pault1607

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  • in reply to: 100% VO2max Development Concepts #3429
    pault1607
    Participant

    Hi Ryan,

    A question re your 5th para where you discuss ideal swim pace/rest interval. What do you mean by “I don’t think multiple failures are beneficial”. Do you mean that the swimmer should “complete the set” i.e. if you went 12 75s at 50:20 (=1:10), you should do all 12 reps off a 1:10 turn around? Or do you mean to stop after 1 failure? If so what if that is rep #3?

    Given that this is about an approixmate Vo2Max rather than pace, isn’t it always better to complete the set and get the work in?

    in reply to: Target time for 100Free LCM #3401
    pault1607
    Participant

    Wow, 3.5 hours a week? Most other coaches won’t see an improvement with 10 hours a week. It’s always frustrating to compare metrics when limited data is available:

    “My athlete improved 2%!” [he swam 15 hours a week, 8k a session]
    “Darn, mine only improved 1.5%” [swam 4 hours a week, 1.5k a session]

    And also, it’s always going to difficult to determine the actual cause of improvement. Is it the training, is it physical development, is he just having a good day?? It’s all about what they do whilst they are there too isn’t it. Swimmer A might be working twice as hard in half the time as Swimmer B.
    I agree, 3.5 hours a weeks isn’t very much is it?!! I think it’s actually not “enough” to be reaching his peak performance, but it’s all we’ve got at the moment. He is still just shy of 18 so there is still some physical development going on. But in the last year he has gone from doing nothing for 4 months, a few months of a few sessions a week (trying to fit USRPT into traditional sessions), a few months of dabbling with USRPT and about 5 months (with summer break) of trying it “by the book”. He also plays other sport so is getting some cardio benefit from that.
    He does work very hard in the pool and always pushes to his limit. I track his times and can see the improvement trend in his training times. We’ve decided to incorporate a few more 50s at 200 pace sets to try to build that back end.
    As I said above, even on such a limited amount of time, we are seeing enough to be convinced that it is working for him. The main reason of course is that it’s got him back in the pool!!!

    in reply to: Target time for 100Free LCM #3400
    pault1607
    Participant

    Forgive me if I’m stating the obvious, but is he having a very short warm-up immediately (10-15 mins) before he races? The guidance for race pace sets is that you are getting everything (heart rate, respiration etc) up to speed on the first 5 or 6 repeats. Training with USRPT has made a portion of the fast twitch fibres oxidative but if you try to swim fast immediately then you’re unable to deliver oxygen to the fibres quickly enough so they will perform anaerobically. Part way through the race the oxygen delivery will get up to speed but by then the damage is done and you suffer at the back end. I’ve found that swimming an easy 100 followed by 4×25 at race pace with about 15 seconds rest, 10-15 mins before the race works well. It also helps to get your body locked into the effort and pace that is expected in the race. If he doesn’t already do this it’s worth a try at meets that have the facilities. It works for me.

    Thanks. That has bothered me a little I’m not convinced he is “ready” to go fast straight away. In training he often delivers his best reps from #5-10 after his systems are up to speed. I’ve suggested a late warm-up as you suggest and his response has been that it’s hard to replicate that pre-race adrenaline feeling. But I what you are talking about is different. I guess it’s about getting the energy systems “switched on” prior to a race. I’ll raise it again with him. Thanks

    in reply to: Target time for 100Free LCM #3397
    pault1607
    Participant

    Performance update.
    First meet of the season last week. He swam 50 and 100 free and 50 and 100 fly (SCM). PB’d on 3 of 4 (only non-PB was his 50 free – last race of the meet on Sunday afternoon after a long weekend).
    100 free was 53.2 a half second improvement. We’re now on a target time of 13.5 and his last two sets his average time was about 13.3 (13.3 x 4 = 53.2!!!).
    We’ve also been doing some fly sets. He went 58.7. He’s been training 14.8 TT sets so that’s pretty close too.
    Still good enough for “proof of concept” for us, especially since he’s only doing a total of 3.5 hrs training a week due to his work and college commitments and the pool time we have. He also had a holiday and missed nearly two weeks of training mid August. So not too bad overall.
    What we did conclude though is that he is still lacking back end endurance. The limiting factor is still his last 25. Plan is to try to fit a few more reps of 50m and work on reducing his TT and number of reps more.
    He’s ready to go again.

