Swimming injuries should not be the norm.
The problem with any form of physical exercise is that, sooner or later, you’re going to do yourself some damage. This has been true since the first caveman said “Sorry guys, I’m going to have to sit out the woolly mammoth hunt today; the old gammy knee is playing up again. Good luck chaps. I think I’ll go off and collect some nuts and berries with the girls” You may have seen pictures of medieval England where entire villages would turn out for a game of football which was basically a free-for-all with no goals, no pitch and no rules. You’re not telling me that just out of frame there wasn’t a little man in a tracksuit with a bucket of water and a sponge.
And so it has continued, rules and regulation have been introduced, protective clothing developed to an extent where, to the uneducated eye, American football resembles nothing more than a brawl between two groups of motor cycle couriers in ballet tights, but the link between sport and injury persists. So much so that it has just become accepted as the norm. Even with non-contact sports. Like swimming.
A 2012 study by Wanivenhaus, Chaudrey and Rodeo reported that up to 91% of elite US swimmers swim with some sort of injury; usually a shoulder injury in the case of freestylers. And whilst some of them may wonder if this is strictly necessary, presumably the majority just take the stoic approach that injury and pain is part of the deal.
But why? If you are partaking in a boxing match where the whole point of being there is to knock seven bells out of your opponent then I guess it’s reasonable to expect that it’s going to hurt. But swimming isn’t like that. Swimming doesn’t involve any sort of contact with other people; most swims aren’t competitive and, unless you are training for a sprint event, needn’t be strenuous. There are no impacts to be endured, no blows to be taken, no ricochets from a wayward bat, racket or ball. Nothing. It’s just you and the elements. So what is causing so many injuries, and, more importantly, why are we putting up with them? Can they be prevented and, if so, how?
The accepted view seems to be that the causes are due either to over-training or to poor technique.
However, within reason, there is no reason someone shouldn’t be able to swim as much as they like. If over-training was truly the major cause of shoulder injury then all swimmers should find that their problems manifest themselves equally in both sides of the body as swimming is a bi-lateral sport However, it is far more common for issues to be more dominant on just one side.
The real area which needs to be addressed is that of proper technique. When looking for information on swimming injuries there is an abundance of information regarding rehabilitation and recovery, far less on what should surely be the more important topic of preventing the injury in the first place.
And yet many of the problems are easy to identify.
The main element of the shoulder is a ball and socket joint. However, this is relatively shallow affair, more like a golf ball resting on a tee. There are a variety of muscles and tendons surrounding this to keep it in place. If these become compressed then inflammation and pain inevitably follow. So the watchword is always to ensure that any movement is as free, easy, and natural as possible. Dryland practice of movements before getting into the water often enable a swimmer to focus more on whether their shoulder is moving in a natural manner without impingement and to make adjustments if necessary. It is not uncommon to discover that a far wider recovery feels far more comfortable.
Many swim coaches will place an emphasis on the importance of strengthening the shoulders and increasing the mobility of the joint. Whilst not necessarily bad things to do, this shouldn’t be necessary for the average swimmer and indeed, in theory, may even compensate for poor technique which still leads to injury in later life.
Often these same coaches will also be very vocal on the subject of achieving faster swimming. It’s an attractive subject. Many of us would like to be able to swim fast and it’s often one of the stated goals of swimmers when they first come to a coach. However, caution needs to be exercised. Whilst a good technique can easily lead to an increase in swimming speed, the reverse is rarely true. It is far more likely that to focus purely on increasing speed, dangerous and damaging habits will result leading to long-term problems.
One of the features of injuries caused by swimming is that they will often increase gradually over time. As such they can creep up on someone almost un-noticed. Blame for soreness after a swim may be blamed on encroaching old age, general tiredness, natural stiffness in the joints etc. Thus injuries become accepted without their true cause being identified. The truth is that as a non-contact sport, there are very few folk who cannot enjoy a full lifetime of active swimming without putting any undue strain on their body.
A change in one’s mind-set is often required in order to swim safely for a lifetime. First to refuse to accept that injuries are an inevitable part of the sport and second to focus first on understanding how the body moves and using this to lay the groundwork for the development towards a perfect technique. For swimmers, pain and discomfort do not automatically have to be part of the deal. Time invested in knowledgeable and expert coaching can reap rewards and allow this to happen for everyone.