By Ishita Singh

Summer league swimming is a popular pastime for thousands of area kids for a variety of reasons. Joining a team can be a bonding experience — the team cheers, pep rallies and parties bring together thousands of swimmers each summer; swimming laps for hours on end is a great way to stay in shape; and, with the heat index in the D.C-area hovering near 100 degrees for weeks at a time, it’s not a bad way to cool off.

And, for some swimmers, the benefits of participating will remain long after the summer ends. Summer swimming, some say, can be the perfect training complement for many other sports, providing cardiovascular fitness along with strength training while putting little stress on ligaments and joints. Many area swimmers are taking advantage of the opportunity to stay in shape for their sport of choice by competing in summer swim leagues.

“It helps with your endurance, it helps you run faster, it helps your overall strength and conditioning,” Katie Calder, 15, said. “You’re always using your entire body so it’s a full-body workout.”

Calder, who swims with the Mohican Swim Team in the Montgomery County Swim League, also plays soccer, lacrosse and dives for The Bullis School in Potomac. A lot of swimmers use their time in the pool to help them on the soccer field, according to Joe Willoughby, the head coach of the Temple Hills Swim Club in the Prince-Mont Swim League.

“The cardiovascular energy you get from swimming meter after meter is so important,” Willoughby said. “You’re going to extend your game no matter what. If you can handle the meters you have to swim on a swim team you’re definitely going to excel on the field.”

Gian Polignano, the head coach at Mohican, added that because swimming is in the water, it doesn’t have as high an injury risk as other training regimens. “It’s a very demanding cardio-vascular exercise, but it’s the least impact. It doesn’t put stress on tendons and joints, so these athletes aren’t risking injury for their other sports.”

Willoughby emphasized that swimming’s focus on the body’s core was a major reason why athletes used it to stay in shape. Swimmers draw most of their power from their trunk and a strong core helps an athlete’s balance and his or her ability to get more power from the lower half of the body, which can benefit an athlete regardless of sport.

Nicholas Willoughby uses swimming to help him with his pitching. “When you swim you build your core and your leg strength, which helps me push off on pitches,” the 17-year-old Temple Hills swimmer said. He’ll continue his swim training as he prepares to pitch at Catawba College in Salisbury next spring.

Mohican swimmer Brent Kreutzberg said the strength-building swimming provides can also help football players. “The core work allows the body to lift more weight, so our football coaches encourage swimming so that we can bulk up more.”

Kreutzberg, 15, swims to stay in shape for football, wrestling and lacrosse. Though swimming helps him in the weight room for football, he said it is most beneficial for wrestling.

“Wrestling is non-stop action with your upper body and lower body,” he said. “With swimming, I can target those areas while I practice. I can focus on my stroke or my kick to work what I need more strength in.”

Ryan Gil, 20, the head coach at Plantations, also in the MCSL, said that the mental aspect of swimming is the reason so many athletes use it to stay in shape for other sports. He said that being alone in a race atmosphere promotes “mental toughness,” which can help any athlete, regardless of sport. Andrew Beehler, 17, agreed.

“It’s extremely mental, because you’re always pushing harder and harder,” Beehler, who swims with Mohican, said. “There’s an absolute competitive advantage when I row, because I’ve been racing [with Mohican] since I was 8. Other people might get freaked out before a big race, but I’ve done it so many times that I don’t have that mental fear.”

The social aspect of summer teams is also a big draw.

“One of the main reasons I still do swimming, is the exercise, but mostly because I’m with a bunch of my friends,” Mohican swimmer Susannah Savage, 17, said. “I could be running by myself, but I’d rather be in the pool with my friends.”

Like Savage, Beehler also swims because it is fun. He said that team unity at Mohican was very important to him. Teammate Kreutzberg agreed.

“Every race, there’s at least 10-15 kids cheering on the sides,” he said. “There might be more people active at the same time with football or lacrosse, but swimming is a lot more like a team sport because everyone’s so involved. It’s a team effort to win.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 4:00 am and is filed under Summer League. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.