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....
I tried a 1500 full EVF yesterday. It was the first time I was deliberately using this technique. Results: very bad. I guess it's a matter of practice.
I was significantly slower than usual, and more importantly, I almost reached a 18stroke per 25m count at some point. I was giving 17 plus a longish glide.... I don't remember the last time that happened.
My usual free style technique usually allows me for 15strokes per 25m, with the option of going 16 strokes. I usually don't get over this. I am not a dropped elbow swimmer though. My technique usually involves little bit of EVF but not full blown one, as shown on the clip below (on which I am easily holding a pace that is at least 10s/100m faster than yesterdays attempt).
YouTube- Free style early warm up pace
Problem for this lack of DPS was that I didn't have any torque by the mid phase of my pulling range.
After this attempt, I performed 400m @ 50m sculling (hands positioned near the exit phase) 50m final push (as shown on the other clip below). Then I did 400m of 0-arm-to-full progression (as shown on another clip below). DPS got back to normal and I tried another 200m relaxed, the pace was back to normal.
final push drill: YouTube- Free style Butterfly Pulling Pushes
0-arm-to-full progression: YouTube- Free Style Drill : 0-Arm-to-Full-Stroke Progression
Not sure what to think of all this yet. My actual technique allows me for more DPS that I could handle. My stroke relies on explosive second half of the pulling path. It's therefore closer to Popov's kind of technique. What would I gain from switching to Thorpe-like EVF? Anyone else is capable of swimming full blown EVF? Does that work well for you?
I tried a 1500 full EVF yesterday. It was the first time I was deliberately using this technique. Results: very bad. I guess it's a matter of practice.
I was significantly slower than usual, and more importantly, I almost reached a 18stroke per 25m count at some point. I was giving 17 plus a longish glide.... I don't remember the last time that happened.
My usual free style technique usually allows me for 15strokes per 25m, with the option of going 16 strokes. I usually don't get over this. I am not a dropped elbow swimmer though. My technique usually involves little bit of EVF but not full blown one, as shown on the clip below (on which I am easily holding a pace that is at least 10s/100m faster than yesterdays attempt).
YouTube- Free style early warm up pace
Problem for this lack of DPS was that I didn't have any torque by the mid phase of my pulling range.
After this attempt, I performed 400m @ 50m sculling (hands positioned near the exit phase) 50m final push (as shown on the other clip below). Then I did 400m of 0-arm-to-full progression (as shown on another clip below). DPS got back to normal and I tried another 200m relaxed, the pace was back to normal.
final push drill: YouTube- Free style Butterfly Pulling Pushes
0-arm-to-full progression: YouTube- Free Style Drill : 0-Arm-to-Full-Stroke Progression
Not sure what to think of all this yet. My actual technique allows me for more DPS that I could handle. My stroke relies on explosive second half of the pulling path. It's therefore closer to Popov's kind of technique. What would I gain from switching to Thorpe-like EVF? Anyone else is capable of swimming full blown EVF? Does that work well for you?
