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....
Yes, this is a VERY old thread; however, I am bringing it back to ask if anybody has every been able to locate a video of PROPER Scapular Plane Swimming technique. I had my husband shoot a video of me back in 2013; however, I'm not sure this is correct:
www.youtube.com/watch
The reason I am bringing it up now, is because of the problem I have with my LEFT shoulder when I swim freestyle BREATHING RIGHT. It started when I developed bursitis from a land-based repetitive stress injury last year; however, it has continued since then.
When my face is in the water, my left scapula doesn't seem to move/glide smoothly when I release my hand after the pull and bring my elbow up into a high elbow recovery. It seems to get "caught" a lot of the time, and my left arm has developed this robotic-looking recovery. If you compare my right and left arms on recovery in the video below, you can see the difference. Watch the left arm, especially on the second 25 when I swim towards the camera:
www.youtube.com/watch SA1B&t=0s
At this point, I will sacrifice speed to swim with a technique that will keep me in the pool for the rest of my life without needing shoulder surgery. I just want to make sure I am doing it properly.
I had switched away from Scapular Plane Swimming when I was constantly being told I needed to swim with a high elbow, and my technique was incorrect. I don't know how my technique would be viewed in second video (with high elbow); however, I believe it is the INCORRECT technique for the health of my shoulders. I need to change back to Scapular Plane Swimming; however, I want to do it correctly.
I sent an e-mail to OrthoSportsMed Physical Therapy (Kip Dye and Milton Nelms) who developed the technique, so I hope to receive a response.
In the meantime, if any of you are familiar with this technique, could post a video, or offer suggestions; I would appreciate it very much. :agree:
P.S. I do McKenzie Technique PT exercises and the Thrower's Ten Exercise Program regularly, in addition to other shoulder PT exercises as part of my daily dryland program.
Yes, this is a VERY old thread; however, I am bringing it back to ask if anybody has every been able to locate a video of PROPER Scapular Plane Swimming technique. I had my husband shoot a video of me back in 2013; however, I'm not sure this is correct:
www.youtube.com/watch
The reason I am bringing it up now, is because of the problem I have with my LEFT shoulder when I swim freestyle BREATHING RIGHT. It started when I developed bursitis from a land-based repetitive stress injury last year; however, it has continued since then.
When my face is in the water, my left scapula doesn't seem to move/glide smoothly when I release my hand after the pull and bring my elbow up into a high elbow recovery. It seems to get "caught" a lot of the time, and my left arm has developed this robotic-looking recovery. If you compare my right and left arms on recovery in the video below, you can see the difference. Watch the left arm, especially on the second 25 when I swim towards the camera:
www.youtube.com/watch SA1B&t=0s
At this point, I will sacrifice speed to swim with a technique that will keep me in the pool for the rest of my life without needing shoulder surgery. I just want to make sure I am doing it properly.
I had switched away from Scapular Plane Swimming when I was constantly being told I needed to swim with a high elbow, and my technique was incorrect. I don't know how my technique would be viewed in second video (with high elbow); however, I believe it is the INCORRECT technique for the health of my shoulders. I need to change back to Scapular Plane Swimming; however, I want to do it correctly.
I sent an e-mail to OrthoSportsMed Physical Therapy (Kip Dye and Milton Nelms) who developed the technique, so I hope to receive a response.
In the meantime, if any of you are familiar with this technique, could post a video, or offer suggestions; I would appreciate it very much. :agree:
P.S. I do McKenzie Technique PT exercises and the Thrower's Ten Exercise Program regularly, in addition to other shoulder PT exercises as part of my daily dryland program.
