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....
Welcome back to the Forums, Isobel! :welcome: I'm glad you introduced this topic, because it saved my shoulders!
I, too, have permanently disposed of zipper and fingertip drag drills for the same reason. A former Masters World Record freestyler who lives in my town no longer competes due to shoulder problems, and he was a HUGE proponent of both of those drills. He did them all of the time (and probably wondered why he had shoulder pain).
The old school style of freestyle may be great for kids and Olympians; however, we can't expect longevity in the sport if we are still swimming that way as AARP card-carrying Masters swimmers. These days, I don't care how slow I swim freestyle as I learn my new stroke technique. It's either Scapular Plane Swimming or :bolt:.
Welcome back to the Forums, Isobel! :welcome: I'm glad you introduced this topic, because it saved my shoulders!
I, too, have permanently disposed of zipper and fingertip drag drills for the same reason. A former Masters World Record freestyler who lives in my town no longer competes due to shoulder problems, and he was a HUGE proponent of both of those drills. He did them all of the time (and probably wondered why he had shoulder pain).
The old school style of freestyle may be great for kids and Olympians; however, we can't expect longevity in the sport if we are still swimming that way as AARP card-carrying Masters swimmers. These days, I don't care how slow I swim freestyle as I learn my new stroke technique. It's either Scapular Plane Swimming or :bolt:.
