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Program Descriptions:
Water Polo & Swim Can Be Compatible & Even Beneficial.
In the United States, it is common for Swim clubs and Water Polo clubs to operate independently of one another. Two sports that ought to exist in harmony all too frequently do not. While serious water polo coaches demand their athletes swim competitivly each year, it has not been unheard of for Swim coaches to discourage water polo from their swimmers' diet.
The popular myth out of the Swim-only camp is that the style of swimming needed for Water Polo teaches and requires "bad" habits, compromising a swimmers skill development of "proper" technique. Another argument has been that time spent playing water polo will cost a year-around swimmer fitness. This Swim/Polo dilemma has been around for a very long time.
The water polo community views these positions first as inaccurate, and secondly unfair to the physical and emotional development of the athlete.
Matt
Biondi
(US Olympic Swim Team 1984, 88, & 92 ... 11 medals) swam to a world record
only four (4) weeks after water polo season.
water polo kept me in shape. I swam my
fastest unshaved times in the swimming season right after water polo season.
Water polo is great for upper body strength and quickness. The reason I had so
much success in both sports is by splitting it up and sharing the seasons. I
found the two sports combined to be tremendously complimentary to each other,
both physically and mentally. Time spent training in one sport will only benefit
the other. The idea that children should not be doing one thing all their lives,
here they have the opportunity to improve in both sports and take a mental break
from the other. The idea of a kid swimming and playing water polo within the
same year, to me, is the ultimate definition of how kids should progress and
succeed.
Pablo
Morales,
two-time Olympic swimmer (84 & 92) with five medals, speaks to a similar
tone.
In 1986 when I set the world record in 100m
Butterfly, I had played water polo the previous fall. I feel in no way did water
polo ever detract from my swimming. It only enhanced my swimming. Water polo
increased my strength, increased my speed, and got my swim season off to a great
start.
Perhaps the success of Bradley Schumacher says it all. In 1995, Brad left the US National Water Polo Team shortly after the team won a FINA World Cup gold medal. Brad wanted to test his swim ability against the best in pursuit of a spot on the 1996 US Olympic Swim Team. In the end, at Atlanta, Brad swam to gold in two relays. After the Olympics, Brad returned water polo's National Team. Four years later he was a member of the US Olympic water polo team in Sydney.
