovery wastes energy, that it is akin to walking pulling up your knees as if marching. That when you walk, you swing your legs through; ditto with recovery of swimming, and also pulling with swimming. A slight bend to the elbow but not the high elbow I've been taught. Probably not dropped elbow, either, though, since he is making sure that his elbow/arm is parallel to the scapular plane: never above, never below.
That's his theory, as I understood it. Will try it out today.
He is highly credentialled (sp). I think because he was an elite swimmer, he has the strength of core, lats, and understanding of anchoring the pressure on the less-bent arm at the right time. I'm not sure I could relearn to swim the way he demonstrated.
When I stood with my right arm extended onto his tall, above-me shoulder, and initially tried a pull, a lot of stress at shoulder. Then he instructed me to really engage my core and lats, and I could see the strain was greatly reduced.
His theory was that rotation is what gets you through the water, not bent EVF arms. Though when I looked at Phelps's videos of free and back underwater, there is no doubt that he uses the bent, high elbow arm.
I'll have to e-mail this guy about this. But in his land demonstration (and possibly he is doing something different in the water, but not aware of it), he looked like Tarzan a little, swinging his arms out wide (no fingertip drag drills for him; I asked), and said that the rotation keeps the entry at the proper place. He then said he swings his arms relaxed and slightly bent through the water and uses his core for power. His main point was that high elbow and EVF and all the things being taught are getting the arm out of (above) the scapular plane, and thus really straining the AC joint.
It was a quick, free demo, so I really need to go watch him swim and get more info. He has given talks at the Harvard SCY championship meet in years past. He is highly regarded. I may be misrepresenting him. But I know he clearly said the high elbow recovery wastes energy, that it is akin to walking pulling up your knees as if marching. That when you walk, you swing your legs through; ditto with recovery of swimming, and also pulling with swimming. A slight bend to the elbow but not the high elbow I've been taught. Probably not dropped elbow, either, though, since he is making sure that his elbow/arm is parallel to the scapular plane: never above, never below.
That's his theory, as I understood it. Will try it out today.
