number and range of athletes - athletic business · number and range of athletes ... wrestling...

86 ATHLETIC BUSINESS July 2003

An increasing

number and range of athletes

are experiencing firsthand the strength-

conditioning and injury-prevention

benefits of aquatic exercise.

86 ATHLETIC BUSINESS July 2003

An increasing

number and range of athletes

are experiencing firsthand the strength-

conditioning and injury-prevention

benefits of aquatic exercise.

AB JULY-aquatic exercise 6/12/03 3:43 PM Page 86

To kick off the season, each fall the Penn State Uni-

versity football team holds a party at the outdoor

pool of the university’s McCoy Natatorium, where Nit-

tany Lion players often ham it up in the pool. It’s this

horseplay that sometimes puts Tom Griffiths, Penn

State’s director of aquatics, a little on edge. “When we

have 350-pound linemen walking up to our 10-meter

tower, we get a little nervous,” he says. “Then they start

wrestling around in the pool and I start worrying about

someone blowing out a knee.”

Despite Griffiths’ reservations, the Nittany Lions are

apparently just as comfortable in the water as they are

on the football field, thanks not to their annual pool

party, but rather to their regular aquatic cross-training

sessions held in any one of McCoy Natatorium’s three

indoor pools (a shallow warm-water instructional pool,

a 10-foot-deep competition pool and a 14-foot-deep,

warm-water diving well). A spinoff of aquatic exercise

that has traditionally been used to rehabilitate injured

athletes, aquatic cross-training is increasingly being

used by elite athletes and teams interested in improv-

ing strength and performance.

At Penn State, football isn’t the only athletic program

to have caught the water bug. The school’s track and

field, softball and women’s basketball teams all have

regularly worked out in the pool. Because aquatic

cross-training can be specialized for a variety of court

or field sports — from tennis to baseball to volleyball —

the exercises prescribed generally mimic the move-

ments of each sport. “If you’re a jumper, you jump. If

you’re a baseball player, you swing a bat. If you’re a ten-

nis player, you swing a racquet,” says Lynda Huey, co-

author of The Complete Waterpower Workout Book

(Random House, 1993) and director of Huey’s Athletic

Network, a fitness consulting company in Santa Monica,

Calif.

And as the athletes refine their techniques, the

water’s low gravity allows them to rest overworked

joints and tendons. Despite near weightlessness in the

water (chest-deep water reduces the body’s weight by

two-thirds; waist-deep water reduces it by half), the ath-

letes still give their muscles as challenging a workout as

they would on land. “They’re not having to pound on the

knees, ankles, hips or back, but they’re still doing the

same kind of anaerobic work,” says Huey. “Their heart

July 2003 ATHLETIC BUSINESS 87

S P E C I A LI S S U E

BY MARVIN BYNUM

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July 2003 ATHLETIC BUSINESS 87

BY MARVIN BYNUM


rate is still getting up to 180, 190, 200 beats a

minute. It’s the same workout, but without

the pounding.”

“Oftentimes on land, athletes do not work

core stabilization muscles,” adds Tim Fre-

son, fitness coordinator for Washington

State University Health & Wellness Services,

which offers personalized aquatic cross-

training programs. “The water forces ath-

letes to work on those muscles, which are

critical for most movements and functions.”

Aquatic cross-training also presents elite

athletes with a welcome change of pace.

“Think of an athlete who has to deal with

the drudgery of training on land over and

over again, and as a result, has muscle

soreness,” says Joseph Krasevec, a part-

time instructor in Georgia State University’s

Department of Kinesiology and Health and

author of Hydrorobics (Human Kinetics,

1985). “If you get him or her into the water,

it changes the exercise environment. It’s

more refreshing to the athlete.”

Yet not all coaches are sold on the bene-

fits of aquatic exercise. Some view it as a

waste of time and others are afraid of being

thought of as foolish for having their ath-

letes “play around” in a swimming pool. But

if these fears have prevented some coaches

from taking the plunge, it hasn’t stopped

the athletes themselves. Huey has worked

independently with a number of notable

Olympic track and field champions, includ-

ing heptathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee and

sprinters Carl Lewis and Inger Miller. After

being selected as the fifth pick in the 1995

NFL draft, quarterback Kerry Collins

heeded the advice of legendary coach Bill

Walsh and took to the water to work out a

minor hitch in his throwing arm. Collins

adhered to a simple routine of resistance

exercises that involved fanning the water

with an open palm to correct the problem.

