kt
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Hey everybody, I’m Kyle Tek from Arizona. I’ve been using USRPT exclusively with my senior athletes for 1 year now, and getting better results than “traditional” systems.
Another way to look at that might be this:
“You’re feeling tired at the end of races because you recruited more muscle fibers to the task of fast swimming. Aerobic swimming less than 85% effort mainly recruit and train slow-twitch muscles. At near-100% effort, you recruit slow twitch, fast twitch a (aerobic) AND fast twitch b fibers (glycolytic), like we’ve been training to do every day. Fast twitch a fibers are 2-5x stronger than slow-twitch; fast twitch b fibers are 10x stronger. More muscle fibers working will result in faster swims (as you’re seeing), but faster swimming will always hurt more.”
I had a similar issue with a miler who I made do a lot of pace work a couple years ago. He dropped about 1:30.00 in the course of the season, but when he finished the mile, he complained about being “dead.” I told him it was because he had learned how to fully expend his energy resources in the race that he was hurting so much. Doesn’t make much sense to have a huge “aerobic capacity” if you can’t tap into it and spend it all in the pool! Doing anything to your true physical limitations will hurt 🙂
Another thing to consider…are these swimmers warmed up enough before sprinting? And I’m talking deep muscle temperature, not did they swim 600 yards before they raced! If not, make sure to tweak their warm-up routine so their body temperature is elevated a bit (i.e. just enough to be breaking a sweat) within 20 minutes of their sprint. Basic exercises like jumping jacks plus dynamic stretching works really nicely, and usually takes only 5-10 minutes to complete. Plus you don’t need a warm-up lane to do it in, either, which comes in handy in those smaller venues.
After their sprint, they should immediately proceed into a warm-down protocol of some kind. Hitting about 85% effort for 10-15 minutes of sustained, constant activity to fully reintegrate all the by-products from sprinting and regenerate energy from lactate. Could be in the pool or out of it, doesn’t matter. But assisting in their in-meet recovery will also help them to feel better when they race multiple times in one session. They should recover before coming up to speak with you!
Hope that helps!
KTYou said a big solution to your problems right here:
“She strikes me as a better long course swimmer though because she’s about 5’4″ and doesn’t have amazing turns. She also isn’t as good at dolphin kick as you would expect from a girl who goes 1:01. She’s okay but it isn’t her main strength.”
I really appreciate all the lengthy discussions in this thread about specifics of conditioning, but Rushall is very emphatic when he says that most of short course racing is skills (starts, UW’s, turns, breakouts & finishes). It’s really easy to get caught up in the sets and fret about paces not improving quickly enough, or questioning the conditioning of the athletes and whatnot. It’s another thing entirely to slow down and focus on the fundamentals of swimming fast and focus on teaching them to be better!
Don’t knock yourself for being a new-ish coach either! I’ve only been coaching for 7 years, but have had a LOT of success (I’m only 26). Many under-14 Sectional qualifiers, LSC recordbreakers, State Champions, etc. People will always judge you on your experience/age, but you can erase all doubts with top-notch coaching!
Try starting your sessions with focused skill work. If your girl has rough turns, then clean them up. It’s low-hanging fruit, and really easy to make big improvements with small investments of time (possibly 20 mins a day, as your very first “set”). Rushall suggests doing this type of work often – possibly EVERY day. Most swimmers – probably over 95% – are terrible on their turns. I think everyone on this blog will agree with me on that point 🙂
If you aren’t sure how your kids’ turns need to be improved, just do a little research. There is a lot of decent stuff even on YouTube! I personally like the Dave Marsh material on Turns a lot – he really goes in depth.
Same thing goes for the dolphin kicking. Start off with a round of 15m UW work. If the pool doesn’t accommodate easily, just have them swim the last ~10 yards in easy, then include that in their interval. So if she’s swimming ~8s UW’s, just make them into “25’s” on :25. And don’t be too antsy about the swim times midpool, just focus on the fundamentals of good UW’s. Better streamlining (on arms/hands AND legs/feet). Push-off mechanics (feet, hips, body, streamline in alignment). Depth of UW (6 feet depth is ideal, per Rushall, with 40% less drag than surface swimming). Starting the UW kicking pretty much immediately after push-off (so you don’t lose momentum). Keeping the head in line with the body as the swimmer ascends to the Breakout. I could go on and on and on, but the best thing you can do as a coach is to go DEEPER into the basic, fundamental skills with your kids. It will pay HUGE dividends when they begin to “get it.”
These types of improvements to racing skills make a fast and big difference in swimmers’ performance in sets and in racing. It is much quicker to change and improve than something in their stroke, since they perform so many more executions of strokes, and are much more “ingrained” with their neurological patternings. Rushall estimates it takes 50,000 to 100,000 reps to fully incorporate a technical change into a stroke! It’s just a lot easier to work out those racing skills! Plus, the kids will really notice a positive difference when they race (and not just in the times they drop either).
Remember, USRPT is about better TEACHING, TECHNIQUE, PSYCHOLOGY, & CONDITIONING (IN THAT ORDER)!
Take your time, work the fundamental racing skills, be thorough with your teachings, and make your athletes better (not just better-conditioned).
Rushall suggests using their best times, plus a margin for them being untrained. I think it’s +2 seconds for 100, but you can use whatever pace they are currently able to hold. Once they’re steady at that pace, you should quickly progress them to their PB pace where they’ll start dropping time in racing.
If they’re club swimmers transitioning to HS, they should be fit enough to start closer to their PB paces. If not, and you don’t know their times (or they don’t know their times), try doing some time trials in practice to get things going. Did this with a lot of success with a group of HS kids who had very little swim experience, and it worked out very well.
You can even do a time trial, give them a couple minutes’ rest, then proceed into a set of pace right off. So for instance, dive 100 Free as a time trial; sort out lanes by times achieved, then assign intervals in the USRPT format; then start a set of 25’s holding their 100 Free pace they just achieved. It’s a good way of connecting the kids to their swim when you’re trying to teach them what you want in the USRPT format.
