Swimming and Youth Athletic Growth: A Assortment of 20 Review Articles

Although I view myself as a generalist in the direction of youth athletic improvement, a lot of my writing and utilized sport science work has centered on baseball, basketball and soccer. I’ve additionally spent a while with ice hockey, and extra lately lacrosse.

So why is it that I proceed to get electronic mail alerts of recent subscribers affiliated with GAIN Swim?

As these new subscribers have poured in during the last a number of months, I stored considering “man, I need to do a few blogs on swimming.”

My solely relationships with swimming are that I personally incorporate swimming into my weekly train routine (I’m really going to the pool this morning), and professionally, I attended a summit of leaders in youth swimming and athletic improvement in October of 2000 on the USOC campus in Colorado Springs. I used to be recent off the completion of my PhD, and my mentor Dr. Bob Malina couldn’t attend so he requested me to current on age- and maturity-variation in bodily improvement. Also in attendance on the summit was Tudor Bompa, who offered on the Eastern European mannequin of growing swimmers.

Oh, and I’ve visited the pool at Indiana University the place Doc Counsilman performed a lot of his analysis on the science of swimming.

So right here we’re. A tip of the hat to GAIN Swim.

But first, what’s GAIN Swim?

GAIN Swim is an outgrowth of GAIN, the Gambetta Athletic Improvement Network, which is the brainchild of Vern Gambetta — extensively considered the daddy of recent athletic improvement. Chris Webb introduced the GAIN strategies and strategy of athletic improvement to aggressive swimming as a result of in his eyes the game had largely ignored the systematic, science-based improvement of the entire athlete from the pool deck (i.e. dryland coaching). And it’s Chris and extra straight, James Marshall – the GAIN Swim publication editor – whom I must thank for referring the GAIN Swim followers to IronMan Performance.

As I’ve finished earlier than for numerous sports activities and subjects, I’m going to share some scholarly sources. My hope is to dissect a few of these subjects in additional element in future posts – however for now, I hope you could find one or just a few overview papers which are helpful (and never behind a paywall). Enjoy.

A PubMed search on August 30, 2026 utilizing the important thing phrase ‘swimming’ yielded 56,844 papers; nonetheless, this included papers on micro organism suppressing swimming motility within the flagellin D1 epitope!

Thus, the search was restricted to ‘humans’ and this yielded 20,245 papers.

Given the main target of this platform, we additionally restricted the search to ‘child:0-18 years’. This yielded 5436 papers however a number of had been additionally associated to drowning or medical remedy.

Nonetheless, there’s a affordable analysis exercise on this subject. In comparability, listed here are the numbers for a similar search and numerous sports activities: soccer 6073; Baseball 1746; Basketball 2445; Rugby 1207; Skiing 1407; tennis 1461; Cricket 344.

The search was then additional restricted to overview articles, yielding 278 papers. Below is a listing and hyperlink to a number of overview articles that I believed could also be of curiosity to the youth swimming neighborhood.

Applied physiology of swimming. Lavoie JM, Montpetit RR. Sports Med. 1986 May-Jun;3(3):165-89

Profiling swimmers. Marino M. Clin Sports Med. 1984 Jan;3(1):211-29

When Is It Too Early for Single Sport Specialization? Feeley BT, Agel J, LaPrade RF. Am J Sports Med. 2016 Jan;44(1):234-41.

Current Sport Organization Guidelines From the AMSSM 2019 Youth Early Sport Specialization Research Summit. AMSSM Collaborative Research Network Youth Early Sport Specialization Summit; Tenforde AS, Montalvo AM, Nelson VR, Myer GD, Brenner JS, DiFiori JP, Jayanthi NA, Marshall SW, Kliethermes SA, Beutler AI, Herman DC. Sports Health. 2022 Jan-Feb;14(1):135-141.

Sex Differences in Swimming Disciplines-Can Women Outperform Men in Swimming? Knechtle B, Dalamitros AA, Barbosa TM, Sousa CV, Rosemann T, Nikolaidis PT. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 May 22;17(10):3651.

How Anthropometrics of Young and Adolescent Swimmers Influence Stroking Parameters and Performance? A Systematic Review. Alves M, Carvalho DD, Fernandes RJ, Vilas-Boas JP. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Feb 22;19(5):2543.

Inertial Sensor Technology for Elite Swimming Performance Analysis: A Systematic Review. Mooney R, Corley G, Godfrey A, Quinlan LR, ÓLaighin G. Sensors (Basel). 2015 Dec 25;16(1):18.

The relationship between training load and pain, injury and illness in competitive swimming: A systematic review. Barry L, Lyons M, McCreesh Ok, Powell C, Comyns T. Phys Ther Sport. 2021 Mar;48:154-168.

Effect of Resistance Training Methods and Intensity on the Adolescent Swimmer’s Performance: A Systematic Review. Guo W, Soh KG, Zakaria NS, Hidayat Baharuldin MT, Gao Y. Front Public Health. 2022 Apr 4;10:840490.

The Impact of Resistance Training on Swimming Performance: A Systematic Review. Crowley E, Harrison AJ, Lyons M. Sports Med. 2017 Nov;47(11):2285-2307.

The Effects of Trunk Muscle Training on Physical Fitness and Sport-Specific Performance in Young and Adult Athletes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Saeterbakken AH, Stien N, Andersen V, Scott S, Cumming KT, Behm DG, Granacher U, Prieske O. Sports Med. 2022 Jul;52(7):1599-1622

Sleep Interventions Designed to Improve Athletic Performance and Recovery: A Systematic Review of Current Approaches. Bonnar D, Bartel Ok, Kakoschke N, Lang C. Sports Med. 2018 Mar;48(3):683-703.

The adolescent athlete’s heart; A miniature adult or grown-up child? Pieles GE, Stuart AG. Clin Cardiol. 2020 Aug;43(8):852-862

Asthma risk in young people who attended chlorinated swimming pools in early childhood. Silvestre CL, Freitas-Dias R, Costa EC, Santos MAMD, Correia Júnior JL, Peixoto DM, Rodrigues Filho EA, Correia Júnior MAV. Rev Paul Pediatr. 2025 Aug 18;43:e2024251

The Effect of Swimming During Childhood and Adolescence on Bone Mineral Density: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Gomez-Bruton A, Montero-Marín J, González-Agüero A, García-Campayo J, Moreno LA, Casajús JA, Vicente-Rodríguez G. Sports Med. 2016 Mar;46(3):365-79

Swimming and peak bone mineral density: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Gomez-Bruton A, Montero-Marín J, González-Agüero A, Gómez-Cabello A, García-Campayo J, Moreno LA, Casajús JA, Vicente-Rodríguez G. J Sports Sci. 2018 Feb;36(4):365-377.

Effects of Physical Exercise on Whole-Body Bone Mineral Density in Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Li Y, Saibon JB, Mo W, Xu J. Sports Health. 2026 Mar-Apr;18(2):288-297.

Exercise interventions to improve bone mineral density in athletes participating in low-impact sports: a scoping review. Florvåg AG, Berg ØA, Røksund OD, Jorem GT, Bogen BE. BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2025 Jan 20;26(1):73

Risk Factors for Shoulder Injuries in Female Athletes Playing Overhead Sports: A Systematic Review. Steele MC, Lavorgna TR, Ierulli VK, Mulcahey MK. Sports Health. 2025 May-Jun;17(3):512-522

Pooling the evidence: A review of swimming and atopic dermatitis. O’Connor C, McCarthy S, Murphy M. Pediatr Dermatol. 2023 May-Jun;40(3):407-412