Calling all USMS members. Your response to this post will be used to create an article in Swimmer magazine about cross training. What types of training do you most commonly do outside of the pool? How often? What cross training works the best, and what types are the least helpful for swimming? :bliss:
That sounds like an excellent reason -- perhaps the best reason ever -- to have another long conversation with Fort about swimming.
+1. Jedi level.
Jim and I just had a long conversation about MRIs, and I'm not sure he listened that time either!
Jim has a distaste for weights (and the so-called meatheads who engage in lifting), and thus greedily seizes upon every tiny suggestion, innuendo or opinion that strength doesn't help swimming. However, despite this, he is known to spend time covertly nautilus-ing about at the Y.
Jim and I just had a long conversation about MRIs ...
See, it worked!
Jim has a distaste for weights ... despite this, he is known to spend time covertly nautilus-ing about at the Y.
Though many of us claim to be devotees of the Val Method (TM), I suspect at least a little iron is sometimes displaced, albeit behind the curtain. :)
The very legitimate option "none of the above" is not a choice on the poll!
Laura Val: "I don't cross-train, I don't do weights, I don't run, or anything like that ..."
Morning Swim Show, Laura Val Interview, April 9, 2009 - YouTube, @ 3:10 ff.
Sir I take offense!! (just kidding) - However - I DO play tennis to cross train for my swimming. I absolutely hate running, but I know it would help my leg strength - I run a LOT playing tennis - I also feel that I improve my arm strength - especially as I change hands playing with my racquet...I think my swimming makes my tennis better and vice versa.
I agree there are many aspects that are mutually beneficial. Like you, I am not a fan of running by itself, so I am far more likely to enjoy a sport that simply has running as a component. That being said, I wouldn't find anything to be a worthy substitute of simply swimming more (except for sprinters). I played kickball every week this summer and fall, but that was more for fun than anything else. My barb was strictly for the golfers :)
(with the possible exception of JazzHands, who has his own theories of which I do not want to become ensnarled in debate.)
I think our long talk during the Baltimore/VA car ride sealed it for me. You're the only person I know who could have such a long conversation with Fort about swimming and come away having learned nothing.
Perhaps because swimming is such an individualistic sport, devotees may be less interested in more team-oriented approaches. But I am a little surprised that options like basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, and the like aren't included (other than in the "other" category). Surely I am not the only masters swimmer who enjoys doing something as far from swimming as one can get, in my case, tennis (occasionally singles but more often doubles) where victory doesn't depend solely on the pitiless timing system but can be influenced by factors unrelated to pure physicality, such as trash talking.
But I am a little surprised that options like basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, and the like aren't included (other than in the "other" category). Surely I am not the only masters swimmer who enjoys doing something as far from swimming as one can get, in my case, tennis...
Cross-training means the exercise is intended to improve or supplement your swimming. If someone claimed they golfed as cross training for swimming, I would recommend they see a psychiatrist.
I'm guessing you play tennis because it's fun, not because you think it's going to help you in the pool. The options in the poll are the most likely means of cross training. Of course running is a component of many sports, so you could make a case for other options, but it's easier to not have 50 poll options.
Perhaps because swimming is such an individualistic sport, devotees may be less interested in more team-oriented approaches. But I am a little surprised that options like basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, and the like aren't included (other than in the "other" category). Surely I am not the only masters swimmer who enjoys doing something as far from swimming as one can get, in my case, tennis (occasionally singles but more often doubles) where victory doesn't depend solely on the pitiless timing system but can be influenced by factors unrelated to pure physicality, such as trash talking.Agreed! I love my Sunday afternoon soccer matches for all of the above reasons. While soccer may keep my waistline down a little, I don't see it as effective cross training for swimming. Come Monday morning, I'm usually nursing a variety of aches an pains. Plus, I'm one bad slide tackle or mis-planted foot away from a nasty injury. On the other hand, swimming is great cross-training for soccer. A 90 minute match is aerobically no problem for me and I do no running outside of playing soccer.
