The last time I played water polo it was for Penn State University. 10 years later, I’ve decided to start training again.

I just turned 32 years old, on course to be in the best shape of my life, and armed with the knowledge of both a Kinesiologist and Doctor of Physical Therapy — it’s time to work ‘against’ aging, revisit a childhood dream, and figure out a way to join the Olympic team, as we represent our country with one of the most competitive sports on the planet.

One way or another, I fully intend to go to the next Summer Games — as a Movement Specialist or part of the team — and I will realize my dream. I believe I’m in a unique position to help the USA Water Polo team, so I plan to publicly announce my training routine right here.

You see, current water polo training is great, but it definitely leaves something to be desired. The sheer volume of hours spent training increase risk of injury, which is how I stopped playing ten years ago; both of my shoulders eventually gave way. Instead, let’s take a look at the finer points of water polo, and how to best train for each.

Below, you’ll see my entire training program, rationale why, and how I plan to make the Olympic team. If you’re reading this post and also interested, please challenge yourself to follow this to the tee; if you live in San Francisco and want to train with me, make sure to let me know in the comments section.

With this in mind, we’ll want to consider each one of these points independently, as well as how they affect one another. Let’s take a closer look:

Time spent training — most people overtrain, especially at the Olympic level. I’ve rehabbed and trained plenty of Olympic athletes, and I can tell you that the most important adjustments made to their programs have been proper rest intervals, minimum effective dose (MED) training, ‘true’ core activation, mobility and tissue release replacing flexibility, and less time overall working on the Olympics; more time living wins every time. Life is about balance, and if you intend to perform, it’s best you consider this first.

Each workout will be 25-35 minutes long; some days we’ll have more than one type of workout, but you’ll see more about that below.

Frequency of training — This will vary by periodization phase from 3-5 days per week of active training for the Olympics.

Intensity while training — every training set will be optimized to hit complete failure and require a rest break before continuing. Generally speaking, intensity will mimic play, over and over again; this means maximum intensity at all times, followed by endurance movements for active recovery, and then maximum burst energy once again. The goal will be to shorten the recovery period and out-play the intensity of your opponents.

Recovery period following training — this is the single most important aspect of training for elite performance. If you intend to out-play your opponents, then you must out-last your opponents. Understanding when you’re tired, how much rest you require, and what energy systems you can still utilize when fatigued will make an enormous difference in a game.

Here’s how we will monitor rest, as a priority over any other recommendation:

Muscle Soreness/Pain Scale

On a scale of 0 to 10, where:

0 = no pain/soreness whatsoever
10 = emergency level pain

We will be shooting for 5-7 out of 10 soreness 24 hours after a workout and 3 or less 48 hours after a workout. If your soreness level is higher than this, you should wait a day before continuing on and repeat your last workout, but with adjusted intensity so you know your own limits; if your soreness is less, you should repeat the same workout tomorrow and increase your intensity before moving on.

Periodization Optimization — periodization is how you break up a training program, typically into three 6 week phases:

1. Pre-competition (weeks 1-6)
2. Competition (weeks 7-12)
3. Recovery/Post-competition (weeks 13-18)

However, I’ve been testing and tweaking periodization training for years, and I’ve come up with something I refer to as “Periodization Stacking,” or stacking phases onto one another to shorten the cycle of recovery from one type of strain while working another. Additionally, I believe “competition” to be any workout goal you might have, so we’ll have a “competition training phase” for each workout goal you see below. Every skill or requirement to play as an elite athlete will be accounted for.

Here are the skills we’ll need to train at the highest level — and in the order we’ll want to train them (some are repeated intentionally, as a result of adjusting the body and having to re-gain precision) — each skill represents one ‘competition’ phase of periodization:

1. Shooting
2. Swimming
3. Treading
4. Strength/Power
5. Shooting
6. Physical Play
7. Passing
8. Catching
9. Sprinting
10. Shooting

Now, let’s stack them. Here’s how this will work:

So, instead of 30 training periodization phases (pre-competition, competition, and post-competition for each goal), we have shortened our Olympic training cycle to 13 phases of 6 weeks, or 78 weeks. This is just enough time to compete and recover in time to qualify for the Olympics.

Finally, let’s discuss Specificity of Training, which is where all of the periodization programming comes from. Water polo is a game that requires many skills, so we’re going to train for each, as well as the sport as a whole. Here’s how we’ll do that:

Now, let’s deconstruct the various speeds of play and determine the specificity of speed training required for each skill above:

1. Endurance — swimming, treading, physical play, passing, catching
   • Type II muscle fibers, aerobic energy system
2. Middle speed — swimming, treading, physical play, passing, catching
   • Type IIa muscle fibers, aerobic energy system
3. Sprint — shooting, swimming, treading, physical play, passing, catching
   • Type IIb muscle fibers, anaerobic energy system
4. Power/Burst — shooting, swimming, treading, physical play, passing, catching (with shot)
   • Type IIb muscle fibers, ATP-PC energy system, anaerobic energy system

Time to build my Olympic Water Polo Training workouts (I’ll edit this post and add more as I build them — for now, you can see Phase I workouts, but you’ll have to revisit to get updated workout protocols):

Phase I: Muscle Balancing and Swimming Technique (pre-competition)

Nutritional Focus for Phase I Training: Paleo with Cheat Day (inflammation reduction, lean body goal to carry forward injury-free)

Schedule of Workouts:

• Swimming workouts – Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
• Muscle Balancing workouts – Monday, Friday

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