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....
Ha ha ha ha ha!!! So sorry for ever introducing this concept! Izzy here, long silent on this forum.
I definitely do not do zipper drill or fingertip drag because that pinches my shoulders.
Otherwise, I have been trying to make myself show up for four practices a week and avoid shoulder pain. I do not think about scapular plane swimming anymore. I am working hard on core strength (brutal, slow-motion bridges with glutes engaged; I hate them!) (brutal, abs held, glutes-squeezed-for-dear-life planks; I hate them!) (SWIMMER magazine so amused me with its recent pictures of the guy able to hold a plank with one arm while practicing shoulder rows with the other; I would fall onto ground). For shoulders I do theraband rows, external rotation, shoulder-height straight-arm pulls, slow in, slow out.
I try to focus REALLY HARD during practice on what feels good anatomically (a fancy way of saying I try to avoid all shoulder pain when swimming). My bane is kind of curling into a "C" shape when breathing to the right, such that I am pulling out with left arm to left as my head and body are kind of curling into a C toward the right as my head turns for air. Screw scapular shoulder swimming, this is obviously torque to the nth. So I am focusing really hard on body balance. I can tell I have better balance on one side than the other.
There was one video 8 years ago on this thread that showed very beautiful freestyle where the guy never lifted his arm behind his back (i.e., outside of that there scapular plane). I think with good rotation and good body balance it is possible to swim well with the revered EVF :bow:and still keep arms parallel to back at all times through stroke cycle.
I say this flippantly but I still think there is some truth to this idea of keeping the stroke within your body's plane.:worms:
Now, when will we get leaves on the trees here in Boston? Shazam!!!!!!:bitching:
Ha ha ha ha ha!!! So sorry for ever introducing this concept! Izzy here, long silent on this forum.
I definitely do not do zipper drill or fingertip drag because that pinches my shoulders.
Otherwise, I have been trying to make myself show up for four practices a week and avoid shoulder pain. I do not think about scapular plane swimming anymore. I am working hard on core strength (brutal, slow-motion bridges with glutes engaged; I hate them!) (brutal, abs held, glutes-squeezed-for-dear-life planks; I hate them!) (SWIMMER magazine so amused me with its recent pictures of the guy able to hold a plank with one arm while practicing shoulder rows with the other; I would fall onto ground). For shoulders I do theraband rows, external rotation, shoulder-height straight-arm pulls, slow in, slow out.
I try to focus REALLY HARD during practice on what feels good anatomically (a fancy way of saying I try to avoid all shoulder pain when swimming). My bane is kind of curling into a "C" shape when breathing to the right, such that I am pulling out with left arm to left as my head and body are kind of curling into a C toward the right as my head turns for air. Screw scapular shoulder swimming, this is obviously torque to the nth. So I am focusing really hard on body balance. I can tell I have better balance on one side than the other.
There was one video 8 years ago on this thread that showed very beautiful freestyle where the guy never lifted his arm behind his back (i.e., outside of that there scapular plane). I think with good rotation and good body balance it is possible to swim well with the revered EVF :bow:and still keep arms parallel to back at all times through stroke cycle.
I say this flippantly but I still think there is some truth to this idea of keeping the stroke within your body's plane.:worms:
Now, when will we get leaves on the trees here in Boston? Shazam!!!!!!:bitching:
