Yesterday I noticed that my right arm is croasing over my centre body line to the point that I can’t stop it.
I figure well pretty much know that its due to me having no strength after I get a bit tired.
I can swim the first 2k fine but then as I am tired it happens and I honestly caan’t stop it.
I can make it happen faster if I use paddles.
My times drop off heaps and I really start to struggle.
Any advice on what I could do out of the pool to get some strength or in the pool to correct it?
Correct me if I am wrong…but I believe they say that crossing over the midline is a major cause of shoulder injury.
I have had both of my shoulders scoped (not due to swimming)…so I do try to be careful.
Try this: somebody told me this and it worked really well. When you are swimming…and going for the catch…try to reach for the corners of the pool or the building. Try to visualize that. That helps me from bringing my arms in too much.
Finally, put in lap after lap. I know that when I started swimming, a quarter mile was difficult. The more distance I add now, the easier that quarter or half is.
Yesterday I noticed that my right arm is croasing over my centre body line to the point that I can’t stop it.
I figure well pretty much know that its due to me having no strength after I get a bit tired.
I can swim the first 2k fine but then as I am tired it happens and I honestly caan’t stop it.
I can make it happen faster if I use paddles.
Ok - you’ve identified the mistake, so now you know when it’s happening. If you get tired when you’re swimming and start using bad technique, stop, take some recovery time and see if you can complete the session with good technique. If you do this a few times and it doesn’t work: get out, you’re tired and you’d be wasting your time swimming with bad technique. If you’re tired, you’re tired. So never knowingly swim with your right arm crossing over: as said above, you’ll cause unjury and imbalances.
You would develop a dominant and stronger right side, which can cause over-use and other injuries on that side as it may not be able to cope with the extra pressure placed upon it. Using paddles with a crossing-over arm action is going to exacerabate the extra pressure placed on your right side even more. In addition, you may have trouble swimming in a straight line in o/w conditions. Furthermore, the lateral deviation caused by crossing-over is wasting energy and you are moving yourself to the side instead of forwards, and you waste more energy countering this action with the other arm.
If you’re worried that you may drop mileage due to swimming less as you stop certain sessions when your technique goes awry, swim more often instead - again with no crossing-over at all.
Do you have a coach or someone to look at your technique? Doing coached session to correct this would be a good idea.
One point to help you avoid this tendency is to initially over-compenstate: it’s more mental than physical. At first, keep your right arm away from the midline, particularly at the point in the stroke at which you are prone to crossing-over. This will feel weird, odd and almost wrong to you. But persist, and gradually bring your hand to a more traditional point in the entry-catch-pull-push: again, all outside (but near, where appropiate) the midline. The main reason for this strategy is to develop a new style for your right arm’s progress underwater, you will have to experiment to find the one best for you. But stay away from the midline!
edit: I must point out that over-compensation can, very occassionally & if not done gradually, lead to secondary injuries if you are doing high volume, so the best option is really to see a coach to analyse your stroke.
If you can get a lane to yourself, center your body on the line at the bottom of the pool. Visualize keeping your arms outside of the line; you’ll probably feel like you’re swinging way too wide at first, but I started doing this and dropped 5s off my 100 immediately.
The way of getting rid of crossover that I was always taught was to imagine your head was 12 o’clock, and have youe hands feel like they were going in at 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock.
Remember that if you’ve got any sort of body roll going on, that body roll is going to naturally push your hands/arms toward the midline (or beyond in your case) and even though it feels insanely wide at first, your core is carrying your arms to where they need to be to start the stroke.
It’s also good to do some backstroke while working on ‘10 and 2’. You get a better feel for how wide you’re supposed to be because you’re not having to mess with breathing patterns along with everything else.
Getting stronger or exercising more to get rid of your stroke crossing the midline is more addressing the symptom than addressing the cause.
Obviously, no one knows your background here, but you. So if you already know this, don’t pull out the HATER-ade.
There are a couple of ways to address the center line issue:
Do the catch-up drill with a kickboard. Your right arm should only hit the right edge of the board & not the center or left side. If not, use the board to reinforce the behavior of entering your right arm along its right edge.