Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Dr. John Mullen”
On March 23, 2020 Dick Pound said the 2020 Olympics would likely be postponed. “On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided,” Pound said in a phone interview. “The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.” This came a few …
Six years ago, I wrote a very controversial piece for Swimming World suggesting that age-group and developing swimmers should take a 2-month break every year from swimming. In this article, I discussed how a two-month break would benefit swimmers physically and psychologically. I also hypothesized on a few reasons why a two-month break is unlikely in the sport. While typing …
“What are you doing during the shelter-in-place?” “Is your team practicing?” “Anyone have any Zoom practice ideas?” These are the common questions from coaches and swimmers. Clearly, coaches and swimmers are concerned about swimming detraining. I recently spoke with Dr. Rodrigo Zacca, Ph.D, a Postdoctoral Researcher of Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal who published a recent study on Effects of …
In this episode, Dr. John is joined with two leading researchers in shoulder injury prevention in swimmers. Dr. Boettcher and Dr. Ginn discuss their latest study on shoulder strength ratios in elite swimmers.
Injury screens were recently popularized with the functional movement screen (FMS). In fact, we created a comprehensive guide for injury screening for swimmers in our Dryland for Swimmers book. We created this as we felt the land-based tests weren’t predictable of swimming due to the novelties of the motions in the pool. One of the most effective methods to reduce …
Using hand paddles during swimming is a common practice in the sport. Although many swim coaches use hand paddles for training, do they consider how swimming hand paddle training influences swimming biomechanics? Utilizing paddles during training likely will alter biomechanics, but how does the paddle size change biomechanics? Shouldn’t this be a consideration considering the arms produce approximately 85% of …
Strength training and swimming have always been a debated topic. In fact, some argue that strength training and/or plyometrics are not beneficial for swimming performance. I personally performed a comprehensive strength training for swimming review and produced Dryland for Swimmers. However, new research is evolving and new research on how strength training improves swimming starts was recently published. Strength Training …
Supplements with performance-enhancing claims are very common. But recently the supplement L-citrulline has received more attention, begging the question does L-citrulline improve swimming performance? Supplements augmenting nitric oxide are very popular. It has been postulated that augmenting nitric oxide (NO) synthesis through nutritional supplementation may improve muscular function, resistance to fatigue during exercise, and recovery processes after exercise. Enhanced NO …
Watching any high-level swim meet and the casual observer would assume the Olympic female swimmers pace properly. However, many elite coaches will discuss how swimmer’s didn’t “swim their own race” or we’ve all heard coaches say “they went out too slow”. With all the hours of training and swimming do Olympic female swimmers pace properly? This sounds absurd at the …
The swim turn is usually divided into 5 distinct stages that include (a) inward-turn, (b) rotation, (c) push-off, (d) underwater, and (d) outward-turn. Past research suggests swimmers with higher peak forces have faster turn time, reduced wall contact time, and greater mean impulse than slower swimmers (Blanksby 1996; Chow 1984; Takahashi 1982). However, more modern research is needed to analyze …