Breaststroke Kick Pain

**flabricorn** · November 29th, 2012, 08:37 PM

As a 15 year old high school swimmer, my coach is having me, with our morning and evening practices, to do more of my main stroke, which is breastroke. My goal is by my junior year, to have gone a 59.7 in the 100 yard breastroke, but with four hours a day of working on the stroke, I find that there is a pain where I imagine the joint is between the pelvic bone, and where my leg begins. This happens, I'll sit it out for a few days, and it'll get better, but with a meet coming up in two days, I can't afford to sit it out and wait. Has anyone else had this problem, where you find a groin area pain? Does anyone find a fix for it? (I've gotten some suggestions to try to fix a muscle in the lower back down to the seat area, perhaps I have a knotted muscle?) Thanks for looking at this!

**Debugger** · November 30th, 2012, 08:44 AM

Originally Posted by flabricorn

As a 15 year old high school swimmer, my coach is having me, with our morning and evening practices, to do more of my main stroke, which is breastroke. My goal is by my junior year, to have gone a 59.7 in the 100 yard breastroke, but with four hours a day of working on the stroke, I find that there is a pain where I imagine the joint is between the pelvic bone, and where my leg begins. This happens, I'll sit it out for a few days, and it'll get better, but with a meet coming up in two days, I can't afford to sit it out and wait. Has anyone else had this problem, where you find a groin area pain? Does anyone find a fix for it? (I've gotten some suggestions to try to fix a muscle in the lower back down to the seat area, perhaps I have a knotted muscle?) Thanks for looking at this!

I used to have pain in my knee joint after swimming breaststroke. After I added about 400m kick with board to my warm up I never had this problem. Tell you coach about the pain - you need to stop loading your joint unless pain is gone. I think you can swim other strokes during this time.
The bad thing is if your coach wants you to swim more your specific stroke that can mean that some important event is pretty close and pain in the joint is a very bad sign - if you swim other strokes possibly you won't be able to swim 59.7 this time. But ignoring the problem now can make it much worse in future.

**gobears** · November 30th, 2012, 09:17 AM

Sounds like a possible groin strain. Here are a couple of links:

http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewMiscA...702&ItemId=698

[ame="http://www.usms.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9786"]How to prevent groin injury from breaststroke - U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums[/ame]

http://www.pvaquatic.com/tips_breaststroke.htm

Be careful not to think too short term. Sacrificing a meet or two is better than sacrificing an entire season...

Also - there are quite a few really fast breaststrokers I've known over the years who have had to limit their breaststroke kick training for injury reasons. They worked on other strokes, lots of core strengthening and breaststroke pulling (using fins with a dolphin kick is actually pretty challenging and fun too). They were still fast at the end of their seasons. You don't have to do tons of breaststroke all the time to maintain or even improve your speed. Good luck!

**badrunnergoodswimmer** · November 30th, 2012, 09:52 AM

In my case (male 58), pain is caused by IT band pulling kneecap. Simple solution is foam roller 3-4 x per week for 5 minutes. YRMV

**ande** · November 30th, 2012, 12:11 PM

Originally Posted by flabricorn

As a 15 year old high school swimmer, my coach is having me, with our morning and evening practices, to do more of my main stroke, which is breastroke. My goal is by my junior year, to have gone a 59.7 in the 100 yard breastroke, but with four hours a day of working on the stroke, I find that there is a pain where I imagine the joint is between the pelvic bone, and where my leg begins. This happens, I'll sit it out for a few days, and it'll get better, but with a meet coming up in two days, I can't afford to sit it out and wait. Has anyone else had this problem, where you find a groin area pain? Does anyone find a fix for it? (I've gotten some suggestions to try to fix a muscle in the lower back down to the seat area, perhaps I have a knotted muscle?) Thanks for looking at this!

tell your coach and work with him

If it hurts to kick breastroke,
Don't kick breastroke for a few days
then if you feel OK try again especially before a meet
Also if it starts hurting again, STOP kicking breastroke and do something else
a few weeks ago my left groin hurt when I kicked BR so I stopped, I have a meet tomorrow, I tested it a little today and it feels fine.
Sometimes the pain can be progressive. it's often better to stop at the first sign of pain than to "be tough" kick through it and make it worse.

consider ibuprophen

go see your doctor, work with her

Stretching, massage therapy, & strength training might help

It might help to have a good breastroker watch you kick underwater, the pain might be caused by incorrect technique.