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....
Yah. DPS is distance per stroke. EVF is early vertical forearm. Any others, somewhere on here there is a little translation service thread. Quite amusing.
Fly: Same as the freestyle but simultaneous. Keep your head low, not strained, and your hands and arms within your peripheral vision. Phelps' fly is a great example of this.
Since this is a USMS forum, I assume most of us are hoping to be swimming for life. If you continue with EVF and DPS technique you may get lucky and not wreck your shoulders. Or you might be like thousands of other swimmers who swim with varying degrees of shoulder discomfort which eventually either sidelines them from training or racing or puts you on the operating table.
You have nothing to lose by using Scapular Plane technique.... other than the chance that you will be on the side of the pool.... instead of in it.....and cheering on your teammates while you can’t swim anymore.
SwimSafe, I pasted your post into an e-mail and sent it off to my part-time coach, asking him to coach me on scapular swimming. He was already off to a good start on backstroke with teaching 10 and 2! And, he did a great job of changing up my breaststroke (my main stroke) to avoid injury.
Now I have a question for you about fly: Traditional breathing or turning my head to the side to breathe? A previous neck injury (and resulting arthritis at C6) make breathing to the right on fly not possible, but, breathing to the left is quite comfortable; more so than straight ahead. Over the long haul, in workouts and in competition (as I add IM to my repertoire), which would be the safest to prevent injury?
Thanks!
:)
Picture of Pipes-Neilsen from GoSwimWeekly website:
www.goswim.tv/.../swimming-pic-of-the-week---july-8-2009.html
Is this scapular plane swimming or is she rotating her shoulders forward a little into her AC joints? Or is it the pure beauty of scapular plane swimming, with incredible control of flexing only the hands for exit/entry, thus avoiding shoulder stress?
I would die for her fly. Also her free. Also her IM.
Thanks so much for sharing. I seemed to have accidentally happened on this swim style a couple of years ago. I was preparing for longer Open Water distances (5K at the time) and had read from someone how using core muscles helped with stamina. So I just started playing with my stroke on long swims to see what worked. I noticed that by keeping my shoulders and pull wider than my old stroke and by more trunk roll, I got more distance per stroke and less shoulder pain.
What I also noticed is that I could swim much longer non-stop distances using this stroke. However, I am still as slow as an oil slick. Earlier this year I tried experimenting with EVF to see if I could speed up, but my shoulders started hurting so I've gone back to this scapular plane style of swimming. Alas, I'll probably need to add some sort of dry land training and include more anaerobic stuff to get faster.
Now I have a question for you about fly: Traditional breathing or turning my head to the side to breathe? A previous neck injury (and resulting arthritis at C6) make breathing to the right on fly not possible, but, breathing to the left is quite comfortable; more so than straight ahead. Over the long haul, in workouts and in competition (as I add IM to my repertoire), which would be the safest to prevent injury?
In response to your question about the fly breathing- Keep your head in neutral, spine aligned position as much as possible. You should only have to lift your head just a touch to get the air in. The key is in the wave motion of your body. Then your arms should come around and join with you head to drive your body forward. Breathing to the side is going to create neck problems in the long run. Good luck!
Picture of Pipes-Neilsen from GoSwimWeekly website:
www.goswim.tv/.../sw...m_medium=email
Is this scapular plane swimming or is she rotating her shoulders forward a little into her AC joints? Or is it the pure beauty of scapular plane swimming, with incredible control of flexing only the hands for exit/entry, thus avoiding shoulder stress? I would die for her fly. Also her free. Also her IM.
Hi Isobel- I checked out some videos of her swimming on Go Swim- her recovery is in Scapular plane, which is great. However, she is using an EVF that is not part of Scapular plane swimming. That torque and position can destabilize and create damage in the shoulder.
However, she is using an EVF that is not part of Scapular plane swimming. That torque and position can destabilize and create damage in the shoulder.
This part does not make sense to me. EVF can and should be performed in the scapular plane.
The initial EVF motion is internal rotation and partial adduction of the humerus in the scapula plane. If the humeral head is centered over the glenoid, the swimmer has a normal range of motion in internal rotation and the rotator cuff is strong and healthy, this motion is "SwimSafe."
Weakness, laxity or limited range of motion may prevent safe EVF, but the technique should not be dimissed with a simple "That torque and position can destabilize and create damage in the shoulder." Any technique can damage an abnormal shoulder joint.
RadSwim
