kevin
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1. Long course times are slower than short course times since you have a turn and push-off extra per 50m in short course. A turn and push-off are always faster than continued swimming, you should take that into account when converting the pace to short course. At push-off you would reach a speed between 3.5m/s and 3m/s, during the glide a speed between 3 and 2.5m/s but good swimmers only reach about 2m/s during swimming (see: http://www.swimmingscience.net/2010/07/start-vs-push-off.html). So, suppose you target a pace of 30s/50m in long course, when training in short course, you should target e.g. 29s/50m (or even faster) to take away the advantage of increased speed after the turn.
2. Different coaches use different conversion methods. In my opinion it also depends on the swimmer, some have slow turns, some have fast turns, some have better push-offs, … It helps to have both LC and SC times for the same events. Then you can simply derive the conversion for a particular swimmer.
A related topic: http://forum.usrpt.com/forums/topic/400-free-set-recovery-question/
Hi doc, thanks for the informative reply!
Also related to this topic is some of the content in Rushall’s response to Beliaev in the most recent issue of “Swimming Technique”: http://magazines.swimmingworld.com:9997/St/MagazinePDF/201506.pdfBumping this thread to the top because Dr. Rushall formulated a response to the original article.
Here is a link to the newest edition of Swimming Technique:http://magazines.swimmingworld.com:9997/St/MagazinePDF/201506.pdf
It contains two USRPT-related articles: one from Forbes Carlile and a second with Rushall’s response to Beliaev’s article.
I understand that part, but that doesn’t answer my questions. What I miss is guidelines/suggestions on how to plan sets and progression throughout a a season. Instead of the rough examples in bulletin 47.
For example, he mentions only repeating the same set 2-3 weeks. After that you either keep distance constant and make the pace faster. Or you keep the pace but increase distance. Planning defines when to vary a certain variable or when NOT to vary a certain variable.
E.g. I’d like to see what Michael Andrew does throughout a season. I imagine he doesn’t do the same microcycle over and over again. He probably focuses on certain strokes/distances/paces depending on the period of the season. How do they plan that?
@dmuecke: I’m not sure I follow, I’m aware of the order of priorities. But, my questions concern conditioning specifically.
@dmuecke: what ages are your swimmers, and how big is your group?
Note on the attachment:
Upload Errors:
planning.xlsx: File exceeds allowed file size.So here it is externally linked: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12082331/planning.xlsx
Kids absolutely embrassed the workouts.
Do you mean “embraced”?
Unfortunately, yes, some kids have been complaining here too. They find workouts to be “predictable”, since we have a logical system to when which sets are programmed. I also notice it becomes hard for some swimmers to keep up a good mental attitude (i.e., “go for it”, each set, both what concerns technique focus and physical effort). Some kids give up before even starting.
How to remedy this? In my case, I have a few ideas (might be different for other coaches of course):
Better data logging + feedback:
I wanted to give kids responsibility for what they do in training. So they were in charge of logging their workouts themselves. This worked well for a while, but many let it slide after some time. So, I’m thinking of logging myself. Additionally, we need to do a better job showing them correlation between training and meet results. So they feel the need to push during training. I’ve been trying out some strategies, but I’m not satisfied yet. If anybody has a smooth system for this, please share!Plan some non-USRPT stuff (or just some fun):
We generally set up a micro-cycle for a few weeks/months. It pretty much maximizes the number of USRPT sets per training. I feel, especially for the younger/more immature ones, we need to cut away some of those sets and do “something else”, even if it’s just fun. Although, as a coach, it pains me to see them doing stuff I know won’t make them better. Especially since there are kids that don’t seem to need such distractions.An additional problem is that if you don’t set yourself up well before a set. You fail quickly and don’t swim much at all at practice. I have some swimmers that are just lazy, fail fast and bail out of the set asap. Well, they don’t make any progress at all (which of course is mainly their own fault). But I then get the remark: “This kind of training doesn’t work for me, what are you going to do about this?”.
Edit:
I’d like to add that I think this is an important issue that needs discussion. Coaches are (partly) responsible to keep swimmers motivated. A motivated swimmer will get better results. Since USRPT has a “minimalist” approach, especially younger kids (13-14-15 year olds in our case) might lose interest. How do you guys keep them sharp?I use a sportcount “finger chrono”. Works well for me.
http://www.sportcount-europe.co.uk/sportcount.phpUSRPT forces the swimmer to take responsibility for their own workouts. It’s easy to slack, but they shoot themselves in the foot. I have my share of lazy ones too, I think it’s far more important to try to make them change their attitude, rather than forcing them to complete sets. The latter is not a long term solution.
Hey oldschool, thanks for your thoughts! Would you suggest doing less reps per workout, but keep the number of 400 sets/week at 3 (to be able to put more regularity in the 400 sets).
dmuecke (or anybody else): could you please detail how you calculate the SCM-LCM conversion, and also how you exactly you take into account the 1.2 for turns and 1.7 for the start. I don’t exactly understand how you get to the times you mention?
