USRPT for 12&unders
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@Rick good point. I was thinking the same thing. My thought is the more parents who understand this method the easier it will be for them to explain it to others. And you may gain a few swimmers. Parents are your clubs biggest referrals and hopefully biggest fans. The last time I checked Parents are the reason we get pay checks. Something to think about. Kind of feel like we are all in this together at this point. Especially with these younger swimmers. Not many of them doing USRPT yet and education is key. It takes an entire village.
At our year-end banquet, we have a presentation aimed at parents, not to try to make parents coaches but do they would have a basic understanding if thus training method, how it differs from traditional training and how it may benefit their daughters. It was well received especially concepts around personal accountability, teamwork and trusting something new.
Greg Tucker
#USRPTThanks for all the responses! Great discussion – and at this point as a parent, I would gladly pay to have a cliff notes parenting version of USRPT training provided to me!
I swam as a kid so I understand old school swim code, not USPRT code. That being said, I am not against this training philosophy at all, I just think my daughter is not getting in enough yardage for her 200 and 500 free events.She has had only one set of 6 x 100s. Most days her main USRPT set consists of 10-12 x 50s on the minute. I am unsure how her race pace is set but she is consistently swimming her goal time of 35 secs from a push. She has never missed an interval. Her best 50 yard free is 29.8.
So if I am correct from the earlier advice/calculations Greg, she is training 600 yards at USRPT pace instead of 1500 yards (20×75 or 30 x50s). No wonder why she died at Far Westerns.
And here I am going to stick my neck out and possibly tick off coaches as a former swimmer and parent. My guess is that 10% of your parents really want to know what is going on as far as their child’s training (referring to the finer details). If you take the attitude that I am the coach and I know all, you are going to lose parents. I have seen that this past 3 years as a club that has gone through multiple age group and head coach changes and the loss of a pool. So when your child goes through 3 major coaching changes, loses a pool, and then has to learn a completely new way of training at the ripe age of 10, and then she drowns in her best 2 events at FW .. well heck yes, I want you as the coach (any coach) to spend the time to explain to me this new plan.
That being said, I don’t want to coach my kids. Birthing and parenting are more than enough for this swim mama, however bottom line I do want her to improve, because she wants to improve. And so as soon as she seems to be performing these sets as they are supposed to be done for her events, I will be more than happy to just relax and chase after my other 3 kids. Until then, I’m going to be THAT mom who asks the questions and spends her Friday nights reading USRPT swimming forums. 🙂
Swim mama, the 50s set you describe does not sound like true USRPT to me. I can’t find it in the paper again, but I thought that I had read that the target is set at 93% of the best time in each event. The training target must be faster than their best time, correct? I do know that I read training should be 3-5 times the yardage of the event. Honestly, I have read so many of Dr Rushall’s papers that they start to run together. My husband and I have been forced into training our children ourselves. Neither of us are swimmers. He is an official, so he understands the mechanics of each stroke. It is very difficult for us to do this, but we will study and research to do the best by our kids. That is what most parents do, right? I completely agree with you that most parents want to understand what is being done in training and why.
I am a bit confused by some of what I am reading. In the Step by Step paper, he outlines training sessions for two hours in the pool. I love the guidance of how many sessions per week by ages, but these descriptions do not mirror Michael Andrew’s training. I am trying to get a good grasp on how much time and yardage we should be doing. Many coaches tell me that most 12&U kids will improve simply by being in the water regularly. I think I agree with that. My ten year olds typically drop in 80-100% of their races at every meet. My 13 year old only drops in about 50%. He is my main concern right now.
Can anyone confirm the 93% of best time as target? Does Michael Andrew adhere strictly to Rushall’s recommendations, or is his training very specific to him within Rushall’s guidelines?
Another question to anyone who can answer it. Do I understand this correctly there is no taper when you are training USRPT? Especially with these younger swimmers because you don’t really have anything to taper off of. Please someone confirm.
Paper 45d is about peaking performance. This is one more area that confuses me a bit. I have read about no need to taper. This paper describes an altered week or two of training. This is not traditional tapering, but leads to peaking. We are going to do one week before a meet at the end of May. We are considering not doing it before our regular meet in July and then doing a full two weeks before our championship meet at the end of July. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.
Does anyone have information on these younger kids recovery time out of the water? I am reading some of these kids are doing 2 workouts a day which means for most of them (who are not home schooled) they are practicing before school going to school all day and then doing another 1 and half to 2 hour practice in the late afternoon or evening. Parents are asking questions about their child practicing more than once a day because Michael Andrew and another child who is training race pace is doing it. I have read research about a child’s recovery time and the need to fully rest their body in order do race or any sport at peak performance. Isn’t USRPT suppose to be less time in the water? Anyone have any thoughts? Really would like to hear from age group coaches who are having success with your younger kids.
This is my first time here in this forum… Extremely helpful and interesting. I coach the 12&U swimmers in our club. I have been implementing USRPT for approximately 5 weeks now. I am seeing incredible results, not only in times, but also in race-pace technique and motivation/excitement.
My swimmers only train between 4-6 hours per week. The Head Coach (also my husband) has a strong belief that young swimmers need time to rest and grow. Forcing them to swim excessive amounts leads only to injury and burnout. That being said, it is amazing how much more we are accomplishing in our limited time with this new system.
Coming from a background of competitive gymnastics, USRPT makes so much sense. As a gymnast, we practiced our full routines over and over again. We needed to feel confident going into a meet that we had perfected through repetition every detail. Let me tell you, it can be a whole lot more painful to mess up on balance beam, than to miss a time in the pool. I think of this Race pace work as practicing a routine over and over, so that when it comes to competition day, they know exactly what they need to do.
The biggest challenge has been with those swimmers who would rather just give up and “fail” a set, rather than work hard to achieve better results. The kids that are willing to put 100% effort into reaching their goals are thriving. Motivating the others can be a little more work.
I have tons more to add … but I will leave it there for now.
Hi all,
Wanted to get this discussion back on the top of the list. Would like more information on the younger swimmers. How does everyone think this training is going so far for the younger ones who like to swim those 200 M and 400 M events. I am seeing better results with boys than with our girls. Is there something to that? Should the girls be training differently? I have also read that girls will need more distance in their workout to swim at peak performance. Anyone have any thoughts or experience with this? Also are we all still sticking to the mix training gives mix results. I am thinking for girls they may need a day or two of more distance than boys. Just want I am seeing in our pool. All feedback welcome. Thanks
We have one season under our belt with both boys and girls. Qualitatively and semi-quantitatively, we think both did well. Can’t say one better than other. Analyses ongoing. Stay tuned.
And, yes, we have the thought that girls may do better with distance work blended in. No data, just interpretation of data recently presented at Rushall clinic.
Greg Tucker
#USRPT
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