Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Dr. John Mullen”
Something unique for our readers in this week’s interview. What follows are notes from a phone interview I conducted with Dr. Jan Prins, Ph.D. Dr. Prins is the Director of the Aquatic Research Laboratory at the University of Hawaii at Manoa along with Founder and Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Swimming Research. He is one of the contributors to The Swim …
Take Home Points on 3 Things you Didn’t Know About Ultra-Endurance Swimming Ultra-endurance swimming often doesn’t result in maximal fatigue, cause hunger, or alter swimming hand path.This form of training isn’t as negative as some suggest on swimming skill. Many associate ultra-endurance swimming with pain and fatigue. However, we know little on the subject, despite it’s growing popularity. Now, many swimmers have …
Take home points1) Raised freestyle head position is one of the most common stroke flaws in freestyle2) Corrective strategies must be individualized to each swimmer3) Avenues for change include biomechanical, cognitive, and environmental Raised freestyle head position in freestyle is one of the most common stroke flaws in the pool at all levels of the sport. In the literature this …
Circle swimming is a fact of life for nearly every team. Even if your current situation does not require circle swimming, it’s likely at some point in your career you have done it. To be clear, many good things that come from circle swimming: the ability to accommodate more swimmers and the ability to group swimmers by speed are two …
Troubleshooting Series: Cervical Spine Understanding cause-and-effect lies in the heart of effective movement correction, both in and out of the water. The better grasp we have of the body’s movement fundamentals, the more capable we can decipher the visual presentation of stroke flaws. The quotations around “flaws” are intentional, as the flaw that catches our attention on deck may be …
This is an interview with Dr. Lucas Wymore. Dr. Wymore recently published: Shoulder Functional Performance Status of National Collegiate Athletic Association Swimmers: Baseline Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic Scores. This interview discusses this research article, but don’t forget to look at Dr. Wymore’s other study: No correlation between stroke specialty and rate of shoulder pain in NCAA men swimmers. For more on Swimmer’s Shoulder checkout Swimmer’s Shoulder …
The shoulder is the primary site of injury in swimmers, but the low back is the second most commonly injured site. In fact, ~8% of those competing at a 2001 International competition experienced low back pain. Kaneoka (2007) noted thirty-eight (68%) elite swimmers and 11 (29%) controls had degenerated discs at various levels. Disc level L5-S1 was more frequently degenerated …
Genetic contribution to athletic success is clear, but each gene makes a small contribution to overall genetic profile. Identifying genes which contribute to elite success can help predict athletic potential. Recently polymorhpisms to the GH-IGF-I axis are believed to promote excellence in endurance and power sports. C-1245T is a genetic variation in the promoter region of the IGF-I gene, which …
Overreaching is the close cousin of overtraining We’ve previously discussed in detail the negative effects of overtraining. Also, anyone in sports understands the importance of training hard and pushing oneself, ideally for the super-compensation effect. However, the effect balance of swimming training and rest for maximizing overreaching, while minimizing overtraining is extremely difficult. In swimming, many teams perform macrocycles of approximately 3 months, …
Take home points1) By observing the diving culture, swimmers can hold themselves to a higher standard with feedback and visualization to improve technical quality in the pool2) Though energy systems are very different, swimmers can learn from the high standard of technical execution in diving3) Despite being an early specialization sport, most divers have a background in gymnastics and dance …