I have been looking at or thinking about why and how the shoulders operate in the FS stroke.
Prompted after reading the Speed Demon swim book. ( eg. shoulders "heaving" while swimming.)
Top swimmers can swivel with no torso lift, the head is absolutely rock steady as if on a steel cable down the lane.
In contrast, I expose (or have dry) a lot of upper torso and back area - which doesn't look right. Also my arms are typically running flatter in recovery.
Furthermore at the pool on Tuesday there were two great examples of this attribute.
Swimmer #1, IM racer - pretty good pace
Swimmer #2 , crazy smooth, easy stroke rate yet much faster, than any of us.
Swimmer#2 looked like his back was made of rubber vs Swimmer #1.
Well today at my Physio appointment, without any discussion about swimming, I found the answer. The PT said my thoracic region is blocked (or fused up). "We need to get that thoracic region loosened off or moving again properly on its own" and she gave me a specific shoulder-only rotation drill done off the Yoga child's pose. The idea is to keep the lower back neutral and stable, while building rotational ROM in the upper half of the spine.
She said swimming alone will not accomplish this, because you will simply transfer the rotation down toward the lower back.
Anyway for all the struggling runners and cyclists that take up swimming, beside shoulder joint mobility, this has to be one of the defining factors. And like most things in swimming, virtually an invisible issue to the untrained eye.
Training Tweets: https://twitter.com/Jagersport_com
FM Sports: http://fluidmotionsports.com
Prompted after reading the Speed Demon swim book. ( eg. shoulders "heaving" while swimming.)
Top swimmers can swivel with no torso lift, the head is absolutely rock steady as if on a steel cable down the lane.
In contrast, I expose (or have dry) a lot of upper torso and back area - which doesn't look right. Also my arms are typically running flatter in recovery.
Furthermore at the pool on Tuesday there were two great examples of this attribute.
Swimmer #1, IM racer - pretty good pace
Swimmer #2 , crazy smooth, easy stroke rate yet much faster, than any of us.
Swimmer#2 looked like his back was made of rubber vs Swimmer #1.
Well today at my Physio appointment, without any discussion about swimming, I found the answer. The PT said my thoracic region is blocked (or fused up). "We need to get that thoracic region loosened off or moving again properly on its own" and she gave me a specific shoulder-only rotation drill done off the Yoga child's pose. The idea is to keep the lower back neutral and stable, while building rotational ROM in the upper half of the spine.
She said swimming alone will not accomplish this, because you will simply transfer the rotation down toward the lower back.
Anyway for all the struggling runners and cyclists that take up swimming, beside shoulder joint mobility, this has to be one of the defining factors. And like most things in swimming, virtually an invisible issue to the untrained eye.
Training Tweets: https://twitter.com/Jagersport_com
FM Sports: http://fluidmotionsports.com
