Sports Medicine Dr

[Anonymous]

DC has been struggling with swim all year. We’re aiming to find a sports medicine doctor to see if some thing fixable is going on they can fix (discussions with coach haven’t yielded any real progress). Any suggestions?

We’re in the Burke area but within about a half hour of there would be fine.

[Anonymous]

Could you provide more details on the types of issues? Anything hurting or sore?

[Anonymous]

For months now she hasn't felt "right" in the pool. Stroke's felt off. Biggest odd thing is that typically for meets she says she just feels like her muscles are tired - as if she's already swam before her first meet already. She typically takes training a bit more lightly Aug-Oct during another EC but has been back in the pool as much as last year if not more since Nov and still all her times are slower than last year and don't seem to be headed in an improving direction.

She's at wits end about what else to do so we're tryign to get some other input.

- OP

[Anonymous]

I think you want a PT/athletic trainer. Sports medicine is for injuries.

[Anonymous]

I would start with her primary care physician or pediatrician for bloodwork and maybe referral to a specialist. Also sounds like she could perhaps benefit from a sports nutritionist. Growth and development changes during puberty are also known to change a female swimmer’s stroke and make it feel “off”. I believe there are other threads on this that may be helpful to you. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you want a PT/athletic trainer. Sports medicine is for injuries.

Maybe? Not finding anything much for “athletic trainer, Swimming” when googling though.

[Anonymous]

^
- OP

[Anonymous]

I have two DCs that were heavily into sports. To be honest, neither child’s issues were really resolved by sports medicine doctors. PTs (ones that dry needle) and acupuncture worked the best accompanied by a good strength trainer. The most helpful PTs did not take insurance. Our PT is able to demonstrate how restricted their range of motion is in an area, and then either massage, gun, or dry needle areas to increase motion. He’ll demonstrate the increase afterwards. Often the issue is not exactly where DC is experiencing the pain.

In the case of my DCs generally their issues were related to growth spurts. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I think also age and gender are relevant. I hear girls post puberty complain of this and a lot of it was getting used to that extra energy the hormone surge gave for a few years.

If the timeline fits then nutrition becomes of utmost importance. Lifting, stretching, and enough sleep for recovery.

Protein and the amount needed for recovery is pretty substantial and difficult to hit.

If prepuberty is the swimmer overtraining for their age? Also common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think also age and gender are relevant. I hear girls post puberty complain of this and a lot of it was getting used to that extra energy the hormone surge gave for a few years.

If the timeline fits then nutrition becomes of utmost importance. Lifting, stretching, and enough sleep for recovery.

Protein and the amount needed for recovery is pretty substantial and difficult to hit.

If prepuberty is the swimmer overtraining for their age? Also common.

It might be at least partially this. She’s 17. She does get a fair amount of sleep most nights I think - about 8.5 hours. But is always craving meat so maybe still short on protein? She does eat yogurt, drinks milk, has some protein at lunch and dinner though so I would think that is enough. She does not do dryland due to her schedule conflicts but she did not last year either and that is when she set her PBs and was doing great.

-OP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two DCs that were heavily into sports. To be honest, neither child’s issues were really resolved by sports medicine doctors. PTs (ones that dry needle) and acupuncture worked the best accompanied by a good strength trainer. The most helpful PTs did not take insurance. Our PT is able to demonstrate how restricted their range of motion is in an area, and then either massage, gun, or dry needle areas to increase motion. He’ll demonstrate the increase afterwards. Often the issue is not exactly where DC is experiencing the pain.

In the case of my DCs generally their issues were related to growth spurts. Good luck!

She doesn’t really have pain she is dealing with. More under performance that we cannot figure out what is going on given training is the same or more than last year with worse results for months now.

- OP

[Anonymous]

Piggy backing on protein and calories. When swimming for a few hours every day you are now training at elite level. Rule of thumb is 1 gram or protein per pound of body weight. That is a whole chicken for a 120 pound woman.

She would need 8 yogurts to match that or 15 glasses of milk.

It is actually work to eat as much protein as you need.

[Anonymous]

Iron deficiency (anemia )is pretty common in female athletes due to blood loss and menstruation. Leads to poor oxygen intake and transfer.

[Anonymous]

agree that a sports medicine MD is going to be fairly useless here.

Bloodwork with Ped first to check thyroid/iron/etc, then you could try a performance place like Healthy Baller at Inova or some other ones that have nutritionists on staff.

[Anonymous]

Sports psych? Underperformance in swimming is often a mental block.