Walking in the pool

As I was doing some laps today--walking--I was wondering if you swim coaches
have your teams do water exercises like that. I usually power walk forward,
backward, sideways. Sometimes, I see the guys I think are boxers doing
running in the water while holding their hands curled high, but I can tell
they're not swimmers.

Pat in TX

Pat wrote:
> As I was doing some laps today--walking--I was wondering if you swim coaches
> have your teams do water exercises like that. I usually power walk forward,
> backward, sideways. Sometimes, I see the guys I think are boxers doing
> running in the water while holding their hands curled high, but I can tell
> they're not swimmers.
>
> Pat in TX

I don't see water walking as being all that valuable for swimmers
(except, perhaps, to let them feel just how powerful a factor drag can
be when they're moving through the water, so that they will pay more
attention to minimizing it).


Bob

"Pat" <intex@tmail.com> wrote in message
news:677fcbF2nl2ebU1@mid.individual.net...
> As I was doing some laps today--walking--I was wondering if you swim
> coaches have your teams do water exercises like that. I usually power walk
> forward, backward, sideways. Sometimes, I see the guys I think are boxers
> doing running in the water while holding their hands curled high, but I
> can tell they're not swimmers.
>
> Pat in TX
Water walking or running is a common therapy for maintaining some aerobic
fitness while lower limb injury heals, as it makes it non-weight bearing. It
is often done in deep water using a flotation vest. Holding the arms
clenched is probably to aid flotation rather than because they were boxers.
I think swimming is a better use of the pool unless you actually have an
injury.

Robert W. McAdams wrote:
> Pat wrote:
>> As I was doing some laps today--walking--I was wondering if you swim
>> coaches have your teams do water exercises like that. I usually power
>> walk forward, backward, sideways. Sometimes, I see the guys I think
>> are boxers doing running in the water while holding their hands curled
>> high, but I can tell they're not swimmers.
>>
>> Pat in TX
>
> I don't see water walking as being all that valuable for swimmers
> (except, perhaps, to let them feel just how powerful a factor drag can
> be when they're moving through the water, so that they will pay more
> attention to minimizing it).
>
>
> Bob
>

Yep, that's about it.
I know the triathlon guys used to murder the swimmers at kicking drills
in my old Masters' club, but I'm not sure swimmers would do 2-300 miles
a week on a bike just for a bit of extra leg power.

Duncan Heenan wrote:
> "Pat" <intex@tmail.com> wrote in message
> news:677fcbF2nl2ebU1@mid.individual.net...
>> As I was doing some laps today--walking--I was wondering if you swim
>> coaches have your teams do water exercises like that. I usually power
>> walk forward, backward, sideways. Sometimes, I see the guys I think
>> are boxers doing running in the water while holding their hands curled
>> high, but I can tell they're not swimmers.
>>
>> Pat in TX
> Water walking or running is a common therapy for maintaining some
> aerobic fitness while lower limb injury heals, as it makes it non-weight
> bearing. It is often done in deep water using a flotation vest. Holding
> the arms clenched is probably to aid flotation rather than because they
> were boxers.
> I think swimming is a better use of the pool unless you actually have an
> injury.

Well, if a person is interested ONLY in cardiac fitness, I might
disagree. I was able to get my heart rate up higher, faster than
swimming with a floatation vest and deep water running, or by treading
water without a vest. The deep water running made me want to run on dry
land, but I have a foot deformity which makes running a very bad idea.
My overall fitness and feeling of well-being improves more by swimming.
The deep water running always felt like gym class to me, while I never
leave the pool in a bad mood (gym class always made me cranky).
Madealine

"Madelaine" <mgd@sei.cmu.edu> wrote in message
news:funcv9$st0$1@usenet02.sei.cmu.edu...
> Duncan Heenan wrote:
>> "Pat" <intex@tmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:677fcbF2nl2ebU1@mid.individual.net...
>>> As I was doing some laps today--walking--I was wondering if you swim
>>> coaches have your teams do water exercises like that. I usually
>>> power
>>> walk forward, backward, sideways. Sometimes, I see the guys I think
>>> are boxers doing running in the water while holding their hands
>>> curled
>>> high, but I can tell they're not swimmers.
>>>
>>> Pat in TX
>> Water walking or running is a common therapy for maintaining some
>> aerobic fitness while lower limb injury heals, as it makes it
>> non-weight
>> bearing. It is often done in deep water using a flotation vest.
>> Holding
>> the arms clenched is probably to aid flotation rather than because
>> they
>> were boxers.
>> I think swimming is a better use of the pool unless you actually have
>> an
>> injury.
>
> Well, if a person is interested ONLY in cardiac fitness, I might
> disagree. I was able to get my heart rate up higher, faster than
> swimming with a floatation vest and deep water running, or by treading
> water without a vest.

You just weren't swimming enough butterfly.

-S-

The deep water running made me want to run on dry
> land, but I have a foot deformity which makes running a very bad idea.
> My overall fitness and feeling of well-being improves more by
> swimming.
> The deep water running always felt like gym class to me, while I never
> leave the pool in a bad mood (gym class always made me cranky).
> Madealine
>

Since I have only mastered the "stationery butterfly stroke" which looks
like thrashing and drowning and gives the poor lifeguards heart attacks,
I tend to avoid it. It does really get my heartrate up though!
Madelaine

Steve Freides wrote:
Snip
>
> You just weren't swimming enough butterfly.
>
> -S-
>
SNIP
>> The deep water running always felt like gym class to me, while I never
>> leave the pool in a bad mood (gym class always made me cranky).
>> Madealine
>>
>
>

"Pat" <intex@tmail.com> wrote in message
news:677fcbF2nl2ebU1@mid.individual.net...
> As I was doing some laps today--walking--I was wondering if you swim
> coaches have your teams do water exercises like that. I usually power walk
> forward, backward, sideways. Sometimes, I see the guys I think are boxers
> doing running in the water while holding their hands curled high, but I
> can tell they're not swimmers.

I was a collegiate rowing coach in my former life.
I had excellent athletes from all types of sport background,
and used a lot of cross training for aerobic fitness in the
winters. I tried to make all the work 'Team Work" keeping
everyone together, but making sure the aerobic benefit
was equal for all.

I found the former swimmers were not getting the aerobic
benefit when we jumped into the pool every once in a while
that the non-swimmers were getting. Easy to get the ex-bball
player and runners to struggle through 25 yard swims and keep
their hr 150-160 no problem. I didn't want to have to individually
craft different workouts for the dozen guys who had swimming/
water polo backgrounds, so I had them run the shallow part,
swim the deep. Some guys tried to run the whole thing, pretty
funny! Yes I let them do some real swims to show off.

We most frequently ran. I don't want to admit what I had
my really fast runners do to keep my large group together, I'm
not sure what statute of limitations are.