Shoulder exercises and injury - FINA video

[CoachDavidShen]

Originally Posted by sclim

Oh, good. I thought there was something wrong with me or that I had missed a page in the manual somewhere.




Good to hear that. I have embarked on an ambitious plan and self-directed program to achieve exactly that, after repeated apparently correct dryland rehearsals have failed to translate into consistent disciplined in-the-water high elbow catching, no mater how loudly I keep berating myself :-]

sclim - watch dave cameron's EVF video and practice his dryland rehearsal a lot. then practice it a few times before each length/lap and then focus on it as a focal point the whole length or lap. don't rush. remember that the hardest part is holding your upper arm up there while the forearm drops - the natural inclination is to pull the whole arm back. it is this habit that most people need to break the most.

good luck man and keep us posted!

[Talvi]

Originally Posted by CoachDavidShen

... if you don't have any problems, then if it ain't broke, don't fix it! but i am a big fan generally of strengthening ...

Agreed. I am in the process of inevitable chronic breaking (age) but nothing acute, or rather I've cured my minor acute shoulder (not scapular) injury. I applied the strengthening conceopt to what was diagnosed as cruciate ligament damage in my knees, by way of re-engineering and fine tuning my gait. That's worked too - no more clicking! But figuring out correct movement for the complicated omni-directional shoulder (shoulder not scapular) is much more challenging than for the comparatively simple knee. For the knee gravity and balance can steer correction but for the shoulder ... especially in swimming ...!! So I've been doing small and gentle movements, like those in Suzanne's video and the Hitch-hiker one. I figure that a general bulking up of all the muscles in the region will help pad it all out and allow the ligaments to shrink wrap themselves best they can. :D