Distance for meets

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  • #1663
    crmejean
    Participant

    I need some advice on distance for meets. Our training is typically 1800-2500 per session with 5-6 sessions per week. We do 2-3 USRPT sets and recovery sets with warm up and warm down. The bulk of what we swim in practice is done at race pace. Most meets do not offer as much distance as a meet we are entering for July. If I allow them to do the maximum number of events:
    the 13 year old will swim 3750 (500 Fri, 2400 Sat, 850 Sun)
    one 10 year old will do 3000 (1100 Fri, 2200 Sat, 600 Sun)
    One 10 year old will do 2200 (1100 Fri, 500 Sat, 600 Sun

    Two of them would be doing the 1500 on Sat. In the four weeks leading up to this meet, one practice per week would consist of 30×100 at race pace. The 13 year old will miss two weeks of training and the ten year old will miss one week (out of town camps.)

    Am I asking too much of them? The 13 year old has done meets in the past of 3000-4000, but the most the younger two have done is about 1200-1500.

    Thanks!

    #1665
    MSchuber
    Participant

    If I was in your shoes, I would have them swim them all (I guess–I don’t know your kids), but I would pick (with their help) 1 event per day to do really well in. I would then make sure we train the most for those 3 events–like if it’s the 100 freestyle, we would be doing a lot of 50 freestyle, 100 freestyle, and 200 freestyle work to get ready.

    At those ages, if they can maintain their technique for a distance race, they are going to do well.

    *Note* Your biggest obstacles are not their conditioning. You need to prepare their race strategies and their techniques. That’s one of the huge points of USRPT. You are teaching them the whole practice. “You failed because you lifted your head up.” “Your stroke rate dropped off.” “You stopped kicking.” ETC

    Also, 30x100s might be a bit much. I would scale it back to 20 and get another set in.

    Hope this helps!

    I'm proud of what we've done, but I know 5, 10, 20 years from now I'll wonder what we'd done had we done it 'right'

    #1668
    crmejean
    Participant

    Thanks for the input. I like the idea of having them choose one to emphasize. I do correct technique (as well as a non-swimmer can) all throughout our practices. I go by what Rushall’s curriculum teaches. This is very difficult to do since I can not perform these strokes myself! I guess we are doing okay. Our season to season drops after the first LC meet averaged 8.2% per event. I have no idea how that compares to where we should be. I do see a trend to greater drops in time than between the 2012-2013 season when we used traditional training. Over the 2013 season, one of my swimmers gained time in several events. We left the team in October 2013 but continued with traditional training. We made the transition to USRPT in March and April. I am anxious to see how we do in our next meet this weekend. Two of the kids will have missed training the entire week.

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