Courtesy: Carlos Omana
What’s the aim of dryland for swimmers? Is it to enhance cardio capability? To enhance core energy? Simply extra coaching to get “higher”? Let’s have a look.
The aim of dryland coaching ought to be to enhance the capabilities of the swimmer/s to allow them to swim sooner within the pool. Too typically we nonetheless see swimmers operating miles earlier than or after practices, senseless “core” work, burpees, stadiums, leap rope, bands and even…boxing, as a type of dryland. Do these strategies really make swimmers sooner, or do they make them extra drained?
Swimmers, whether or not sprinter or miler, already spend nearly all of their coaching within the pool enhancing their capability to swim their designated distance as quick as potential whereas limiting fatigue. Let’s dive deeper.
Let’s assume for a second that swimmers have 4 buckets of coaching that they will pour fatigue into in preparation for a race. Every bucket shouldn’t overflow at the price of holding one other bucket much less full. A full bucket would imply they’ve sufficient of this coaching stimulus of their program.
The 4 buckets would come with:
- Cardio
- Pace
- Energy
- Place
In our first bucket, cardio, swimmers are already getting the cardio work they want within the pool and no different type of coaching might be almost as particular as pool work. Working simply makes you a greater runner, boxing makes you a greater boxer, stadiums make you higher at doing stadiums. None of those strategies of coaching will straight or not directly make you a greater swimmer, but, we see many packages have them as staples of their coaching (myself included in highschool and faculty). Not solely do they not make swimmers sooner, they proceed to pour extra fatigue into the cardio bucket all through the season on high of the cardio work within the pool, thus overflowing this bucket.
For our second bucket, velocity, whether or not sprinter or miler, swimmers want some stage of velocity coaching. Pace is the secret. Whoever touches the wall first, wins. It’s no coincidence {that a} swimmer like Katie Ledecky, who can dominate the 400m, 800m and 1500m races may swim the 100m and 200m races at a really excessive stage. Probably the most particular velocity work that swimmers do is within the pool. Hardly ever will we see dryland strategies supposed to enhance velocity capability.
The third bucket, energy, sadly nonetheless has a nasty popularity as a result of it’s thought it makes you “heavy and sluggish”. This might not be farther from the reality. If executed appropriately, energy is a swimmer’s finest buddy. Constructing useful energy makes a swimmer’s physique extra resilient to the calls for of the game, retains their shoulders wholesome, and permits them to be extra environment friendly within the water by enhancing distance per stroke. Nonetheless, nearly all of energy work ought to be restricted to the burden room with the supervision of a energy coach.
The fourth bucket is the hidden gem for a swimmer’s longevity and success. Place is the flexibility to maneuver the physique in accordance with the calls for of the stroke, whereas additionally appropriately producing pressure with out compensations. Let’s take a look at the breaststroke kick for instance. The swimmer bends their knees whereas limiting how far ahead in entrance of the hips the knees go. They then flip their ft out to relax which permits their hips to rise and propel the physique ahead. The suitable place would imply that the swimmer has enough hip rotation, ankle eversion and inversion, and sufficient core energy to tilt the pelvis to carry out a correct kick. If a coach has a swimmer who actually struggles with their breaststroke, it could be extra useful to enhance these capabilities within the swimmer as a substitute of together with random workouts that don’t make a sooner swimmer.
Here’s a common pattern of what a greater dryland can appear like:
- Foam roll/set off level and stretching/mobilizing areas that could be “tight” (latissimus dorsi, pectorals, hip flexors, quadriceps, thoracic backbone, and so on)
- Stabilize these areas of their new ranges of movement by studying to supply pressure with these joints (rows with rotation, banded glute bridge, lateral lunges, lifeless bugs, and so on). The actions might be particular to what the swimmer or workforce wants.
After this, the swimmer has addressed their wants for observe, is heat, in place, and prepared for what their respective stroke calls for from the physique with the intention to achieve success.
Decreasing the necessity for a lot of completely different and inefficient strategies of dryland and sticking to what’s essential has many advantages which embody:
- Much less cumulative fatigue all through the season for sooner swimming extra typically
- Much less cumulative influence on the shoulders holding them pain-free and wholesome
- Improved capability to recuperate from the calls for of observe
- Increased and extra constant pressure outputs within the pool
- Probably shorter taper wanted
- Sooner swimming at massive meets
ABOUT CARLOS OMANA
Carlos Omana, proprietor of White Water Methodology, educated underneath Coach Kirk Peppas and on the College of Florida throughout his swimming profession along with representing Venezuela internationally after his collegiate profession. After swimming, Carlos pursued a profession in energy and conditioning. He graduated together with his M.S. in Human Efficiency and obtained certifications as a Licensed Energy and Conditioning Specialist, USAW Degree 1 Efficiency Coach, Efficiency Enhancement Specialist, and Licensed Bodily Preparation Specialist. In 2024, he began White Water Methodology which goals to assist swimmers and coaches deal with physiological obstacles equivalent to joint discomfort, method points, energy, energy, mobility, and so on. White Water Methodology is reinventing and enhancing the old fashioned dryland coaching that swimmers know all too properly.