Less than six years later, Collins led the

New York Giants to their first Super Bowl

appearance in 10 years. Says Griffiths, who

observed some of Collins’ workouts in

McCoy Natatorium, “It seems that athletes,

regardless of the sport, are becoming very

well-rounded.”

“Athletic training in the water is valuable

in the sense that you gain that winning

edge,” adds Krasevec. “The bottom line is

that athletes who cross-train in the water

are going to neutralize the damage they’ve

done to their joints in normal training on

land.”

Those coaches who believe in aquatic

exercise generally will team with phys-

ical therapists, athletic trainers and consul-

tants like Huey to develop specialized

programs for their athletes. There are also

a number of organizations offering educa-

tional training in aquatic exercise, including

the Aquatic Exercise Association (www

.aeawave.com) and the U.S. Water Fitness

Association (www.uswfa.com).

Some aquatic exercise specialists receive

more aerobics-based training, while others

may come from a sports medicine back-

ground. Regardless of their education,

aquatic exercise specialists agree that more

often than not, their first programming

challenge in aquatic cross-training is help-

ing athletes who may be inexperienced

swimmers to overcome their fear of water.

Even though the human body is naturally

programmed to relax in aquatic environ-

ments (imagine a bubble bath or a day at

the beach), Huey found that most of her

clients weren’t comfortable in the water

when she first began training elite track and

field athletes in the early ’80s. Today, many

of those individuals are now coaches them-

selves, and have become strong advocates

of aquatic exercise. “They’re using what

they learned for their own athletes,” Huey

says of her former students. “They’ve been

doing it for enough years that it’s no longer

strange to them.”

Still, many elite athletes may feel as if

they have a right to be a little concerned

when taking to the water. Because of their

high concentration of lean muscle mass,

elite athletes tend to be less buoyant than

the average swimmer. To counteract this

lack of buoyancy, aquatic exercise special-

ists often outfit athletes with buoyancy

vests or belts. Vests are typically used for

training in deep water (making the body

essentially weightless), while belts are used

for shallow-water sessions (a belt reduces

one’s weight by 80 percent in chest-deep

water).

But flotation devices are just the tip of

the iceberg in aquatic exercise equipment.

Participants employ a variety of training

tools, including support equipment (such

as therapy bars and hand buoys), resis-

88 ATHLETIC BUSINESS July 2003 www.athleticbusiness.com

AQUATIC EXERCISERS EMPLOY A VARIETY OF TRAINING TOOLS, INCLUDING ELASTIC TETHERS,WHICH ARE USED FOR RUNNING-IN-PLACE INTERVALS.

“THEY’RE NOT

HAVING TO POUND ON

THE KNEES, ANKLES,HIPS OR BACK, BUT

THEY’RE STILL DOING

THE SAME KIND OF

ANAEROBIC WORK.”

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Few people are more familiar with thebenefits of aquatic exercise than

those involved with USA Swimming, whichtrains America’s elite swimmers fornational and international competition.The Colorado Springs, Colo.-based orga-nization is on the forefront of technologyused to train and develop faster andstronger swimmers, partnering with severalcompanies and investing considerableresources into biomechanics and physiol-ogy research.

Earlier this year, Russell Mark, USA Swim-ming’s biomechanics coordinator, beganresearching how computational fluiddynamics, or CFD, affects swimmers in thewater. CFD is a science that focuses on theproperties of airflow and has traditionallybeen used to design aircraft. Mark hopesthat the same CFD principles engineersuse to build powerful jets can be used todevelop faster, more efficient swimmingtechniques. “It will enable us to visualizewhat’s going on in the water, in terms of flow,” he says. “This is along-term project, but ideally, we hope to design the perfectstroke based on each person’s body type, strengths andweaknesses. I think it will really open up many new doors forswimmers.”

