Here is a link to Part 2 of our article:
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Great article, thanks for sharing.
But on the womenâs side, the top HS and college players are still disproportionately very very fast swimmers.
I also suspect the correlation between team JO placement and team average 100y FR time would be way above 0.
Do you think the phenomena youâre exploring is primarily on the menâs side?
As the father of a seven year old, I do think there a couple of dynamics that are very correct which were touched on the article.
- Both water polo and swimming are year-round. When I was a kid, it was high school water polo in the fall, winter club polo and swimming (which was manageable as I recall), high school swimming in the spring and then both sports again in the summer when there was no school. With as the article pointed out, a lot of the same people coaching both sports.
It does seem to me that both sports (at least where we live) are basically running practices all week all year. Just looking at the calendar it is a lot if you want to both play for a USA Water Polo club and swim for US Swim team at a strong club (I am sure each sport has clubs that might be more relaxed).
- Someone made a great point in the article about the huge drops in swim times. It used to be if you went a 22 on your 50, you were considered to be a fast sprinter. Now, that probably doesnât qualify you for any meaningful meet at the high school level. I think it is harder for your pure water polo player to just show up at a swim meet and roll through the sprint events with the way that sport has evolved.
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I havenât read the full article yet, but havenât we seen a decline in multi-sport athletes in general? Basketball and baseball are year round sports now, football isnât when it comes to competing, but football coaches want their players in the weight room in the off season.
âBack in my dayâ (a phrase I will use a lot) a lot of coaches encouraged athletes to go out for other sports. They understood the benefits of getting away from your main sport a bit, of experiencing other coaches, of building athleticism from different skills and so on. Now it seems that coaches are not so generous with their players.
Itâs a full read, but a good one. There are many perspectives that are all true. Yet one truth has more power than another based upon your local situation. With my family, the kids played on high level polo Club and HS teams. Swim Season would come at the same time prepping for JO Quals, Club Championships, and more. Plus, I had one who had HS Spring Water Polo leagues. Then post Swim season, mix in HS Summer Leagues and the High School Championship on top of Club commitments. I had one child play just under 80 Summer Club and High School games combined, or 1-2 games daily. Swimming or any other sport? Forget about it, wasnât going to happen.
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This is something Iâve talked about for some time. As GoBears mentioned, the dual (or tri) sport athlete is becoming very rare. When I was in high school, I knew a number of athletes that played football, basketball and baseball who went on to play at least two of those sports in college - at a D1 level. You now only really see that at the D3 level, from what I have observed.
Iâve also compared the water polo/swimming issue with ice skating. How often do you see a top level figure skater or speed skater also be a top level hockey player? (hint: rare, if ever). One of the reason is the same as has been conjectured for swimming/water polo - figure skating coaches think hockey ruins their stroke, and vice versa.
My final thought is that we are now far into the age of specialization. Once upon a time, a âjack of all tradesâ was highly desirable and had many options for employment, etc. However, today such an individual does not have the same opportunities, nor make as much money, as the specialist. The reason is that to achieve optimal results, those paying the bills want someone who is able to perform or supply âthe bestâ results.