5 Reasons Why the Covid-19 Break is GOOD for Swimmers

5 Reasons Why the Covid-19 Break is GOOD for Swimmers

admin Blog, Dr. John Mullen, Latest&Greatest 4 Comments

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 …

9 Things you Didn't Know About Swimming Detraining

Swimming Detraining: 9 Things you Didn’t Know!

admin Blog, Dr. John Mullen, Latest&Greatest, Training 4 Comments

“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 …

Henrique Neiva on Swimming Warm-up

admin Latest&Greatest, Swimming Science Podcast 1 Comment

In this episode of the Swimming Science Podcast, Dr. John chats with World-Renowned swimming researcher Henrique Neiva. If you have a question for Henrique, post it in the comments below to have it answered  Henrique Pereira Neiva concluded his degree in Sport and Physical Education in the Faculty of Sport of University of Porto (2008).In 2015 finished Ph.D in in …

injury screening for swimmers

Injury Screening for Swimmers

admin Blog, Dr. John Mullen, Dryland, Injuries, Latest&Greatest Leave a Comment

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 …

hand paddles

Hand Paddle Training Doesn’t Change Biomechanics

admin Biomechanics, Blog, Dr. John Mullen, Latest&Greatest, Training 1 Comment

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 Improves Swimming Starts, for some

Strength Training Improves Swimming Starts, for some

admin Biomechanics, Blog, Dr. John Mullen, Dryland, Latest&Greatest, Research Abstract Leave a Comment

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 …

Does L-Citrulline Improve Swimming Performance?

Does L-Citrulline Improve Swimming Performance?

admin Blog, Dr. John Mullen, Latest&Greatest, Nutrition/Supplements Leave a Comment

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 …

do female olympic swimmers pace properly

Do Olympic Female Swimmers Pace Properly?

admin Blog, Competition, Dr. John Mullen, Latest&Greatest 4 Comments

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 …