In the meantime, USA Swimming’s efforts to help swimmersdevelop the perfect stroke have led to the introduction ofDartSwim, a product of the organization’s partnership with Dart-fish, an international company that develops digital-imagingapplications for sports. The Swiss company is responsible forthe SimulCam (which superimposesone video image over another for pre-cise comparison, as seen during down-hill skiing events) and StroMotiontechnologies (sequential frame-by-frame captures of an athlete in action),which debuted during broadcasts ofthe 2002 Winter Olympics. StroMotionresurfaced with TNT’s coverage of the2003 NBA All-Star Weekend and play-offs (the network dubbed the technol-ogy “TotalMotion”). DartSwim utilizessuch video-analysis technology andincorporates existing footage from USASwimming’s video library to offer swim-mers and their coaches a techniqueeducation and evaluation system.

The DartSwim software — which isavailable to coaches and swimmers at all competitive levels— allows coaches to convert digital video of their swimmersinto editable files that can be instantaneously analyzed andcompared with either previous training sessions or with videoclips of champion swimmers demonstrating their winning tech-niques. Coaches can even draw and make personalizednotes on-screen, and either e-mail video files to an athlete’shome computer or post them on a private-access web site.

“The key challenge as a coach is sharing observations. Theathlete may have the perception, ‘I did it like this,’ and thecoach will say, ‘No, you didn’t. During that stroke, your elbowangle was like this.’ There’s a huge gap between the coach’sobservation and the athlete’s perception,” says VictorBergonzoli, president and U.S. general manager of Dartfish.“This software helps the coach communicate better.”

Because DartSwim allows for immediatevideo analysis — offering such features aspicture-in-picture and split-screen play-back — Bergonzoli says that swimmersbetter commit to memory their coaches’instructions. “It takes between 15 and 20seconds for your brain to realize what youdid,” he says. “If you can show somethingto the athlete within 15 or 20 seconds, heor she will train better and quicker. That’s afact.”

While DartSwim has served as an extraset of eyes with which to monitor swim-mers’ strokes, another tool also pioneeredby USA Swimming is helping coaches bet-ter understand what makes their athletestick on the inside. Portable blood-lactateanalyzers are increasingly being used toexamine the levels of lactic acid in swim-mers’ blood.

Lactic acid, a byproduct of anaerobicmetabolism (glycolysis), is produced inthe muscles when not enough oxygen

exists to supply energy using the aerobic metabolic system.During aerobic or moderate exercise, the body generally hasenough oxygen to create energy. Yet during intense exercise,the body switches to anaerobic metabolism to create energy,and the body works without oxygen for brief spells. It’s duringthese moments that lactic acid begins to build up in the mus-cles, a process that causes athletes to feel a burning sensationand become rapidly fatigued.

A portable blood-lactate analyzer — a device that fits into thepalm of an adult hand — can be used to track a swimmer’s

progress throughout a season, as he orshe uses interval training to develop agreater capacity for aerobic activity.The stronger an individual’s aerobicsystem, the longer it takes for him or herto reach the anaerobic or lactic thresh-old, the point at which lactic acidbegins to accumulate quickly in theblood. A higher lactic threshold is par-ticularly ideal for swimmers who compete in sprints. At the peak of com-petition, a sprinter can produce asmuch as 17 millimoles of lactic acidper liter of blood. At rest, an athlete willlikely have only 1 mmol/l present in hisor her bloodstream.

As recently as five years ago, the onlyway to test a swimmer’s blood-lactate

levels was to send him or her to a medical lab for either minorblood work or a muscle biopsy, the latter a procedure that DebWhitney, physiology coordinator for USA Swimming, describesas “pretty invasive.” Now, athletes simply have to prick a finger,place a drop of blood on a test strip and insert the strip into theportable analyzer for a nearly instantaneous reading.

USA Swimming coaches put so much faith in their portableblood-lactate analyzers that they won’t travel without them, butit could be some time before the devices catch on with themajority of elite swim program coaches. “Some coaches aremore scientifically oriented than others,” says Whitney. “But,yes, some collegiate programs and club programs are usingthe analyzers. As they get more exposure, coaches are gettingmore interested. It’s a growing area.”

— M.B.


tance equipment (buoyant ankle cuffs,

ankle weights, weighted boots, webbed

gloves and dumbbells), and elastic tethers

(which are used for walking-, running- and

swimming-in-place intervals). Those ath-

letes who find the pool water to be too

chilly — a pool kept at 80 degrees will feel

cold to many people — can slip on an insu-

lated wet shirt or suit, although Huey says

that an athlete can do without such gear

and will work up a sweat almost immedi-

ately if his or her workout is doing its job.

