Three Reasons Why Swimmers Should Train Water Polo

There are probably more than 3 reasons, but as both a swim and water polo coach for the past 25 years, these are my top 3.

 

1) Leg strength - There is never enough time to do kicking sets in practice, at least not as much as we coaches would like. Leg strength and durability is difficult to cultivate and even more difficult to maintain. The quadricep is a very large grouping of 4 muscles and takes a lot of work to develop properly. We all know that it is usually the legs that are first to go in a swimming race. Just watch your swimmer off the wall of a 200 and you'll probably notice a decrease in power and kick rate/tempo.

 

2) Intensity  - Water polo works mainly on short bursts of power and speed. Something that can sometimes be difficult to infuse into a swimmers psyche. We often try to get them "fired up" for a race. The aggressive and intense nature of the swimming done in water polo can be quite beneficial for swimmers that struggle with the ability to really "go for it" and "attack" their races.

 

3) Team Sport - Water polo can help balance the individuality of swimming with a more comprehensive team attitude in which you depend on other players/teammates to work on skills, drills and ultimately play the game. The social and team aspect occur as heads are out of the water more and players become more dependent upon each other to achieve the overall goal of TEAM SUCCESS!

 

As far as the negative aspects of water polo, the main one is usually that it "takes away from swim practice and  stroke technique". This happens when the water polo coaches involved are strictly water polo coaches and do not have a swimming background or even coach or care about swimming. I can assure you at ISLAND Water Polo this will never happen because ALL of our coaches are swim coaches, that are USA Swimming and ASCA certified.

 

So, with that said...

 

Hope to see more of you IA swimmers at polo practice on Wednesday and Friday nights!

 

only USAWATERPOLO Reg. required! - Good for all of 2013!

NO SEASON OR MONTHLY FEES!!