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....
Thanks for your advice, Julia! You are the other coach I was hoping would join in on this conversation. I appreciate it! Although the cause of my left shoulder pain wasn't from swimming (It was from the repetitive stress of the volunteer work I did last spring in the Dominican Republic that caused bursitis and impingement in my left shoulder.), I would agree that the discomfort has persisted due to the stroke flaws you pointed out. I'm fine on days I don't swim a lot of freestyle; however, last weekend, I raced the 1000 on Saturday and 500 on Sunday, which worsened the discomfort. It was a wake-up call to switch back to Scapular Plane Swimming.
Why did I make the switch away from my 2013 stroke? It was advice I was getting from several different coaches on how to "improve" my stroke. Between a World Record-holder who lives in my town, to a couple of coaches who are in Georgia Masters who I see at meets, and others; I was encouraged to go with the high elbow on both the pull and recovery as well as to finish my stroke at mid-thigh. All of them were stressing DPS, finger tip drag, and zip drill.
Now, after returning to this thread and re-reading it completely (in addition to reading everything else I could find on the subject), I see that for me and the health of my shoulders, I need to do the following:
1. Avoid those drills and go with a low-swinging arm recovery that keeps my arm level with my shoulder and back.
2. Keep my more-comfortable deeper pull rather than trying to get my elbow higher. (This goes for breaststroke, too!)
3. Finish my pull on both freestyle and butterfly at the hip.
4. Work on improving a consistent kick.
5. Sacrifice speed for shoulder health!
The biggest challenge I have in freestyle is landing my left arm in the right place. In the 2013 video, it lands outside of my shoulder. Otherwise, it has a tendency to overshoot the target and cross over. I also have a tendency for my left hand to slide out before the pull rather than stay straight; however, I'm not as worried about that, because I don't believe it is causing any pain.
Regarding building core strength, that has been part of my dryland routine for years. I had back surgery in 1987, and I have always done ab-strengthening since then. I have also been doing yoga for two years and Theraband exercises for years; and, I returned to weight-lifting at the beginning of the year. I have also been doing planks and other miscellaneous exercises for my core most days of the week since I joined Masters in 2010. In all, I spend a good 45 minutes, six days per week on dryland-- aside from stretching.
What I DO see I need to CHANGE is the way I am doing my drills. My one-arm drills in the past involved finger-tip and zipper drill. I'm thinking of more progression drills of kicking with my arms at my side and then rotating from side to side with my face in the water. Then, progress to one-arm where I breathe on the opposite side of the recovery arm, and then change to breathing on the recovery side, before progressing to full stroke for the final part of the drill. All of this needs to be changed with a LOW elbow, straighter arm recovery that is low to the water, where I keep my elbow in my peripheral vision when I breathe. Hopefully, I can learn to do this with a consistent kick and landing my left arm IN FRONT of my shoulder, rather than outside or crossing over.
Does this all sound right, Julia and Paul? I know you differ on where the arm should finish on the pull (see below); however, Scapular Plane Swimming calls for ending the pull at the hip. I'll have to go with Julia and Kipp Dye from www.osmed.net on this once.
Now, if I could get my freestyle as good as my breaststroke, I would be :bliss:!
Thank you very much to both of you for your help!
ElaineK -
a) Make sure your thumb touches mid-way down your thigh an the end of each stroke.
- finishing past your hips and flicking the left arm out of the water, almost across your back, rather than finishing just at the hips. This can also put pressure on the shoulder.
Thanks for your advice, Julia! You are the other coach I was hoping would join in on this conversation. I appreciate it! Although the cause of my left shoulder pain wasn't from swimming (It was from the repetitive stress of the volunteer work I did last spring in the Dominican Republic that caused bursitis and impingement in my left shoulder.), I would agree that the discomfort has persisted due to the stroke flaws you pointed out. I'm fine on days I don't swim a lot of freestyle; however, last weekend, I raced the 1000 on Saturday and 500 on Sunday, which worsened the discomfort. It was a wake-up call to switch back to Scapular Plane Swimming.
Why did I make the switch away from my 2013 stroke? It was advice I was getting from several different coaches on how to "improve" my stroke. Between a World Record-holder who lives in my town, to a couple of coaches who are in Georgia Masters who I see at meets, and others; I was encouraged to go with the high elbow on both the pull and recovery as well as to finish my stroke at mid-thigh. All of them were stressing DPS, finger tip drag, and zip drill.
Now, after returning to this thread and re-reading it completely (in addition to reading everything else I could find on the subject), I see that for me and the health of my shoulders, I need to do the following:
1. Avoid those drills and go with a low-swinging arm recovery that keeps my arm level with my shoulder and back.
2. Keep my more-comfortable deeper pull rather than trying to get my elbow higher. (This goes for breaststroke, too!)
3. Finish my pull on both freestyle and butterfly at the hip.
4. Work on improving a consistent kick.
5. Sacrifice speed for shoulder health!
The biggest challenge I have in freestyle is landing my left arm in the right place. In the 2013 video, it lands outside of my shoulder. Otherwise, it has a tendency to overshoot the target and cross over. I also have a tendency for my left hand to slide out before the pull rather than stay straight; however, I'm not as worried about that, because I don't believe it is causing any pain.
Regarding building core strength, that has been part of my dryland routine for years. I had back surgery in 1987, and I have always done ab-strengthening since then. I have also been doing yoga for two years and Theraband exercises for years; and, I returned to weight-lifting at the beginning of the year. I have also been doing planks and other miscellaneous exercises for my core most days of the week since I joined Masters in 2010. In all, I spend a good 45 minutes, six days per week on dryland-- aside from stretching.
What I DO see I need to CHANGE is the way I am doing my drills. My one-arm drills in the past involved finger-tip and zipper drill. I'm thinking of more progression drills of kicking with my arms at my side and then rotating from side to side with my face in the water. Then, progress to one-arm where I breathe on the opposite side of the recovery arm, and then change to breathing on the recovery side, before progressing to full stroke for the final part of the drill. All of this needs to be changed with a LOW elbow, straighter arm recovery that is low to the water, where I keep my elbow in my peripheral vision when I breathe. Hopefully, I can learn to do this with a consistent kick and landing my left arm IN FRONT of my shoulder, rather than outside or crossing over.
Does this all sound right, Julia and Paul? I know you differ on where the arm should finish on the pull (see below); however, Scapular Plane Swimming calls for ending the pull at the hip. I'll have to go with Julia and Kipp Dye from www.osmed.net on this once.
Now, if I could get my freestyle as good as my breaststroke, I would be :bliss:!
Thank you very much to both of you for your help!
ElaineK -
a) Make sure your thumb touches mid-way down your thigh an the end of each stroke.
- finishing past your hips and flicking the left arm out of the water, almost across your back, rather than finishing just at the hips. This can also put pressure on the shoulder.
