crmejean

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  • in reply to: New Bulletin #49 #1616
    crmejean
    Participant

    Thanks for posting this separate. I missed it before. I will be re-reading several times – as I seem to need to do with all of the papers. Please forgive me if you feel I ask questions that are obvious or have been asked before. I have MS and have noticed some significant cognitive issues popping up. Because of this, I am second guessing myself all the time. I hesitate to make changes for fear of confusing and undermining my kids’ confidence in their training. We have been following the 3-5x yardage – usually going with 4x. I was already doing 30×100 to train for 1500, so I guess that was correct. We have been resting for 20 seconds after everything with the only exception being 30 seconds after our 100s. Please help me be correct. We want to give USRPT a full effort. For less than 50s, rest should only be 15 seconds? Sets should be 5-6x race distance up to and including 200s?

    in reply to: Traditional + USRPT = ? #1614
    crmejean
    Participant

    Let me preface my response by making sure you know that I am not a coach, and I have no experience as a swimmer. My three kids have been swimming for about six years. They are 13 & 10 year old boys and a 10 year old girl. We left our team in October, and my husband and I have been training them and swimming USA meets unattached. My husband is an official, so he does have knowledge in that area, but he also has no experience as a swimmer. He has returned to work full time and left all of the training to me.

    I have devoured Dr Rushall’s papers. My first instinct would be exactly what I see in bold letters from him, “Mixed training equals mixed results.” The team we left did traditional, high volume training. My 13 year old was swimming 5,000-6,000 yards per practice with 7-8 sessions per week. Some morning distance practices would be 8,000-9,000 yards. We did not find USRPT until after witnessing Michael Andrew go under 20 in the 50 Free in Tulsa in March. We transitioned to it and try to follow as best as we can. We have our first meet this weekend. I am very anxious to see how they do. I do see a huge difference in their exhaustion levels. The 13 year old was always tired when training traditionally. In the 6 weeks that we have been sticking with just USRPT, he has noticed a huge difference in his recovery time. All three of them seem to be much less tired and look forward to going to practice. I will update after I have hard results, but my 10 year old boy is training for the 100 Fly and hitting the target time for a 10% drop from his best time. My 13 year old is hitting targets that should equal a 1-2% drop in most races.

    As far as training on your own, I think it really depends on how much you want it and if you can keep yourself accountable. I believe it is better to have a team or at least training partners. My kids do miss being part of a team. This summer, they are going to swim with an AAU team. I am only letting them do it because I need to make sure they are still having fun. They will practice 2-3 days a week with the team and participate in four AAU meets. The coach does not do a ton of yardage and works a lot on technique. We will continue our USRPT schedule. There are three AAU teams in our area. We chose this one because the other two swim 3,000-4,000 yards per practice (8-12 year olds) and do not concentrate very much on technique.

    Does your coach have an objection to USRPT or just to you not training with him?

    in reply to: Race Pace Charts #1607
    crmejean
    Participant

    Am I missing something? Shouldn’t the goal times be faster than their best times? I have been setting my kids at a minimum of 98% of best times. When they make 75% of the repetitions, I have been dropping their targets. I thought I had read in one of Rushall’s papers to set targets at 93%, but that was just too demoralizing for one of my kids.

    in reply to: Teams first full USRPT practice & some questions? #937
    crmejean
    Participant

    It does not seem to let me attach a file. Sorry!

    in reply to: Teams first full USRPT practice & some questions? #935
    crmejean
    Participant

    This is my blank workout form that I take to the pool to record our numbers.

    in reply to: Teams first full USRPT practice & some questions? #934
    crmejean
    Participant

    drpaul

    Here is the form I am using. I have been revising it as I see ways to improve it. The week of the 5th is the first week that I felt decent about it. We are still trying to get the hang of when to do a recovery and when to abandon a set. I have not started tracking those. If they miss two in a row, they kick or do an easy swim and get back to it.

    • This reply was modified 11 years, 2 months ago by Denaj.
    in reply to: Teams first full USRPT practice & some questions? #930
    crmejean
    Participant

    Video is a great tool. My kids never believe they are making basic technique mistakes until I show them. Being able to show it and immediately get them back in the pool is great. Our former team had an awesome camera and video system – movable above and below the water. They did not utilize it as most parents had hoped. One thing they were supposed to do was make a DVD of each swimmer with the VoiceOver from the coach pointing out things to work on. The plan was to add to it every couple of months to help the kids see how they were progressing and what they still needed to accomplish. I would kill for them to have done that. Technique is our most difficult aspect since I never swam. I use my iPad to show them poolside and occasionally do actual video that we upload to computer to be able to put it on a big screen at home.

    Yes, the IM set was at 200 pace.

    I will try to upload my tracking forms when I can get to my computer.

