Questions & Answers – #1, July 2010

[MichaelReid]

Article Link: http://www.waterpoloplanet.com/HTML_Mike_pages/mr14_Strength_Training.html

If you have any questions or comments about this article please post them here.

Also, in the future I will be doing more of the "Q & A" articles so please send me your questions or post them here.

[Missy]

Hi Mike --

Thanks for another great article. How do you feel about weight belts in the pool for high school players?

Missy

[MichaelReid]

As a general recommendation I am NOT a big fan of the weight belts for high school athletes.

Loading a sport skill (i.e. eggbeater) is tricky business and if performed with too much load and inappropriate volume it can do more harm then good.

But it depends. If the athlete has a solid foundation of sound technique and conditioning then using some light additional load may be useful. I am just worried of coaches who get over zealous with this kind of work and think if 1-2lbs is good 5-10lbs must be better and so on.

Intermittent manual resistance used through out a practice is better in the long term in my opinion (and you don't have to buy wt belts!).

How do you know if the load is to much? The athlete's technique changes which is usually a bad change. There is actually some research going on in Winnipeg, Canada right now looking at something very similar to this in high school aged Water Polo players.

Maybe in the next 12 months or so we will have some more data to support or dispute my recommendation.

Thank you for the question.

[Missy]

Thanks, Mike. I appreciate your thoughts.