Does playing water polo have a bad affect on people who do track and field?

Question

i am very dedicated when it comes to track and field. i had a great season this year, specializing in the 400 meters, along with the 200 and 800. but 400 was what i was best at by far. i really want to improve and get better in the coming year, but im unsure about my fall sport. a lot of people say cross country is best, but i hate cross country. ive decided to do water polo, something ive always watnted to do really badly. im worried though it will make me slower at running/sprinting. is this true?

Answer 1

Running is superb training for swimming. Some world elite distance swimmers in the 70s and 80s would do weekly long runs of up to 10 miles.

Subsequent sports science research has proven the superiority of fast repetition training over long distance for aerobic capacity development. Workouts like "30/30s" where you alternate running 30 seconds at 2 mile race pace with 30 seconds of jogging, or "Tabata intervals" where you alternate 20 seconds at *maximal* pace and 10 seconds of coasting (no more than 6 times--this'll be agony if you truly "max out," whatever your athletic level) induce huge improvements in endurance AND sprint performance.

Do these during water polo season and you'll be able to transition to outdoor track with full readiness. This assumes you do the right kind of strength training:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

In short, coaches used to believe there'd be fatal tradeoffs in your situation. We're more enlightened now!

I'd add that you probably ought to consider triathlon in the coming years. A number of top pros have a dual background in water polo and running at the collegiate level. One of our Beijing Olympians, Julie Swail Ertel, has a silver medal in Water Polo from Athens.

Answer 2

Why not doing water polo this fall but still train 3-4 days a week on the track? Go for a run maybe on your own so that you are still connected with running. Water polo is great though, you should do it if you've always wanted! Go for it!