Eliminate Shoulder Stress, 3 simple thoughts

Every year it seems like I inherit a swimmer or two that seems to think that they are bound to deal with tendinitis and sore shoulders every year, it is just part of swimming.  I spend quite a bit of time at the beginning of each season teaching and convincing my athletes that swimming is not as shoulder dominated as they think, rather, the hips and legs should be the focus.  I will go more into this on another blog, but I believe swimmers get their power in the same manner as a baseball pitcher or golfer, swimmers just have a different anchor point.  We'll save the rest of that for another time.  I use 3 cue's to eliminate stress on my swimmers shoulders.

1.  Stack the shoulders.  One common theme in all swimmers that stay away from sore shoulders is that they don't stay flat as they get good shoulder rotation around the long access.  During the summer months, when we have age group swimmers practicing at our facility, there are two many swimmers swimming flat, and not being corrected.  It doesn't matter if the swimmer is swimming a T30 or a timed 50, shoulder rotation around the long access is very important to eliminating stress on the shoulder.

          

2.  Make sure the Elbow of the recovering arm is in line (same plane) as the shoulders.  As your recovering arm is out of the water, the elbow should be an extension of the two shoulders.  One cue I hear coaches tell young swimmers is to swim with high elbows, or doing the finger tip drag drill.  Both of these cue's will lead to stress that can be avoidable on the shoulders if the swimmer is swimming too flat in the water.  I like to stand at the end of the pool as my swimmers swim toward me and look at the line from bottom shoulder to top shoulder to elbow, and make sure they are in the same plane.  I also cue my swimmers on deck to stand up tall and raise their arms from their side over their head.  They will look like they are warming up for a ballet recital.   If their elbows are in line with their shoulders, they will notice the path of least resistance.  If you have them pull their shoulders back so their elbows are behind their shoulders, they will notice much more resistance.  This is how many swimmers swim if  they swim flat with high elbows!

3.  This may be the easiest fix.  Recover with the thumb leading the way.  I have fixed several kids that were plagued with tendinitis year after year, by just rotating their hand so that the thumb is leading the way.  I seem to get several swimmers out of high school that have their pinky leading the way or palm to the sky.  You can simply have them stand on deck again and have them raise their hands over their heads, first with their thumb leading the way, then their pinky and you will immediately feel the difference in the stress put on the shoulder.

*These are both very successful swimmers, and this is only a snap shot of their recovering arm. I am using it to show you the hand position I see in several swimmers that have inherited shoulder injuries from this.

I hope these cue's can help you with your swimmers.  

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at aprice. Therefore honor God with your bodies.