    in reply to: Stroke Effiiency & USRPT #3376
    pault1607
    Participant

    I struggled in the past with the downward spiral of stroking faster to make up for diminishing stroke efficiency which, in turn, leads to further stroke inefficiency. Got that under control by using stroke count as an additional failure trigger for a while. I no longer have a hard stroke count # as a failure trigger because I have gotten so much better at maintaining a steady stroke rate that I know that I’m going to fail to meet the target time if the stroke count is too high.

    Thanks Gary. We are going to give it a go. I don’t necessarily want to use it all the time – or necessarily to use it as a “hard fail” but just to give him a focus on his stroke as he gets tired.

    in reply to: Stroke Effiiency & USRPT #3375
    pault1607
    Participant

    Hi Paul,

    I have a coach friend that makes his swimmers fail based on time and stroke count just as you defined above. I think it’s an idea for you to try out. Remember the priorities of USRPT are:

    1. Technique
    2. Mental Preparation
    3. Race Pace

    I think coaches tend to focus on pace over technique and mental preparation. Use video from your phone to show your son his technique is failing and have him focus on that as the improvement focus. He will most likely begin to fail when his stroke shortens. When he fails, use the opportunity to show him the technique failure.

    Thanks for your reply. We will give it a go this week.

    in reply to: Target time for 100Free LCM #3368
    pault1607
    Participant

    My experience with USRPT is that your PB really does not matter in chosing target time. You can really start with any target time, and if you complete the set you drop your target time. The drop should be large enough to be reasonably measurable. Small drops will result in more frequent time reductions. Big drops will require more sets at the same pace until the next drop.
    Especially for swimmers coming of traditional training it can be mentally more beneficial to start at an “easy” target and then work towards the “single failure” set and then to sneak them in to the whole concept that failure is beneficial.
    Soon enough, they will normalize to an appropriate fail pace where they will need to push to complete the set to achieve the next pace reduction.
    It is not necessary to “correlate” to race times. The improvement over time is what is important and race pace improvement will correlate with race time improvement. The “slope” is more important than the actual time, so to say.

    Thanks for your reply. I think that this observable “slope” in training is one of the most important aspects for him (and me). He can see and feel himself improving – either in target times or # of reps. I know that this fed through to when he last raced – he “knew” he was going to be fast. We are also incorporating occasional “benchmark” swims – an all-out 25 – push to hands, and a “stand-up” 50 at the end of a set. He can see that he is getting faster.
    I think in the traditional programmes the constant level of fatigue masks the improvements that they may (or may not) be getting. Tapering then becomes a bit of a shot in the dark. I know in the past there have been cases where he’s raced either particularly well or badly and not really known why.

    in reply to: Target time for 100Free LCM #3367
    pault1607
    Participant

    Compromise with him, and give him a little more rest so he can do more reps at the faster pace. How would he do at 13.25 if you set the interval at 35 instead of 30? If he can’t do many reps at that, then try 40 seconds.

    In my (admittedly limited, sample size of 1) experience, “specificity” overrides all other factors. When in doubt, swim faster and adjust the other variables to accommodate.

    Thanks Gary – I’ll try that “extra rest” compromise with him. We’ve done a few 50m sets at 200 pace. He’s not swum a 200 for over a year so really struggled with only 20s rest. On Saturday, because he’d done a good 25s set on Friday, we did some 50s but I gave him 30s rest. I guess this is sub-optimal but he ended up doing 12 reps to first fail. He worked really hard. I’m not sure he’s ever swum 600m so fast in training before – ever.

