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I have, again, chosen the Pull stage of Freestyle swimming. This time I turn to the shoulder. The correct sequence of movements in the shoulder, when linked with the arms and Thoracic rotation is essential to the performance of an effective freestyle stroke.  

Ive seen many attempts at doing exercises for freestyle and most of them do not sequence the moves correctly, and if performed like that in the water would lead to a poor stroke, especially in relation to the ‘sweep’ and the thoracic rotation. This would result in incorrect neurological pattern / sequence learning and poor performance. (Swimming is 80% technique). Im sure we have all seen a person with a poor style whos arms don’t lift out of the water one side resulting in a splash due to incorrect shoulder movement.

I have split the pull into 3 steps this time

Step 1a:             from the entry of the hand to the ‘catch’

Step 1b:             from the ‘catch’ sweeping the arm back into the body across the chest – first part of the ‘S’

Step 2:               from the forearm across the chest to exit with the hand neat the thigh - completing the ‘S’

The first and second steps are then repeated with the opposite side of the body whist recover above the water takes place. Note that the hand is adjacent to the thigh at the end of the pull stage. The body has rotated 90 deg. So that recover can take place by abduction (and not extension). Excessive shoulder extension, due to lack of rotation, can damage the sub-acromial space and lead to ‘swimmers shoulder’ type injury.

The motions shown in the videos are a little different to the ‘Thoracic’ module videos since this time I have included the full ‘S’. Again the movements assume a standing position on land in order that the movements can be seen – although they could also be practiced in the water following the land drills.

                           Function Video