By Dr. G. John Mullen, Swimming World Contributor
Dryland training in swimming dates back to early times. Running, push-ups, pull-ups, common military training techniques have been incorporated in swimming training for years. This remained the staple for years, until resistance training. Resistance training began with medicine balls, then progressed to dumbbells and barbells. Arnold made strength cool and everyone wanted to be pro wrestlers or bodybuilders.
Functional movements entered the sport in the 90s, with many doubting bulky bodies for swimming. In the past decade, strength training and full body resistance training have popped it’s head back into swimming training. Current programs have made strength cool again, especially for young women. This promising trend aligns with the current strength and conditioning research.
Like swimming, strength and conditioning training is evolving, but at a much faster rate. I feel this catalyst is money, as there is more money in the strength field. Once ample money enters a field (sorry swimming, you’re not there yet), research and journal publications increase. I’m well aware of the current research shift, as an editor of the NSCA Personal Training Quarterly, I read a lot of research. Yet, one trend I must question is the sole use of a phone phone app for dryland.
Photo Courtesy: Annie Grevers
A short disclaimer, my company is currently designing dryland programming for over a dozen swim clubs. Each one of these arrangements is vastly different based on the needs of the club. A couple are where I am a “digital strength coach.” These relationships have helped me troubleshoot the issues of being a digital strength coach, but still present numerous problems. Once working with more teams, I also abandoned a project for creating a dryland phone phone app. This plan fell apart for a few reasons, but one was my lack of belief (for most swimmers) with a program completely from a phone application.
Here are 8 reasons not to work with dryland phone app…
1. Wrong Muscle Recruitment
No two people swim alike. No two people squat alike. These different muscle recruitment patterns can feed into a slew of problems. In-person demonstration and feedback teaches proper muscular recruitment and provides purpose to the exercise. A dryland phone app can’t monitor form closely; a vital component for ensuring the correct muscles are engaged and the best motor pattern for each person occurs.
2. High Injury Risk
Poor technique, not a bad exercise, result in tissue failure and injury. Do you master swimming technique from a video or from detailed coaching corrections? Why is dryland different? Fatigue also occurs at failure. A dryland phone app can’t monitor exercise failure and points of injury risk.
3. Phone Addiction
We all use our phones too much, resulting in text neck and thumb injuries which didn’t exist years ago. This feeds into this poor posture and injury risk. It also may increase stress, reduce sleep quality and increase psychological disorders.
4. Poor Individualization
Any dryland phone app uses an algorithm. Each algorithm only has so many inputs. These inputs can’t match the complexity of humans, thus individualization is not maximized as much overlap occurs. Therefore, the program is not truly best for each individual. Instead a dryland should use periodiziation, progressions, and regressions which adapt instantaneously.
5. Distraction
Here you go high school swimmer, dryland on your phone! Wait, Instagram is open, not your dryland, shocking…Remember, coaching is not all about performance, but molding individuals. Can a phone mold someone properly? Also, does an phone app build relationships and improve teamwork?
6. Poor Troubleshooting
My knee hurts today, what should I do? Let me ask the phone app and wait a week for a response…How should my feet be positioned during this exercise? Wait a week and get a response, not the end of the world, but slows down the speed of information/feedback.
7. Less Motivation
What is going to motivate you more, a cell phone or someone standing in front of you?
8. More Expensive
Many assume an phone app is cheap, but many cost per user. Therefore, if you run a group of 50 kids, this total cost is going to skyrocket. Many clubs realize they can pass the buck through to the swimmers, but if they could get a competent local strength coach instead, they could actually save money. Many clubs have a dryland phone app create the program, then an in-person strength coach lead this program. Now, this is a viable option (see below), but costly.
This doesn’t mean a dryland phone app doesn’t have a purpose or you can’t make the relationship with a dryland phone app work. Nor should it mean I’m an old man who hates technology. I’m waiting for my interactive proxy, so I can actually cue in real time and ensure they are getting the appropriate motor pattern, muscle activation, and motivation they need and deserve (meanwhile, I’m rolling through eight interns a year, trying to get them up-to-speed on proper dryland programs for swimmers).
Photo Courtesy: Swimming World
What this article should highlight is that if you are an upper level, elite swimmer, or want what is best, you need an in-person strength coach. This strength coach must understand swimming or at least listen to the swim coach about training phases, tapers, etc. This person could also run a program written by a dryland phone app.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to get this to work properly, as it is hard to ensure what you suggest is being done miles away. Many coaches don’t like to be robots and dictate something they didn’t write or worse what they don’t believe in. This includes swimming and strength coaches. Many swim coaches will read this and think they can be the in-person dryland coach, but this isn’t the case. If you want to build the best swimmers, get a certified professional. Certainly some coaches (to give you what I think, maybe one percent) can wear these hats, but having a swim coach lead dryland is like having a diver coach swimming…
Not everyone can find an elite in-person strength due to their location or other constraints. However, I encourage elite swimmers, teams, and motivated individuals to find an in-person strength coach. I know this is work, but if you’re a team interview some local coaches. Don’t lollygag and assume you’ll find a good fit right away. Put in some effort, find an elite coach, and keep making elite swimmers. If you can’t find luck finding a strength coach, study up! Take a certification course, study progressions and regressions and make your dryland the best possible.
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