This week’s guest is Keenan Robinson, national team high performance director for USA Swimming. Keenan is a coach who is fusing modern S&C and sports medicine practices with swim performance, and has worked with prominent swim programs such as The University of Michigan, North Baltimore Aquatic Club, and Arizona State University, not to mention being the 2016 head athletic trainer for the USA Olympic contingent in Rio. He is also the strength coach for Michael Phelps, arguably the most successful Olympic athlete of all time.

The world of strength training for swimmers is emerging quickly, yet hardly gets the discussion and social media presence that strength for other popular sports, such as football, basketball, baseball or general speed training harness. I’m excited to host Keenan on today’s episode, as I hope it to facilitate some important discussions in the field that can lead to healthier, and faster athletes in the water.

I know that many coaches who listen to this podcast may not work with aquatic athletes, but I have found over the years that the challenge of learning what makes aquatic athletes fast from a functional, dryland perspective, makes you look “under the hood” into the subsystems, and deep stabilization network of the body more than any other sport, and forces an honest diagnosis of training transfer on a regular basis. It also brings up great lines of discussion as to the ideas of general, specific, and coordinative aspects of training transfer and athletic well-being.

I believe there is a good reason why all athletes (those looking to do other sports in high school/college) should have some experience swimming at a young age before they move along the path of specialization.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.