June Issue of Swimming World
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Hi All,
Anyone see the June issue of Swimming World Magazine? Starting on page 25 titled a new way to train USRPT. Anyone have any thoughts on the article? I am still a little focused on how Micheal Andrew is being used as the Age Grouper protege for our upcoming youngsters. Again like I have said he seems like a great kid. But I am not sure how his success can be compared to your average or even above average and fastest age group swimmers. His training is great for him, but in the article it is again stated he trains 3 times a day. Most kids who go to school can not do that. How can we compare his success to our age group kids doing USRPT once a day. Do we need to mix it up a bit, so they are getting at least 3000 yards or meters a day. Micheal is also 6’3. According the article his mother is 6’2 and his father is 6’5. Do you think genetics play a little part in his success also.
The program seems to be working with our group of kids. They are dropping time, but so are the kids from other teams who are not doing the USRPT. Many of them are dropping a lot more time than our age groups are. We still like the concept but not totally sold. We will keep at it and see where it takes us. Does everyone still believe this will work for all types of swimmers? And are we still sticking to mix training gives mixed results? I enjoy hearing from you all.
Looking forward to your responses.
Some good questions there Swimin.
I think the USRPT world is doing itself a big disfavor, in a sense, by promoting itself so aggressively. Years and years of swimming training is now being discredited and in the name of supposed “evidence based, science based” training.
Now I believe in USRPT, and it has worked well for me for the most part, but there are a lot of swimmers swimming real well who are not doing USRPT, and a large enough sample base to suggest that they are doing something right. Something beyond just getting physically more mature, which is what the critics will point at being Michael Andrew’s main reason for success. I fear a lot of people are going to get discouraged when they find out that they are not all of a sudden way faster than all of the dinosaurs that are stuck in the “dogma of traditional training”.
Is Michael genetically special swimmer? Of course. Would he be swimming this well in a traditional program? No way of knowing. However, looking at what he has accomplished there is no way you can say that USRPT doesn’t work.
From what I have read, he doesn’t do 3 workouts per day very often and usually his workouts are about an hour in length so it is not like he is getting that much extra water time in.
Now let’s say for the point of argument that USRPT is the ultimate form of swim training, and in 20 years almost everyone is doing it. Then what? It will be the people who learn how to improve upon it that have the most success. I say this in response to the mixed training idea. I think the key is being able to insure that they are fresh enough to achieve as many swims at race pace as possible. If you can mix training styles and still allow that to happen I think you will be on to something.Some good answers @wordofmouth…..
FYI Swimming world Magazine’s June issue does quote Micheal Andrew trains 3 times a day at 1500 yds or meters (not sure which) each training session. And he raced almost every weekend from March through April. Not saying that’s bad, but is it a realistic type of training for your 14&unders.
Read the article and let me know your thoughts. I feel it is a really good read and does not favor either type of training (USRPT or traditional).
The thing I keep getting stuck on is mixed training gives mixed results. I feel like with anything in life the same thing does not work for every person. Like learning in school everyone learns differently and certain things work for some and not for others. Are we saying USRPT is for everyone????
I am in with USRPT at this point, but wonder what will come of it once all the questions and kinks are worked out.
Thoughts.
I struggle with the same issue. I am a physiology nerd so I’m 100% with the race pace swimming model. I am, however, concerned about the “amount” my kids are getting in. I want to transition this to our entire team next fall. I am working with only a few swimmers from our team right now (one being my daughter). I love what we are doing but 4 days/week, 3 sets per practice (avg 1200-1800 race pace) just makes me nervous some times.
Am I (or are they) doing enough? Can they do 3000yrds at race pace in 90min? Will it hurt them? I can’t remember why Dr. Rushall says 3-5x event length.
Anyway, I guess we’ll see in couple weeks at our first LC meet of the season
DrPaul, check out the updated paper #49. He makes some clarifications on distances to train. 200 & under is 5-6 times the event distance.
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