Should College Swimming Recruits Be Weightlifting?
“Colleges don’t want their swimmers to lift before college.” It’s a statement I’ve heard whispered on countless pool decks, murmured through many a swim meet stands, and mumbled during the swim practice carpool.
A belief has long spread across age-group swimming that weightlifting experience before college could drive away recruiters. Its perceived impact on growth, and the potential “reaching of one’s ceiling,” can scare swimmers away from it altogether. But do college coaches truly discriminate against swimmers with weightlifting experience? Or is lifting a potential tool for college?
Weight Training is Positive – If Done Correctly
Among coaches who weighed in for this article, there was a consensus that lifting before entering college can be beneficial. Many indicated that the training can make the adjustment to college easier.
“If you know what you’re doing when you walk into (a college weight room), and your body doesn’t have to adjust much, that’s something that can lead to a better freshman, sophomore season,” said Peter Verhoef, the coach of the highly regarded high school swim program at The Bolles School. “Working on helping your body adapt to the next step is important.”
Many variables affect incoming freshmen, from schoolwork to being away from home for the first time. Having one less thing to acclimate to could be helpful toward success. With that acclimation, though, must come a focus on safety, according to coaches. The dangers of injury when lifting without proper care could easily jeopardize a swimmer’s future.
“A background in weight training is only good under the guidance and supervision of a trained coach,” said Gregg Parini, the head coach at Division III power Denison University. “We’ve been lifting weights (at that age) since the ‘60s and ‘70s, but under proper supervision and with people who could educate us.”
This “supervision,” however, can be hard to come by. Not every high school or club program has access to a proper weight room, or a licensed trainer. For these swimmers, it would be advisable to wait until they can receive proper guidance to begin weight training. However, there are a plethora of other land options that can aid them in the pool.
“Body-weight exercises can be great,” said Parini. “Pullups, pushups, and dips are all ways to build strength.”
Coach Tim Flannery of Division II Kutztown University stressed his team’s usage of medicine balls as equally effective to his athletes’ work in the gym. “There’s so many movements that you can do that work the core and the shoulders (with the medicine ball),” he said. “It’s a great start to using the major muscles.”
Setting the Weight Room Standard
Swimming is one of the most unique sports in the amount of time that is spent competing. Swimmers compete at full intensity and effort for minutes at a time, with no break or stoppage. This requires a different kind of training than other sports, such as football, where the focus is more on an incredibly powerful and intense few seconds, and then a break.
“The most important thing to me is to be lifting in a way that’s not contradictory to what you’re doing in the pool,” Parini said. The focus, said the coach, should be on movements that apply directly to motions that occur in the pool, rather than just designed to build general strength.
As the coaches pointed out, however, social media has become a growing thorn in their side. Athletes are constantly exposed to “influencer” workouts, which may not be productive toward their success.
“There’s value in (social media),” said Verhoef. “But the goal has to be setting an environment where we’re practicing doing things the right way, as far as movements based in swimming.” He compared the process to that of a swim practice. “It’s the same as doing 6x100s freestyle, as your coach suggests. You’re entering the weight room with a proven plan and executing.”
Weightlifting for Swimming Isn’t One Size Fits All
So what types of movements are most effective in the weight room? According to longtime coach Matt Kredich from the University of Tennessee, this can vary. Kredich described “body composition and mobility,” based on the types of races athletes were swimming, as a key to structuring personalized workouts. Kredich used the lower body of distance swimmers and sprint swimmers as an example.
Photo Courtesy: John Lohn
“The more weight you have in your legs, the harder it is to stay up,” he said. “This is something that might not affect a sprinter, but might impact training stress for a miler, given that they have to train to compete for fifteen minutes.”
This philosophy, Kredich says, has led to a different training regimen for distance swimmers than sprint swimmers.
“Our longer-distance swimmers are likely to do a higher proportion of circuit training,” he said. Generally, circuit training is a high-rep, lower-weight group of exercises, all completed in succession rather than individually. “It creates stress on the body more applicable to what they’re going to face in a race, or during training,” Kredich said.
Meanwhile, world-record holder Jordan Crooks faced a different program, due to his body type. “When he lifted heavy, he put on a lot of muscle, which wasn’t helping his 100s or his 200,” explained Kredich. “So the goal of his training was to develop explosiveness, but not mass.”
The individualism of these programs was important to the swimmers’ growth, a theme emphasized by the coaches.
“The knowledgeable coach will always modify training, to provide swimmers with a program that works for them,” said Parini.
Does Weightlifting Affect Room for Growth?
One of the longstanding myths surrounding weightlifting suggests that lifting weights can stunt physical growth. This way of thinking, however, appears to be outdated. A 2009 peer-reviewed study for the journal Sports Health outlines that strength training “can successfully improve strength and overall health” in youth. Any physical effects, per the study, is generally caused by “improper technique,” not the exercises themselves.
It’s a reason why Verhoef’s strength program at the Bolles School puts a heavy emphasis on learning the movements of weightlifting. “A lot of our workouts early are teaching the kids how to do the workout,” he said, emphasizing that body-weight versions of the motions are used to help the kids learn.
As many of the Coaches pointed out, weightlifting can actually be an effective measure to prevent injury.
“It’s not just about building strength,” said Verhoef. “We can build mobility, coordination, and stability (through lifting).”
These are all aspects that create “better athletes” in the water, a key advantage according to Kredich.
“We want (our athletes) durable, mobile, and resilient,” he said.
Weightlifting is Beneficial, But Not Essential
Weightlifting before college has its benefits, preparing swimmers for college and making them more durable. However, the coaches emphasized that a lack of experience with the training was not a knock on any recruit.
“It just means the learning curve (in the weight room) may be a little bit different and a little bit longer,” Parini said. “But coaches and people working with the athlete will make sure nothing is getting in the way of development in the weight room.”
Kredich agreed, once again citing the need to be lifting correctly to reap benefits.
“It’s not a good or a bad thing if you don’t have experience, as you really need to be able to do it thoughtfully,” he said. “So whenever you can add that element, it’ll help your performance.”
