UIC swimming coach Noelle Wilhite’s role in injury prevention

No pain no gain, right?

Wrong. According to Noelle Wilhite, assistant varsity coach for the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams at the University of Illinois at Chicago, an athlete’s performance will suffer if an injury is left untreated.

Wilhite said there are ways to help prevent injuries in swimmers by designing creative training programs. Wilhite has coached swimming for 13 years and triathlon since 2003. She uses her triathlon training and coaching background as a way to cross train her swimmers.

“If I know today is an aerobic conditioning day, I can have some of that be dryland. Lets go jump rope and do some med ball stuff and plyometrics, and then get in and swim and then do a little sprinting,” Wilhite said.

 Wilhite said cross training not only avoids stroke repetition, but also helps prevent injuries and keeps athletes focused to counteract the burnout of swimming laps everyday.

“The more you do that one activity, the higher risk of injury. It not only keeps them mentally stimulated, interested, and also improves their athleticism. But it certainly prevents injury,” Wilhite said.

Starting the season with aerobic-based conditioning and slowly increasing the volume of swimming, introducing equipment and sprinting later on in the training programs to prevent injuries is important said Wilhite.

According to Wilhite, shoulder injuries are the most common problem swimmers face.

“The freestyle stroke can lead to shoulder injuries if the mechanics aren’t correct. I’d say that’s another thing we really try to be diligent about—stroke mechanics and skill and drill work because proper stroke technique leads to less injuries,” Wilhite said.

 Wilhite said head coach, Paul Moniak and her highly recommend athletes to condition and train during their off season to keep a high-level of physical fitness. Depending on the situation, Wilhite would tell an athlete who has a history of injuries to decrease their swimming and work on cycling, running and different dryland activities.

“We advocate a lot of cross training, so that maintaining fitness, even touching the water a couple times a week, the body gets a break from the repetitive movement,” Wilhite said.

 Wilhite said she encourages athletes to inform their coaches of any injuries or irritations they may have to treat injuries as quickly as possible to avoid lifetime injury.

“Living with chronic pain is no way to live,” Wilhite said.