Swimming and shoulder pain

Without a look at your stroke it would be difficult to determine the root cause of your shoulder pain, It does not seem you are swimming too much, it could be your stroke. 

It could be lack of flexibility causing you to compensate during your stroke. Do you stretch before you swim, back,tri,shoulders?

Next time in the pool look at your stroke underwater where your hands are entering, they should enter out in front of your head and not even with it, your hand should enter straight forward and down at an angle, see if your hand darts to the left or right when it goes underwater, this could cause pain as you start your pull, you want to keep your elbow high and your hand going straight as you reach. Another thing to check is your pull, again keep your elbow high and bring your hand straight back, make sure your hand stays close to your body and does not go away or under your body as it reaches your hip. These are things you can check yourself, slow down your stroke and have a look.

(I really don't know what I'm doing) But I have heard that if you ALWAYS breath on one side - the opposite shoulder takes more of a beating - try bi-lateral breathing!

How often and how far are you swimming?  Does it hurt when you pull underwater or or during arm recovery out of the water?  Dominant breathing side or non-dominant side?

If you're a typical BT triathlete, the pain is likely cause by poor stroke mechanics, not overuse from too much yardage.   If this is the case you should have someone look at your stroke.

If you're a pretty serious swimmer, it could just be plain overuse.

FWIW I just spent 6 months out of the water due to a shoulder problem.  I'm convinced it was cause by a combination of:

1)  Poor stroke mechanics (I was a college swimmer back in the day, but it happens to the best of us )

2)  Poor shoulder flexibility (I never stretched)

3)  Not enough warmup (I'd arrive late to too many 6 am practices)

4)  Diving off the blocks (big jolts to inflexible shoulders when entering the water) a bunch of times at a 3 day swim meet.

5)  Racing sprints (though it might be the diving more than the sprinting)

6)  Back-to-back workouts.  Given all the above problems I need more time to recover.

7)  Swimming butterfly when I knew I shouldn't.

8)  Thinking that I could and should be swimming like I did 25 years ago, though I hadn't swum during 23 of them.

I hope this helps a bit.

Brian 

 I think this covers it. Having managed shoulder pain over the years, it is never a simple equation. If you are not well schooled in swimming technique, it's time to do so now, or get the help from a coach. Barring a traumatic injury, advanced age (65+), or high yardage (7500 to 10,000 a day) and high intensity, you should be able to address it by improving your form.

X2

I had the same exact problem and swithed to alternate breathing (bi-lateral) and it went away.  I am not as comfortable with it yet, so I've tried going back (because I can fly going to only one side) and the pain came right back.  Try breathing to both sides.