How Do Top Distance Swimmers Train In The Gym? Top Coaches Reveal Their Secrets
Strength training for sprinters has become a swimming phenomenon.
Sprinter Cam McEvoy’s success has sparked a new wave of sprinters eager to adopt the star’s methods. Many across the swimming sphere are testing different methods, combining more technically focused work in the pool with a heavy load in the weight room.
A debate between coaches continues to rage on. How much time should sprinters spend in the pool, and at what intensity should they swim? What should they do in the gym? This discussion also triggers the question: How should these sprint training discoveries affect how their distance swimmer counterparts train?
For decades, distance swimmers have seemingly followed a similar program in the pool. The athletes often engage in high-volume practices, focused on holding an aerobic threshold. What these swimmers do in the weight room is less well-known.
Many sprint swimmers, like McEvoy, are widely known to prioritize strength training outside of the water. The approach towards distance swimmers, however, can be much more variable, as found by multiple interviews conducted by Swimming World. University of Texas strength coach Michael Hanson explained that there are many different philosophies toward how to prepare distance swimmers for meet day.
“Some people think distance swimmers should train just like sprinters (in the gym) in terms of power, (and) some people believe it should be lots of multi-rep efforts with volume, and some are in between,” he said.
Strength trainers face a tough balancing act. They must ensure distance swimmers get stronger, without overworking them amid their already-high volume.
“We want to preserve our swimmers’ shoulders, and maximize strength gains, without wrecking their nervous systems,” said Alonzo Williams, the strength coach for top club team the Sandpipers of Nevada.
By perfecting this balancing act, swimming’s best strength coaches are working to build a generation of stronger, healthier distance swimmers.
Making Good Distance Swimmers Great
Across all of sprint swimming, one word has become synonymous with success: “power.”
The ability to create instant propulsion through the water is something that many of the world’s top sprinters emphasize as essential, in such short races. Tennessee head coach Matt Kredich explained this focus to Swimming World Magazine in May.
“We work on full-body strength/power, to ensure we can replicate fast movements in the pool,” Kredich said. “For us, it’s about a high intent to move weight fast.”
In distance races, the need for that instant burst of speed is less essential. But according to Hanson, it’s still a factor. The coach explained that he breaks speed in swimming into four categories. One is the aforementioned “ability to express force.” But it also includes “the energy you have available to you” aerobically, “the ability to reduce drag,” and the swimmer’s overall mass.
“All of these factors can weigh in different ways, depending on the event,” Hanson said. “In a distance event, the factor of anaerobic/aerobic capacity matters more, but the ‘force expression’ is still needed.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by top strength coach Vern Gambetta. Gambetta has trained many elite distance swimmers over the years, including Summer McIntosh. He stressed that while swimming isn’t “one size fits all,” certain variables are important for all swimmers.
“Strength training, flexibility, and (body) awareness are all needed to make a complete swimmer,” he said.
In practice, this means that the trainers often utilize similar movements for their distance groups and their sprinters. William uses many of the areas of the traditional movements needed for functional strength – squatting, hinging at the hips, pushing, and lunging – along with “explosive movements” like medicine-ball throws and jumps, in his work with the Sandpipers. He says that these movements help create a better athlete, and therefore a better distance swimmer.
“We always say we want our swimmers to have an upper body like a wide receiver, and a lower body like a marathon runner,” he said.
Hanson views this functional strength as especially important when it comes to elite swimmers. In his eyes, elite distance swimmers often already have “great energy systems” after years of swimming experience. Where they can make up ground, is in their strength.
“The expression of force can be a real difference between these milers in the A-final,” he said. “We’re not working on it quite as much as (sprinters), but we know it helps them maximize their potential.”
Turns, Starts Remain A Focus
Sixty-five times, a swimmer launches themselves into the wall in the 1650 freestyle, flipping and propelling themselves into their next lap. In the 50 freestyle? The exchange happens just once. It’s an important discrepancy between distance swimming and sprint swimming. And yet, according to strength coach Gambetta, the focus remains the same: coming out of every wall efficiently.
“The intensity (of the race) is different, but it’s still important to make those turns count,” Gambetta said. “So many races are won and lost by the 10 meters in and out of the wall, rather than the 30 meters in between.”
One of the most popular ways to improve on these transitions is to emphasize the aforementioned “explosive movements.” Just like McEvoy and other top sprinters, the best distance swimmers look to practice getting off the wall with speed and efficiency.
“It goes back to maximizing your potential as a swimmer,” he said. “The swimmers who do the best, maximize the force they produce in the water, and that includes underwater.”
By combining these movements with a heavy mental focus in the pool, Gambetta believes there’s an opportunity for swimmers to make up serious ground.
“What you do out of the pool is preparation for what you do in the pool,” he said. “And then it’s about implementing at practice, and making it count.”
Shouldering The Load
Perhaps the greatest difference between sprinters and distance swimmers is the amount of swimming they take on in the water. Distance swimmers’ high-yardage practices often consist of more volume than the “anaerobic, race pace training with intention” that Kredich pointed out as essential to sprint swimming.
Because of the additional repetitive motion for the distance athletes, Williams stressed that his club focuses on mobility in the major joints, especially the shoulders.
“We want to preserve the shoulders, especially during phases of training where there’s a lot of swimming,” he said. “About a third of the time these athletes spend with me is focused on increasing and maintaining the stability of the hips, shoulders, and thoracic spine.”
These movements are also a large part of Texas’ workouts under Hanson. He sees them as not just a way to prevent injuries, but also a path to “reducing drag.”
“Our strength and resilience in all positions is very important,” Hanson said. “Things like robustness of the shoulder, and the ability of the shoulder blade/rib cage to move in all directions, can be a real difference-maker.”
All of these movements, per Williams, help distance swimmers endure their taxing load in the pool.
“We want to ensure there aren’t any muscular imbalances,” he said. “It’s about maximizing our strength gains, without wrecking our nervous systems.”
Save the Swimming For the Pool
By building a strong, fast, and flexible athlete, the strength coaches all have seen their swimmers thrive in recent years. Their methods differ slightly. For example, Gambetta spoke of often utilizing a circuit format with kettlebells and dumbbells. However, they all emphasized one theme: Avoid attempting to replicate swimming movements with movements in the gym.
“Gym training needs to be appropriate, not specific,” Gambetta said. “You can’t effectively replicate water movements on land, but you can become better connected (with your body), so you can make improvements in the water.”
Williams referred to avoiding swimming movement replication in the gym as simply “staying in his lane.”
“We’re trying to increase strength, speed, and efficiency of their system, so that the swim coaches can groove their stroke mechanics into proper positions,” he said.
To Hanson, the focus on improving the athlete outside of the pool speaks to the overall goal: Becoming supplementary to their work in the water.
“With these athletes’ volume in the water, we don’t want to be wasting their time (in the gym),” he said. “The goal is to help them maximize their force generation and expression, and keep them healthy and strong.”
