text: By Bret Contreras August 28, 2012 Guest Blogs
  I don't see a reference for 'Kilduff, 2011'?
  I think this is the study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20664366
  i enjoyed this guest post. it is rare to see something on swimming. i still find it hard to believe that that insane number of hours in the pool are needed for neural adaptation. i suspect that swimming is essentially a strength sport since the body is acting against resistance. the resistance may not be that great but the stroke must be applied at speed, which requires strength. if you try to build strength by rapidly applying a small force it would be similar to trying to build bench press strength by doing 100 reps with the bar. i think appropriate training to increase strength in the swimming movements is required. what so you think?
  btw i am not getting his blog on the link. am i doing something wrong?
  Thanks for your thoughts! I'm an editor over at the Swimming Science site, always nice to get insights from people curious about swimming.
  The reality is that it doesn't take that much force for swimmers to suffer the phenomena known as "cavitation" (when the limbs "slip" and stop "catching water". In other words, the additional strength doesn't make you go any faster. In order to move forward in swimming, you gotta "catch" that water! You may notice in adult lap the huge muscular guy who is churning like crazy but going much slower than the tiny 10 year old a lane over practicing their freestyle- this is (among other reasons) due to the fact they aren't catching water effectively. They're slipping!
  You'll find that if you talk to any great swim coach about what makes "x" swimmer really successful, you will often hear them talk about that mystical "feel" for the water- the ability to know just how much force you can apply to the water without "slipping". While some believe that "feel" is a genetic quality that coaches cannot modify, some evidence-based swimming training paradigms (such as the one proposed by B. Rushall) seek to develop "feel" by utilizing the principle of neuromuscular specificity: maximize the repetitions of the stroke at the velocity (ies) you desire, minimize the number of similar but slightly different (in terms of velocity, spatial parameters, etc) that will corrupt your desired pattern.
  There have been a number of studies that show a lack of correlation between performance on land and water based strength tests and racing performance. That is why the principle of movement specificity is especially significant in the pool. I have included three from a variety of authors below. If you google search the "all caps" headings above each one you will find links to abstracts in the Journal of Swimming Science, written by Dr. Brent Rushall.
  LAND-TRAINING IS OF LITTLE VALUE
  STRENGTH MOST RELATED TO SWIMMING 25 YARDS
  LAND-BASED TRAINING OF NO BENEFIT TO MATURE SWIMMERS
  If you have any further questions, we'd love to hear from you! Send a note to info@swimmingscience.net
  G. John Mullen says:
  Swimming is a slight resistance, which is why 'in-pool' strength is essential for swimming success.
  The blog is http://www.swimmingscience.net.
  Nice BC. Would be interested in hearing a Water Polo S&C approach to shoulder injuries as the sport is a combination of countless hours staring at the black line as well as excessive shoulder abduction plus internal rotation plus whilst throwing.
  Water polo is a unique demand as you mentioned, perhaps a future post, if Bret gives me another opportunity!
  Peter M. Fitzpatrick says:
  I lift weights occasionally to supplement my pool workouts and I would have to say that I ALWAYS notice a difference, a kind of "tightness" in the muscles that must be "worked out" and can take about 3/4 of a mile to do so after lifting. I am sure that there is some kind of "elongation" of muscle fibers going on as well as a complicated interplay of slow vs. fast twitch muscles happening. I dislike the awkward feel of the tight feeling, and would never lift before a competition, but it does eventually dissipate and probably helps in the long term. I wish I understood more about fast and slow twitch muscles and how they work in swimming, especially in regards to sprints vs. medium to long distances.