Coach Mike's Injury Prevention Recommendations

You can find injury prevention information on Coach Mike’s BASE Sports Conditioning website. All of the strengthening exercises below can be found on the Corrective Exercises page and all of the stretches can be found on the Static Stretches page.

Coach Mike's Recommendations for Managing/Preventing:

• Shoulder Injuries

• Knee Injuries

If any of these instructions are unclear, or you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact Coach Mike at any time at: [email protected]

 

Coach Mike's Recommendations for Posture

Coach Mike found a great article called Posture, Flexibility, and Strength for Optimum Swimming Performance that he considers "must reading" for swimmers and parents. Not only does it go over in detail how poor posture can impact overall health and well being, but it also gives some very specific examples of how it can impede swimming performance. Mike keeps on the kids about this stuff all the time during the dryland sessions, but says if we could get further reinforcement from home, he think it would help a lot.

http://www.powerposture.com/swimmers.htm

 

Coach Mike's Nutrition and Injury Prevention Information

Check out Coach Mike's latest article: Dietary Disaster - The 5 Most Common Nutritional Mistakes By Young Athletes

He also has added some interesting things on his website www.basesportsconditioning.com. There's an exciting announcement in the News section that you'll want to read. And there's a great article from the Boston Globe on the alarming rise in injury rates among young athletes. Look for the "What's new at B.A.S.E." column at the lower right of his home page.

Coach Mike put together a nutritional guide that should be helpful for those swimmers who are going to meets.

Letter to Swimmers and Parents
Swim Meet Nutritional Guide

 

Coach Mike’s Recommendations for Managing/Preventing Shoulder Injuries

or those of you interested in managing/ preventing shoulder injuries, strengthening exercises should include:

• The YTWL Drill (That's the first video)

• Band Rows

• Reverse Flys

• Side Lying External Rotations

• Scaptions

Keep in mind, you don't have to do all of these drills, every time. Try choosing 3 of them and doing 2 sets of each, of the recommended number of reps contained in the exercise descriptions. For those of you doing the Elite dryland, I would recommend including these drills at least one, to two days IN ADDITION to our workouts at the pool. Those not currently involved in the dryland program can start off doing these drills 2 x per week.

Stretching exercises should include: *ALL of these should be done daily, or at least as often as you can remember.

• The Wall Pec Stretch

• The Lat Stretch

• The Broomstick Internal Rotation Stretch

• The Seated Trapezius Stretch
  
   

Coach Mike’s Recommendations for Managing/Preventing Knee Injuries

For those of you interested in managing/ preventing knee injuries, strengthening exercises should include:

• The Supine Bridge

• Swiss Ball Leg Curls

• Mini Band Squats and Mini Band Walks (that's the second video)

• Unilateral Cone Touch (be patient with this one as it is a little bit more advanced)

Try to pick at least 2 of these exercises and do 2 sets of each for the recommended number of reps contained in the exercise descriptions. If you are already involved in the dryland program, one extra workout should be sufficient, if not, try doing these exercises twice per week.

Stretching exercises should include: *ALL of these should be done daily, or at least, as often as you can remember.

• The Wall Hamstring Stretch

• The Butterfly Stretch

• The Hip Flexor Stretch

• The Kneeling Quad Stretch

• The Figure 4 Stretch

• The Pike Calf Stretch

I also recommend that everyone do the core strengthening exercises, which include the Plank, the Side Plank and both exercises in video number 3, at least one other time per week in addition to the dryland program, and twice per week for everyone else.