Contributed by Jesse Deucher, Techniq Group Movement Expert
As a strength coach, I have always struggled with the term “dryland training”. Hockey has “off-ice” so it must be something about those of us who play water (frozen or liquid) sports that like to delineate the practice of the sport itself and the training we do in the weight room to support our sports performance. Sometimes I wonder if the desire of swimmers and coaches to clearly demarcate what happens in the water and out of it is why swimming has, in many ways, been so late to implement intelligent strength training for its athletes. I’ll pause my philosophical musings for a moment and get into the heart of the matter: is strength training important for swimmers?
Short answer? Yes.
In a series of three weekly posts, I will be addressing why strength training is important for swimmers, why strength training is often so poorly implemented in the swimming community, and lastly what strength training can and should look like for swimmers.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Today, let’s look at why strength training matters. I’m going to boil it down to three key points:
1. Movement Variability
2. Injury Prevention
3. Improve Athleticism
Movement Variability
Swimming is a highly repetitive sport and with the increase of early sport specificity we have nine and ten-year-olds training six days a week 75-90 minutes per session. That’s a lot of years and hours spent repeating what are largely similar movements before an athlete reaches high school, let alone college, or professional swimming. Strength training allows us to introduce new movements and positions that swimmers don’t encounter in the water. Why is this important? When the body is forced into the same movement or shape repeatedly it typically becomes less and less able to do tasks that fall outside of those familiar patterns. To some that might sound great. If my body is only good at swimming I’ll be an even better swimmer. Unfortunately, what a lack of movement variability usually results in is pain. Whether in the form of a true injury or constant bodily discomfort, a body that cannot “move” is a body that isn’t functioning at an optimum level.
Injury Prevention
You’ve heard of “breaststroker knee” or “swimmer shoulder”? While these problems can occur because of improper technique in the water they can also be caused when an athlete struggles with possessing a sufficient range of motion or strength or has developed compensations that make them a prime target for chronic aches and pains or potentially more severe injuries. While strength training isn’t a foolproof method to prevent injuries, it can help an athlete to recapture qualities they’ve lost in the water and hopefully lead to many more pain-free years of performing in the pool.
Photo by Jesper Aggergaard on Unsplash
Improve Performance
Here are only a few of the ways strength training can contribute to improved performance in the water: increasing absolute power production, increasing shoulder flexion to improve the catch, or even increasing aerobic and anaerobic capacities. I saved this for last, purposely, as we are working under the assumption that everyone wants to improve their performance in the form of swimming faster.
It is also the gateway to the next article, why “dryland” is so often implemented poorly in our sport. Next week, we will explore some common mistakes made in weight rooms and on pool decks that often lead to wasted training hours, and in the worst cases, create a myriad of situations where injuries are likely.
Jesse Deucher is a certified fitness expert, movement specialist and Director of Fitness for Epic Races.