    My 10 year olds tend to try to sprint everything while the 13 year old gets pacing. Is this a maturity as a swimmer thing, or is there something I can do to help them get it? My 10 year old will swim his first 1500 in July. I don’t want him to die. He did his first 800 in April in 12:00.

    in reply to: Training for the IM #926
    crmejean
    Participant

    Rick, thanks for the front and back end IM idea. My kids did it for the first time yesterday and loved it. Unfortunately, we will not have our first LC meet until the end of the month. I’m not sure how to judge their times since their entry times are from last season. Thoughts? We will do another meet two weeks later.

    in reply to: Teams first full USRPT practice & some questions? #925
    crmejean
    Participant

    Great discussion! In addition to the implementation process, Rushall’s paper #47 “Step by Step USRPT Planning” is a great resource. We started doing a classroom training on technique for a specific stroke before we get in the water. We work on that technique after warm-up. We then do 2-3 USRPT sets with recoveries inbetween and then warm-down. Our sets are 3-5 times the distance of the event. To decide what events to train, I developed a spreadsheet. I have all events listed. The next two columns indicate which swimmers are entering those events in the next two meets. I then have a column for each swimmer for each day of the week. Keep in mind I only have three swimmers to track. I color code each block for the race we are training. This helps me visualize what I need to train next. We typically repeat sets two days in a row. This week, we approached it from an IM standpoint. We did BR/FR two days, distance freestyle today, and will do Fly/BK the next two days. Monday started with technique. Tuesday, we did our two sets, then the third set was 12-50s BR/FR. I used their IM splits to set targets. They did 25 BR & 25 FR. My kids loved this set and felt practicing the turns was very helpful. I will increase this set to 16-50s next time, and then probably alternate that with 20-50s depending on the distance of the other sets. Today we did 100s to train for the 1500. Tomorrow and Friday, we will do the same with Fly and BK as we did with BR and FR. On my spreadsheet, I record the percentage of made reps and the target. I have found that giving my 13 year old a 98-99% target and my 10 year olds 95-98% targets works well. At 93%, they just were not able to make any. It was demoralizing. We have 3 1/2 weeks until our next meet and another two weeks before the one after that. I can plan to make sure we hit all of the events. I also keep in mind what Rushall says about repeating the specific event sets close together.

    in reply to: Training for 100s #897
    crmejean
    Participant

    Aleksswim, do you swim five days in a row and take two off? We are playing with our scheduling. We need to get 6-8 sessions. I am trying to determine if it is better to take a day off in the middle of our week or do two-a-days twice and still take two full days out of the water.

    in reply to: 12.5s #894
    crmejean
    Participant

    My three kids love training for 50s. Since I only have three to keep up with, I do use a stopwatch to get a precise time on the 12.5s. My 13 and 10 year old boys really push each other. They race each other for the free sets. We have not done a meet since trying to switch to USRPT. We have lowered the target times after they have reached over 75% twice. They are dropping time in practice pushing off the wall. I am hoping this will translate into best times at our meet in four weeks. I will update after that meet.

    in reply to: Taper (Again) – Input Appreciated #893
    crmejean
    Participant

    Greg, I am not a coach…just a parent forced into training my own kids. Have you read the Peaking for Competitions paper on Swimming Science Bulletin? It gives specifics of routines for one week for smaller meets and two weeks for big meets. My 13 year old has noticed a huge difference in how he feels while training this way. He says is not nearly as tired between practices. In traditional training, he felt exhausted much of the time. We have not been doing this exactly correct. We have been doing 300-500 warm-up and three race pace sets. Each set is typically 300-500 yards – mostly 400. Our recoveries have been 300 and warm down is 200. We have only been getting 4-5 pool sessions per week. I am spending my weekend reading and researching how we need to change things to get as close as we can to doing USRPT correctly. I really do believe we owe it to the science to buy in completely. I feel this is the only way to fairly evaluate it.

    in reply to: USRPT for 12&unders #892
    crmejean
    Participant

    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.

    in reply to: USRPT for 12&unders #889
    crmejean
    Participant

    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?

    in reply to: USRPT for 12&unders #871
    crmejean
    Participant

    I have three swimmers – 13 year old boy, 10 year old boy, and 10 year old girl. They will turn 14 and 11 this summer. We home school, so our schedule is up to us. Our available pool hours are 5-7:30 am, 9-11 am, 2:30-5:30 pm, and 7-10 pm Mon – Thur. Friday allows the 2:30 slot to go until 10 pm. Weekends are 8 am – 6 pm. I am not a credentialed coach, but I am responsible for their training as we are not a part of a team. I know Michael Andrew swims twice per day, but he is 15. Do you know how long he has done two a days and how many days per week he practices? If anyone can help with specific workouts, I would greatly appreciate it. We were in Tulsa when Michael Andrew broke 20 seconds. It was an awesome thing for my kids to see!

Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 31 total)