Krasevec agrees that additional equip-

ment isn’t always necessary for an effective

aquatic workout, but in almost the same

breath, he admits to occasionally having

placed ergometers in the pool if he felt it

presented a unique challenge to that partic-

ular athlete’s routine. “I’ve never been a big

equipment person myself,” he says, “but it

has its value. Water exercise products have

both a therapeutic value and an athletic-

training value. Of course, the athlete needs

greater overload in the water and that’s

what such products are doing. By creating

greater resistance, you will get a more pow-

erful athlete.”

Not every athlete who seeks the help of

an aquatic exercise specialist is looking to

increase strength. There are many cases in

which an athlete is hoping to rehab an

injury or recover from surgery. Because of

a longtime history of injury to a specific

area, he or she may also opt to spend more

time training that area in the water than on

land. The bottom line is that just as in the

weight room, one aquatic exercise program

may have entirely different results for two

individuals. “It depends on what you hope

to accomplish,” says Freson. “There’s no

set formula,” adds Huey. “If an athlete tends

to get injured, he or she would want to

spend more time in the water. If the athlete

is very hardy and resilient and seldom gets

injured, he or she might not have to do as

much pool cross-training.”

There are, however, two universal princi-

ples in aquatic exercise: one, clear commu-

nication between the trainer and the

athlete is essential, and two, the athlete

must have a clear understanding of the

work he or she is about to undergo. Enter-

ing the process, some athletes may have

the misperception that because of the

water’s therapeutic qualities (the human

body recovers from work faster in the

water), they’re immune from injury. Freson

shoots down that notion without hesita-

tion. “There’s always risk for injury,” he

says. “It’s just a different kind. When we’re

working on land, we’re dealing with issues

of gravity or if we’re working with contact

sports, we’re dealing with people being hit.

When we’re in the water, sometimes we’re

dealing with issues of buoyancy or

improper range of motion.”

Because of a concern for accidentally

pushing her athletes too far or making


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them do something that doesn’t feel right,

Huey’s workouts often have a touch-and-go

feel to them. Employing a technique similar

to one physical therapists use with their

patients in the fitness room, Huey works

with each athlete to develop an informal

pain meter, constantly asking questions

such as “Do you feel it?” and “Is it a good

burn?” She will stop the workout immedi-

ately if the athlete reports any sharp, stab-

bing pains. “You have to determine how to

appropriately stimulate and stress the

injured area,” says Huey. “You don’t want

to cross the red line because if you cross

over that line, you start to create injury.”

For aquatic exercise specialists, keeping

their athletes injury-free is always a pri-

mary goal, but so is providing them with a

program that will translate to improved

mechanics on the field or court. Aquatic

cross-training is indeed sport-specific, evi-

denced by the creative and diverse rou-

tines prescribed to athletes in basketball,

track and field, and volleyball. One program

designed by Huey, for example, had former

Los Angeles Laker Wilt Chamberlain hold a

basketball while balancing on a therapy bar

in a squat position, and practice jumping

off the bar and out of the water for a “jump

shot.” At Penn State, pole vaulters practice

their vaulting technique in the diving well,

allowing them to correct improper form or

other mistakes as they glide through the

water in slow-motion. The forgiving aquatic

environment allows Washington State vol-

leyball players to fine-tune their serving

and blocking skills, while cushioning their

knees, ankles and Achilles tendons as they

land.

An aquatic exercise specialist exhibiting

some measure of creativity can turn just

about any pool into a highly specialized

training site for athletes in any given sport

— and “training” is the key word. In spite of

its rehabilitative benefits and relaxing

atmosphere, an aquatic cross-training ses-

sion is hard work and should never be

regarded merely as a free day. “Aquatic

exercise allows the opportunity for athletes

to be challenged in a different kind of way.

You can add some nice competitive ele-

ments,” says Freson. “That’s one of the nice

things about it. The water can really chal-

lenge someone and, at the same time, make

the whole thing fun.” �

www.athleticbusiness.com July 2003 ATHLETIC BUSINESS 93




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