📸 Through The Lens | Dryland Training

Kansas Athletics staff photographer Jeff Jacobsen shares his memories of what he saw “Through the Lens” from his 23-year career with the Jayhawks.

Swimmers need to feel the water as lap-after-lap build. Divers need to maintain the sense of movement required for somersaulting and twisting moves. Without time on the water, rowers lose the balance between power and stability required for any boat from a single to an eight-rower shell.

Logically, everyone will want to jump in the water or settle into a boat’s sliding seat when these teams safely return to the KU campus. However, it will not be surprising to see both teams start with dryland training. Before dawn, far from Robinson Natatorium and the Kansas River, the conditioning will begin.

Swimmers crawling up the steep ramps of the stadium using only arm strength while their legs rest on rollers seems fiendish, but the move strengthens their upper bodies and arms in a compound movement hard to duplicate in a weight room. The endless jumps photographed on a foggy morning build explosive power for races as short as 50-meters. Divers will be tethered, practicing their rotation above a foam pit. Rowers will sprint up the stadium steps taxing aerobic levels while developing the endurance and strength needed for 2,000-meter races with power surges demanded by the coxswain.

Since the shutdown, the women of these teams might feel like ducks out of water, and before they can return to the pool or river, there will still be some dryland ahead of them.