For years, scientists, coaches, and trainers have attempted to identify the one best way to train athletes, this includes dryland workouts for swimmers too! There are entire strength and conditioning career paths devoted to training athletes in the weight room to make them better.
In swimming, this comes in the form of dryland workouts. But, our knowledge of the importance of dryland has changed enormously. Over the years, dryland has transformed. As a sport, we have gone from performing a few body-weight exercises on the pool deck to looking at dryland as an essential part of almost every swimmers’ training regimen. We have changed our thinking from pro athletes being the primary beneficiaries of dryland training to harnessing the positive impact it has on an athlete, starting with our youngest swimmers.
As the sport of swimming evolves and gets faster, dryland now plays a crucial role in aiding our athletes to reach their full potential. Swimmers are not fish out of water. To be more athletic out of the water is to be faster in the water.
In fact, there are many ways swimmers can train on land in order to become healthier and faster in the pool. When designing a dryland program or choosing a quality training regimen, there is a plethora of information available – perhaps too much. There are countless examples of ways dryland can be used to address swim-specific principles and make swimmers more athletic.
When evaluating a dryland program, it should be clear how these principles are being achieved in each session. Therefore, we offer the following key dryland goals to aim for in your dryland workouts:
1) Athleticism
Swimming requires athletes to get in some pretty extreme positions. Think of the backstroke start or the catch position in freestyle. These are not “natural” positions for the body. It takes a good bit of training, technique work, and mobility to achieve a smooth stroke.
Oftentimes, coaches will repeat themselves until they are blue in the face trying to get a swimmer to change a part of their stroke to make it more efficient. However, sometimes the athlete is simply lacking the mobility or body awareness to make that change.
Through dryland, the swimmer can be trained in different ways in order to achieve better positions in the water. This is achieved by using land-based exercises that improve mobility and overall strength. On land, gravity, ground reaction forces, and weight training equipment can help the swimmer develop the proper function and body awareness to pick up on coaching cues in the water. Some other variables that can be addressed on land include reactivity, speed, power, coordination, resiliency, and rhythm.
So, should we simply do the same movements on land as we do in the water? Of course not.
In fact, that would probably be counter-productive and may cause injury. An optimal dryland program will address these attributes through a concept known as dynamic correspondence. This means that while the movements in the program will not be the exact same as the ones in the pool, the exercises performed will transfer to the sport of swimming and give the swimmer the same desired results.
A simple example of this would be a squat. Think about how many times the swimmer will end up in a squat position during a race. Practically every flip-turn and the start involves getting into a modified squat position. By loading the squat on land, it will become stronger and more explosive in the water and off the blocks. Therefore, better athletes on land become faster swimmers in the water.
2) Strength
While athleticism may be an appropriate umbrella term for the most important reason to do dryland, strength is the fundamental quality that makes an athlete move better and faster. Strength is defined as the ability to produce force. Even if you have a beautiful stroke in the pool, strength is what determines who will win the race.
Strength is “the mother” of all other qualities needed in swimming. Strength acts as the building block to all other abilities. For example, power is the ability to generate strength in one maximal effort. Furthermore, endurance is the ability to produce strength over a sustained period.
Athletes cannot generate power or endurance without strength. It is extremely important for a dryland program to be centered around strength rather than just fitness. The water is a great place to condition, but if swimmers are leaving dryland tired rather than stronger, they are missing out on the main reason to train outside of the pool.
3) Capacity
Practice makes perfect. The more capacity an athlete can train, the faster they can become in the water. This takes time, but dryland accelerates the process. Yes, this refers to the ability to swim greater volumes, but more importantly, it refers to the ability to be resilient. In fact, when programs run their athletes over their capacity, injuries can happen.
Unfortunately, most swimmers experience a significant injury at some point in their careers. Usually, injuries set the athlete back in training and require them to spend time away from the pool while they heal either simply resting or in physical therapy. By implementing dryland exercises that prevent the athlete from being injured, the swimmer will have more potential and longevity in the sport.
Making sure the dryland program is balanced with both injury prevention exercises, commonly known as “pre-hab” and seeing that the dryland program carries the right amount of volume per session can be a great safeguard in preventing injury with swimmers. More does not always equate to better. The dryland program should be challenging, but the main goal should be increasing the athlete’s capacity rather than just making them tired.
Become SURGE Strength Dryland Certified (SSDC) to learn more about these principles of writing dryland workouts.
When you are looking at a dryland program, athleticism, strength, and capacity should be easily identifiable within each session. There should be exercises in each session that have a specific purpose to increase power, gain strength, or prevent injury. An optimal dryland program is going to create a better athlete, and better athletes always produce faster swimmers.
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BUILD BETTER ATHLETES TO GENERATE FASTER SWIMMERS
Courtesy of SwimSwam’s exclusive dryland training partner, SURGE Strength.
SURGE Strength, a strength training brand of RITTER Sports Performance, aims to build better athletes and faster swimmers through dryland programs, and coaching education.
