[quote]migrantworker wrote:
belligerent wrote:
I do not recommend weight training for swimming. Strength is simply not a limiting factor in this activity.
this guy has no experience with serious competitive swimming, ignore him
[/quote]Agreed.
There are many world-class swimmers who do dry-land work and many who don’t. You can’t use anecdotal evidence as proof either way.
I’ve been fortunate to be able to say that I’ve trained with and competed against (well, honestly I don’t know if you could say I ‘competed’ - I got destroyed by) world record holders. They were ALL strong and athletic. I can’t say that across the board you’d find that to be the case because I knew one D1 All-American who couldn’t do a single pull-up - I’d say he was an exception though and his success as a swimmer was pretty short-lived.
OF COURSE, technique is all-important. There are no world-class swimmers without great stroke efficiency - NONE. But that doesn’t mean that strength is not a factor and that the weight room is something to be ignored…
It’s sad, but I’ve never seen much in the way of literature for swimming. Most of it is pretty general and written by people who are either swim coaches OR S&C coaches… Unfortunately, most swim coaches are still stuck in the same mentality that was prevalent 30 years ago as far as weight training goes and are worried about their swimmers becoming to bulky, inflexible, etc…
Frustrating…