There are few things that can be said with certainty, especially when talking about the past. However, I am certain that if I had owned The Science of Swimming, by James Counsilman (affiliate links: UK
The Science of Swimming: old school rules
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Who on earth was James Counsilman?
James Counsilman was an Olympic swimming coach from the USA. He was the head swimming coach for Indiana University from 1957-1990 and head swimming coach for the USA national swimming squads for the 1964 and 1976 Olympics.
He is widely regarded as one of the most innovative and important swimming coaches of his era. He died in 2004 and you can read his remarkable obituary here.
Why was Counsilman so important for swimming? He brought sports science to the poolside. Before him, it seems that swimming coaches didn’t taken sports science very seriously. And once his swimmers started getting results, everyone wanted a piece of what he was doing.
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So what did he write about?
Everything and anything you can think of relating to training for swimming. Here’s a chapter list:
- The mechanics of swimming
- Front crawl
- Butterfly
- Back stroke
- Breast stroke
- Starts, turns and pace
- Teaching swimming skills
- Training techniques in competitive swimming
- Planning a season’s training programme
- Dry land exercises
- Age-group swimming
- Organisation of practice
- Additional principles – stress, diet and nutrition
- Example training schedules of champions
The first interesting thing about Counsilman, that you notice when you start to read his material, is that he likes to understand the why of training and not just the how.
The second interesting thing is that when he talks about training athletes, he really was training athletes. And the example training schedules of champions are real, live programmes of named national and international swimmers.
I would also note that there are 450 pages of closely-typed text in this book. It definitely has the thud factor. When Counsilman starts talking about programmes and periodisation, he doesn’t run out of things to say very quickly…
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Land training
Rather than try and do justice to all of the sections in the book, let’s instead devote a proper length of time to land training, as I suspect that is where most amateur swimmers can make the biggest improvements without stressing their swimming coach too much by asking for the programme to be tweaked. It’s also the area that most non-swimmers will be interested in.
In his discussion of training schedules, Counsilman details three land-training sessions per week. He doesn’t specify exact routines of sets and reps but discusses varying parameters over a cycle, noting the applicability of low reps (2-3), high reps (10) and very high reps (35).
Counsilman also suggests various exercises that might be appropriate strengthening exercises for each different stroke, some categories of which I have detailed below. He doesn’t say that all will be appropriate for all swimmers in all cases. They are a selection that can be helpful. I’ve included all of the barbell, dumbbell and bodyweight exercises that Counsilman recommends.
However, please note that I have not detailed the various pulley exercises that he stipulates, as these are just too difficult to explain without the pictures. Basically, Counsilman uses a latissimus pull-down station and resistance bands to perform a large number of pulls. This is why the barbell exercises seem to be biased towards pressing movements. The pulls are quite varied and include:
- Vertical, 45 degree and horizontal pulls and rows
- Straight arm, partially bent arm and fully bent arm pulls and rows
- Shoulder abduction and adduction
Don’t go away with the idea that the barbell exercises are the whole land-training programme, as this would be a mistake. If you think these would be helpful to you, just buy the book (affiliate links: UK
Also, please note that the following exercise names are not the ones used in the book but are my interpretations of Counsilman’s pictures and descriptions, as he uses his own nomenclature. I decided to take this liberty in order to give people the chance of at least finding some of these on YouTube…
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Freestyle and butterfly
- The snatch
- Behind the neck triceps press
- Partial range of motion behind-the-neck triceps press
- Skull-crusher
- Straight arm pull-over
- Wrist curls
- Backward arm press – see note below
- Squat
- Partial range of motion squat
- Jefferson deadlift
- Jump squats
Breast stroke
- The snatch
- Behind the neck triceps press
- Partial range of motion behind-the-neck triceps press
- Skull-crusher
- Backward arm press – see note below
- Squat
- Partial range of motion squat
- Calf raise with toes elevated
- Pull ups
Backstroke
- The snatch
- Behind the neck triceps press
- Partial range of motion behind-the-neck triceps press
- Skull-crusher
- Straight arm pull-over
- Squat
- Partial range of motion squat
- Jefferson deadlift
- Calf raise
The “backward arm press” is like nothing I have ever seen before. Essentially, the athlete takes the bar in a standing position behind the back, as if about to do a behind-the-back shrug. However, the bar is very lightly loaded. Then the athlete bends forwards, as if doing a good morning. Finally, the athlete lifts the bar vertically through a small range of motion.
I would need to get under the skin of this programme to understand it more before offering a critique but I think there is probably scope for amateur swimmers and certainly barbell novices to streamline this significantly.
You can see the purposes of the exercises selected, however. The key seems to be to develop the strong back muscles from a variety of different angles, to develop the leg and hip strength, and to develop the triceps without increasing the mass of the anterior deltoids or pectorals.
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Wrapping up
Despite having been published in 1968, The Science of Swimming feels like it was only released yesterday. It’s methods are way ahead of anything I have experienced in UK club swimming. If you have any interest in improving your swimming ability, you need this book (affiliate links: UK
