Dryland Training for Maximizing Swimming Performance

"This is the most useable dryland video I have seen. My job is not to develop athletes who are great in the gym. My goal is to develop fast swimmers and this video is all about helping me achieve that goal. I plan to start shamelessly borrowing drills and ideas from this video on the pool deck tomorrow."
- Sandy Avery, coach for Naval Academy Aquatic Club (NAAC) in Annapolis, MD

Learn how to improve the performances of your swimmers even when your pool and weight room aren't available.

Braden Holloway, 2013 ACC Men's Swim Coach of the Year, shares a dryland program that can be executed on deck. This effective program is broken down into three phases that parallel seasonal training phases: Endurance, Strength and Speed.

Holloway uses a creative mix of exercises to improve the swimmer's overall athleticism, which directly translates into improved swimming performance. He also describes how each type of exercise fits into the three phases of the seasonal plan.

Throughout the season, Holloway ensures that dryland workouts always mimic his water and weight room workouts so that all of the swimmers' work is directly transferable to fast swimming.

The Endurance Phase
This segment showcases 17 exercises designed to help the swimmer hold a great body line in the water. A great body line is the key to maximizing efficiency and minimizing drag. The exercises - including body position drills, medicine ball drills, and boxing drills - tax specific muscle groups and build up core strength and body connections.

The Strength Phase
This phase is designed to transition from endurance to increased muscular strength. Overlapping with the Endurance Phase, the Strength Phase focuses on six pull-up exercises. Pull-ups closely relate to all of the swimming strokes. Holloway demonstrates pull-up variations and discusses how the sets change in duration and intensity through the different training phases of a season. This phase transitions from a focus on the number of repetitions of each exercise to increasing the speed at which the exercises are performed.

The Speed Phase
The speed phase is the last phase before going into a major competition. The goal of the nine exercises in this segment is to develop hand and foot speed to improve swimming performance. Reaction drills and dryland start drills are incorporated to improve the power and speed coming off of the blocks.

Coach Holloway does a great job of explaining each drill and how the drills can be used to improve performance. He provides a season plan for coaches to see how to incorporate these phases together and the timing of when and how long to do the exercises in each phase to help swimmers meet their goals.

These dryland training exercises are an effective complement to your pool and weight room practices and will help your swimmers build maximum sustainable speed in the water.

46 minutes. 2015.