Swimming suggestions

I didn't do very well with helpful advice for you the other day Craig. I worked technique tonight and was thinking about how I might describe some things.

Breathing: I guess one of the key things I notice when I'm doing a good job at not lifting my head up to breathe, is that I really lean on the other shoulder to keep it deep. Of course I'm trying not to let the hand drop while doing this. (it's never simply one thing is it?!). Leaning on that shoulder keeps the head low, which keeps the legs from dropping.
You also might want to think one goggle out of the water and breathing from the side of your mouth. Again, the more forward lean you can maintain, the less your legs drop and drag.

If you are a terrible kicker. Like I was/am. I would have to attribute all of my improvement to the use of zoomers/ fins. If you kick with these fins on and focus on rotation, it exaggerates what your feet are doing so much, you can try different things and actually feel whether what you are doing is effective or not.

Shoulder pain. How relaxed is your recovery stroke? Are you lifting your hand out of the water with a high elbow? Is your hand below your elbow until you pass your ear? Or is it in front of your elbow the whole time? You don't want it in front leading. That won't allow your shoulder any time to rest.
There are a few drills to help with high elbow recovery.
1) Fingertip drag. Lifting from the elbow, lightly drag your fingertips across the top of the water on the recovery stroke, all the way until you drop it back in, in front of you.
2) floppy hand. Lift from the elbow, shake the hand like it's got no muscles in it. until you drop it back in.
3) Armpit touch. none of these drills are easy unless you are getting enough rotation for the high elbow to work. The armpit touch is simply a quick tap at the pit during the recovery stroke. It really shouldn't be much of a challenge to do this, unless you are flat and have a low elbow. I leave this one as the "final test". When I am fatigued, this one is very tough for me.

The other part which might help is to take some of the load off the shoulder during the pull. It seems that if you can manage the "high elbow catch" more muscles are involved and shares the load better. I wish I could describe this but I'm not feeling confident in what I'm doing myself. Watch those videos, you will see that their hands drop down in front at the start of the catch, but their elbow doesn't drop with the hand. This creates a large paddle from your elbow down to your hand which you then pull through. I'd Imagine the Fist Drill Craig mentioned long ago would help your feel for the arm as a paddle action going on here.