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....
Hi ElaineK -
Thanks for posting a current video. Let me go into a few more aspects regarding my freestyle philosophy.
Before that though. Comment #1: I read the three articles you attached to your first post. I did not find them helpful in explaining scapular swimming in layman's terms. Comment #2 (to Arrieros post): I also dislike the finger-tip drag drill because most swimmers do it without the appropriate body rotation.
Comments:
a) Let me be a bit more specific about hand entry. I like the hand entry to be between the head and shoulder. In fact, I like my shoulder to come very close to touching the side of my head on entry. When you try this, have someone give you feedback to make sure you are not crossing over past your head.
b) I do NOT coach laying your hand /arm on the surface of the water. This leads, more often than not, to a dropped elbow pulling pattern. I like the concept of stabbing into the water, so your hand is lower than your elbow which is lower than your shoulder. I do NOT like a high elbow pull with the elbow being close to the surface - not many people can do this well and those who do usually have monster kicks or shoulders that are very "forgiving". My definition of high elbow catch is the elbow being higher than the hand which, in my mind, is anywhere from 9 - 24" below the surface of the water. Yes, this is divergent from accepted philosophy. :)
c) This next aspect is huge and the sequence is critical. I believe that after touching your thumb to your thigh, you rotate your "recovery" hip towards the ceiling (20-30 degrees) and keep it there for much of the recovery. Next, the arm recovery should be initiated by lifting your hand out of the water instead of starting the recovery with lifting your elbow out of the water. Yes, I like a straighter arm recovery. To do this well, your palm should be facing the bottom at the end of the stroke (very important) and finger tips pointed towards your feet. The recovery action should feel like someone pinching the skin on the back of your hand and lifting your hand out of the water. The key to this recovery is that your body is rotated so your recovery hip is higher than your pulling side hip. Your entire recovery arm should be on the front side of your body. And, your entire arm, throughout the recovery, should be on the front side of body. I cannot emphasize enough that this last point is huge.
d) Does your arm have to be straight during the entire recovery? In my opinion, NO. Only during the initial 25-30%. After that, do what feels comfortable. What is important is that your enter arm stays on the front side of your body.
ElaineK, when I watch your video, it appears to me that you initiate the recovery by lifting your elbow and your recovery side starts rotating towards "flat" at the same time. Try the sequence above. If it is too confusing, simply try doing a straight arm recovery (not a straight arm pull).
Of course, it is going to feel awkward and different.
I looked for alot of video and find this matches my philosophy the best: www.youtube.com/watch.
Let me know what your questions are. :)
PW
Hi ElaineK -
Thanks for posting a current video. Let me go into a few more aspects regarding my freestyle philosophy.
Before that though. Comment #1: I read the three articles you attached to your first post. I did not find them helpful in explaining scapular swimming in layman's terms. Comment #2 (to Arrieros post): I also dislike the finger-tip drag drill because most swimmers do it without the appropriate body rotation.
Comments:
a) Let me be a bit more specific about hand entry. I like the hand entry to be between the head and shoulder. In fact, I like my shoulder to come very close to touching the side of my head on entry. When you try this, have someone give you feedback to make sure you are not crossing over past your head.
b) I do NOT coach laying your hand /arm on the surface of the water. This leads, more often than not, to a dropped elbow pulling pattern. I like the concept of stabbing into the water, so your hand is lower than your elbow which is lower than your shoulder. I do NOT like a high elbow pull with the elbow being close to the surface - not many people can do this well and those who do usually have monster kicks or shoulders that are very "forgiving". My definition of high elbow catch is the elbow being higher than the hand which, in my mind, is anywhere from 9 - 24" below the surface of the water. Yes, this is divergent from accepted philosophy. :)
c) This next aspect is huge and the sequence is critical. I believe that after touching your thumb to your thigh, you rotate your "recovery" hip towards the ceiling (20-30 degrees) and keep it there for much of the recovery. Next, the arm recovery should be initiated by lifting your hand out of the water instead of starting the recovery with lifting your elbow out of the water. Yes, I like a straighter arm recovery. To do this well, your palm should be facing the bottom at the end of the stroke (very important) and finger tips pointed towards your feet. The recovery action should feel like someone pinching the skin on the back of your hand and lifting your hand out of the water. The key to this recovery is that your body is rotated so your recovery hip is higher than your pulling side hip. Your entire recovery arm should be on the front side of your body. And, your entire arm, throughout the recovery, should be on the front side of body. I cannot emphasize enough that this last point is huge.
d) Does your arm have to be straight during the entire recovery? In my opinion, NO. Only during the initial 25-30%. After that, do what feels comfortable. What is important is that your enter arm stays on the front side of your body.
ElaineK, when I watch your video, it appears to me that you initiate the recovery by lifting your elbow and your recovery side starts rotating towards "flat" at the same time. Try the sequence above. If it is too confusing, simply try doing a straight arm recovery (not a straight arm pull).
Of course, it is going to feel awkward and different.
I looked for alot of video and find this matches my philosophy the best: www.youtube.com/watch.
Let me know what your questions are. :)
PW