    I guess it’s just a different type of improvement strategy – big step in the target time and see the improvement in the reduction of rest periods vs small steps at the same rest and see the improvements in the increased number of reps.

    in reply to: Target time for 100Free LCM #3364
    pault1607
    Participant

    Sounds to me like it’s time to reset the target time to 13.25. From there, the drops might be only .10 at a time.

    Thanks Gary. He did two 13.7 sets on Weds. His second set he went 10 reps to first fail. Was still going at #14 when we ran out of time. I want to drop his time but he’s reluctant – he’s still in the “I need to do lots of reps” mindset. Trying to convince him that faster/fewer will be better in the long run.

    in reply to: Location and USRPT Status #3362
    pault1607
    Participant

    Another UK-based coach here. Currently in a fairly traditional club, trying to be a bit subversive from the inside.

    James

    Hi James – I note you are from the UK. What area? Son has just started USRPT (pretty much self-coached, I’m helping). How’s it going for you?

    in reply to: Location and USRPT Status #3361
    pault1607
    Participant

    Hi James – I note you are from the UK. What area? Son has just started USRPT (pretty much self-coached, I’m helping). How’s it going for you?

    in reply to: Target time for 100Free LCM #3360
    pault1607
    Participant

    Performance Update!
    Son swam at the weekend. He did a small PB 54.6 – was really pleased with his swim. He said he still didn’t feel as good as he did a couple of weeks ago (health-wise) but swam well. Last went this quick over a year ago.
    So, certainly enough for us to keep going with this. He’s now been doing USRPT for about 6 weeks – since mid April and has only done 3 or 4 sessions a week. Each 1 hour max which usually gives us time for only one set. He’s done mostly 25s, with some “50s” sets to 15 and 25 rested, plus one set of 50s at 200 race pace.

    He’s now going to race again in July and wants to work to reducing his target time and do a few more 50s sets to build his back end.

    So far so good….

    in reply to: Location and USRPT Status #3359
    pault1607
    Participant

    Hi All, Paul from the UK. Son is 17 and still wants to compete (#1 event is 100 Free 54s long course) and improve but has come out of a traditional programme and just can’t face it any more. Wants to try USPRT so we’ve negotiated a lane at our club sessions 4 times a week and I’m doing it with him. A couple of other late teen swimmers are joining us too.

    All a bit of an experiment and not sure where it might lead but giving it a go.

    in reply to: Target time for 100Free LCM #3358
    pault1607
    Participant

    Sorry also forgot to mention. We are in the UK where USRPT is viewed at best with some scepticism if not outright hostility, so there are a few other people watching what we’re doing and how it works out.

    in reply to: Target time for 100Free LCM #3357
    pault1607
    Participant

    Thanks Gary.

    A quick update. We had a bad week last week – he had exams and a bit of stress plus might have been fighting off a bit of a virus. Mid week last week he did 19 reps @ 13.8 with two fails but was only just making it. We stopped there because he wanted to do some front end speed too.

    This week he feels better. Tonight he went 21 reps @ 13.8 with only 1 fail. We had 3 others in the lane who were trying the set so were limited on time so I then asked them to go all out for 3 reps – he went 12.9, 12.7, 12.6. We then stopped so I don’t know how many more he might have been able to do.

    He’s very much used to managing his effort having trained “traditionally” for years i.e. he manages his effort to complete the set. So another question, given that he can throw in 3 sub 13s after 21 reps @ 13.8 – should he actually be training faster i.e. would he be better dropping his target substantially even if he could only complete less than 12 reps initially? Or should I ask him to start a set and say OK every rep all out and see how many he can do at what sort of pace before he drops off, and then use that as a target?

    He’s got his first meet this weekend after a month of this. I’ll post how he gets on. We are both intrigued to see how this translates to actual performance.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)