Hands On: Inside the Recovery Process for Olympic Trials Swimmers

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By Michael J. Stott

Beneath the bowels of the CenturyLink Center, far from the madding crowd gathered to witness the fastest swimming on earth, are a cadre of men and women working to ensure athletic speed. Below, physical therapy and massage professionals like Club Wolverine’s Dave Kuhn help keep swimmers keep loose and mobile for a run at top qualifying times.

Kuhn is a partner in 13 (soon to be 15) PT clinics in northern Indiana and southern Michigan. He began working with USA Swimming at national and international meets in 1999 and began working with Michigan’s Mike Bottom in 2010. The work he and the school’s in-house PT staff has done has been instrumental in securing Michigan men’s 2013 NCAA title and other top performances.

Kuhn’s services are mostly pre- and post-race with consultation offered when requested. “Pre-race we principally work on dynamic flexibility and stretching. We do whatever the athlete needs to put them in the best position to swim their best. It is different for each athlete so there is really no pre- or post-race formula. Athletes may have little aches and pains from a prior race, travel itself, the hotel bed so we’ll do some PT to help improve mobility and/or reduce pain. Swimmers will warm up and come back and we’ll do a pre-race ‘shake,’ get them loosened up a little bit.

“Post-race is more consistent and usually includes swim down, some type of massage and specific soft tissue work as needed. The extent of that depends on what they are swimming. Flyers often have upper back irritation; breaststrokers often present some hip, groin and buttocks pain. We make sure there is no residual discomfort from the race,” Kuhn said. “Mike and all the coaches, have swimmers do a post-race routine that includes a swim down, then they’ll come to us, get some back work done and usually visit a cold tub.

“Most of the elite athletes are doing an ice tub, which runs 48-50 degrees, for five-to-eight minutes. The colder the tub the shorter the duration. The cold tub helps flush the exudate (body waste). Massage will help with stretching. There is a theory, and the science behind it is a little shaky, that submerging in a really cold bath and then getting out helps increase the blood flow down to the feet, legs and calf. That washes that waste material out.”

Such a procedure is an end-of-the-evening activity, notes Kuhn.

“Most athletes won’t do a cold tub in the middle of the day, though some elite sprinters may partake; the 400 people will not though they may do an ice pack and then come back in the evening.”

Athletes with multiple events in a day are treated a bit differently. “Generally, they’ll do long warm downs with some dynamic stretching (five to ten minutes), just something really quick. They may or may not ice tub. A lot of swimmers use some type of compression garment to aid recovery,” Kuhn said. They may put compression sleeves on arms or legs for 10 or 15 minutes, hydrate, nap and then come back for their next events.

There is a psychic reward in all this for Kuhn. As a successful business owner he clearly he doesn’t need the money. What he does like is the people. “Swimmers are terrific athletes with which to be involved because they are appreciative of the attention they get. They know swimming is only popular once every four years. Every time I have traveled with a swim group I have been treated very gentlemanly. There is always a significant number of ‘thanks yous’ and appreciation for what I do,” he said.

Kuhn has also noticed something else. “You can always tell the athletes who are prepared for the big meets. They recover faster. They know their bodies well and always know what needs to be done. They come to me and say ‘Hey, Dave, my sub scap needs to be released. I’m having some trouble with my upper trap or my hip flexor on my right side. They can pretty much tell you what to do and they take much of my work so I just have to do a good job of performing what they are asking me to do,” Kuhn said.

“There are athletes who say ‘I feel terrible. I feel tight all over.’ Those are the ones who may not have real great self-awareness. That probably means they are not as prepared for the big meet.”

“Sometimes the coaching staff will come to us and ask ‘how’s so-and-so feeling today? Can he go back-to-back? Can he pull a double?’ I leave that decision to the head trainer,” Kuhn said. “On this shift I’m just a hired gun. I love the fact that the coaching staff respects us to prepare the swimmer. Once he’s ready it is up to the athlete and coach to perform whatever needs to be done.”

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