Swimmer's shoulder

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OOPS! I meant "touch my thumb to my thigh!" This was what they said we should be doing in the swim clinic to make sure we're following through with the stroke.

Make sure you never cross the centerline- your arms shouldn't even pull "inside" if that makes sense. Also, make sure you're using your lats and back to pull, not your shoulders. It's a subtle difference, but once you figure it out, you can notice.

How much are you trying to swim at a given time? Since you are new to swimming over use, or swimming too far can also cause the pain. If you have a swim plan, it should start off with lower distances and slowly build up. Plus, as stated above don't cross the center line when you hand enters the water or when you are pulling.

This might sound crazy, but try to relax in the water. The more you swim the more relaxed you will become, and the faster you will be. Being all ridged and stiff will make you work much harder, and cause SS as well.

i'm going to guess that you breathe to your left

Yup, I do breathe to my left. I will make sure I'm not crossing my center line, but there is so much to remember when in the water. Twist hips, breathe in and out, don't cross center line, tighten my buns, pull with my back. I mean...seriously...how do you remember to do all those things? And I'm swimming in a pool. I haven't even tried the bitter cold open water yet. Won't everything I learn just fly right out the window when the coldness hits me like a ton of bricks and when I have people kicking me in the face and crawling on top of me?

Yeah, why do you guess she breaths to the left? I recently joined my tri club for some swim training, and for the past couple weeks I've been having right shoulder pain. And yes I breath primarily to my left.

I need to know, thanks.....

Your balance is off. When you breathe you are over rotating and lifting your head. This makes you drop your shoulder. As you lift your head, it throws off your balance so you push down with your opposite (right) arm to support yourself. This will kill your shoulder without crossing over.How do you fix it? Tuck your chin, breath to your arm pit, do catchup and one arm drills until you learn to love them and find a masters coach to kick your arse into shape.

Finger drag drills are also good. After you pull with your arm, let your fingers "drag" on the surface of the water as you return your arm in front of your body to pull again. It gets you used to high elbows.

Good article on this subject

http://www.physsportsmed.com/issues/1996/11_96/koehler.htm

fingertip drag drill and catch up drill helped me out, combined with a few days off and a decrease in volume until I got stronger.

I used to have some shoulder soreness when swimming, too. I have really concentrated this year on trying not to "drop my elbow" when I swim, and with this correction to my stroke, the shoulder soreness has disappeared! My totally uneducated guess would be that you may also be dropping your elbow, creating strain on your shoulder. I would suggest spending plenty of time doing drill work to improve your stroke mechanics. Doing lap after lap of swimming with poor mechanics does nothing but ingrain the "wrong" way of swimming. I would suggest doing some balance drills (if you can access them, the Total Immersion drills are really good for this). I found sculling drills to be really helpful for getting the feel of the proper hand/arm position. I can't explain the drills myself very well... Here's a fairly good explanation:

http://www.pursuit-fitness.com/files/feel.pdf

And a somewhat grainy video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxPgQ3LElMg&feature=related -- though when I do sculling drills, I tend to have my arms extended a little further out front than the guy in the video does.

Finally, here's a really good example of what high elbow swimming looks like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV_5-rkTq2E

p.s. I just found this video which does a good job of comparing a high elbow stroke vs. dropped elbow stroke. Maybe you'll find it helpful....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rXwCcbgkSs&NR=1

There is much to learn and maintain once learned in swim technique. The approach I take is to focus on one element at a time while swimming. I always have some focal point in mind while swimming. No more then two focal points at a time. This makes a large portion of my swims constitute focused technique work rather then endurance fests.

You might want to try a wider track for your arms as mentioned above. In addition, consider focusing on a patient lead hand. This means you don't begin your catch or pull until your other hand enters the water. As a result, you will be inhaling with your right arm forward rather then pushing down. However, if you're right arm is extended and too close to your center line as you rotate, you will be really torquing your shoulder when you rotate to inhale. This is what I am working on improving. I was totally disturbed when my swimming was filmed I saw how badly I was torquing my shoulder when breathing due to a narrow track.

A wider track is going to make your rotation to inhale feel different. You may need to turn your head a bit more rather then rolling your body drastically. A narrow track makes rotating to inhale easier, but again can torque one's shoulder. Because you are not pushing down with your right arm as you breath, you may need to learn how to inhale more quickly with more of your head in the water. These are things I am working on.

In addition, you might want to experiment with reducing the power you put into your pull. We can actually "grab" more water and propel ourselves more efficiently with a moderate pull. To demonstrate this to yourself experiment with a extremely fast pull. Notice that you disturb more water rather then actually propelling yourself. Now experiment with moderating to power you put into your pull. You may find this reduces the stress on your shoulder.

Marc