Many believe swimming is nothing more than constant laps in a pool, staring at a black line for hours. Though that may be true at times, it is an intense sport that involves much more.
Anyone can jump in a pool and race to the finish line, but what makes a swimmer great is how much work he or she puts in outside of the water. This includes dry-land practices.
“The purpose is to prep them for water work,” said strength and conditioning coach Deniz Hekmati. “It is to prep them to swim fast in the pool, and it is to prep them to tolerate the amount of work that they are and will be doing so depending on what time of the year we are in and what time of the season we are in, we try to emphasis different things.”
Since the team is only a few weeks out from its postseason, Hekmati is focusing the team on developing its power and fine-tuning everything the swimmers have been working on in these last few months so the team will be ready to swim fast and perform their best when the time is right.
“It is always a challenge, especially with swimming, because there is limited amount of research that exists as of how we should train swimmers on land to get the optimal results in the water,” Hekmati said. “We have been experimenting now almost two years, and we have been getting better every week and every month, and we will continue to improve on the dry land aspect.”
Since Hekmati first came to Utah about two years ago, he has noticed the swimmers on the team have developed a better understanding of what their bodies are actually going through and what they are capable of doing.
“I am really proud of the amount of teaching they have done for themselves and their bodies,” Hekmati said.
Dry land practices consist of mobilizing work because swimmers are prone to injuries in their knees, backs and, especially, their shoulders. During his time here at the U, Hekmati has been coming up with new methods and new research about how to incorporate smart mobility to keep the Utes’ joints healthy while they continue to work hard.
With a new building and new equipment, such as machines and weights, Hekmati is taking full advantage by creating the New Year workout, an example of the kind of mobilization that the team is focusing on this season.
It includes seven stations and send-offs every four minutes. Each swimmer will only work every other send-off and tries to complete the first six stations as fast as possible:
Station 1) 3 Partner Plank-Rope Pull
Station 2) Sled Push and Reverse 25/20/15/10/5-yrd
Station 3) 10/8/6/4/2 Wall Ball + 20/16/12/8/4 MB Partner Chest Pass Flutter Kick
Station 4) 10/5/3/2/1 Deadlift + Chin up
Station 5) 10/8/6/4 Pushup + 20/15/10/5 Dips
Station 6) 4x80yrd Farmer’s Walk
Station 7) go for Box Jump PB
“I loved their New Year Workout,” Hekmati said. “I wanted to start the New Year off in a good way with some competition, but also keeping it relevant to what they are doing now. We worked on the energy systems, and it was a race to complete the stations as fast as they could with their partners.”
Even with all this training, Hekmati stresses the importance of recovery, sometimes even telling his swimmers to slow it down.
“They have muscles that are functioning a lot, and when they are working really, really hard, those muscles don’t always function that well so sometimes, we have to slam the brakes,” Hekmati said.
As Hekmati and the other coaches prepare their swimmers, the men and women’s team each have only one more dual meet to compete in before they head off to the Pac-12 and NCAA Championships. Time will tell if the Utes will be ready for the postseason, but the work is clearly being put in.
@emileewhiteee