kevin
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Can you point me to a source on “Dr. Rushall believes very strongly that the USRPT sets are only one part (i.e. 1/3) of the training”. I’ve never seen that before and I’m convinced Rushall believes USRPT should be almost 100% of the training…
@oldschoolc: that’s an average of 6 swimmers per lane, that’s luxury to us. We average 9 to 10 swimmers per lane (25m pool), with 1 coach for ±15 swimmers. But we make it work
+2 seconds on the goal time. Depends of course on the distance, if I remember correctly he was talking about 100’s. If you feel this is to challenging for your swimmers, you can of course start slower. Better start a bit slow and build up a little faster.
What are your current personal bests? I would start with something like 20×25 at current race pace for 100, start on 30. Ideally you would be able to complete at least 12 before failing. If not make the set easier (20×25 @ race pace 100 + 2 seconds). Then repeat this set until you can complete all 20. Then either you go for 30×25, or you make the set harder by lowering the target pace (personal best – 0.5 seconds).
Also do some sets on 200’s and 50’s.
The key point I always stress is that we’re doing a set where you have to delay failure as long as possible.
Say you do a short set of 16×25 @RP100
First I started with having them complete all 16 repetitions, and simply take note of the first time they failed and how much times they failed in total.
Then (after 1 or 2 weeks of short sets) I progressed by explaining them that when they fail the first time, they rest one (or two, so they rejoin the group). When they fail a second time they need to abandon the set, get out of the pool and come and tell me what the first failure was and how many they did after the rest (e.g. “I did 10 and 5”).
After 1 or 2 more weeks I sat them down again and explained that they could continue up until a third failure with a rest after each failure. At this point they already got the hang of it.
Another week later I introduced the 2 failures in a row rule. Still having them come out of the pool and mention first failure and how many successful repeats.
The last step was providing them with a sheet of paper so they can record their progress.
It takes a bit of time, but it’s feasible when done in steps.
It makes me wonder: in high-yardage training. Do coaches not follow the principle of super compensation?
Your training sounds like low yardage traditional training with sprint sets mixed in. If so, that’s different than USRPT. The most amazing thing to me is that swimmers do not have to b tapered to swim personal beats. It can happen anytime. Does that happen in your program?
There is a taper phase. It’s similar to what’s described in the Ernest Maglischo book. It’s simply not “high yardage”. Our season starts in sept and ends in july. With a peak in winter towards a big meet (regional championships) and a peak towards the summer for national championships. However, most swimmers do improve throughout the season. We’re talking 11 until 14 year olds, so that seems normal.
We tried the mostly underwater, no breathing breaststroke at the end if the girls season. It was a bit disruptive to their rhythm. We may try it again next year earlier in the season.
I’ve been experimenting with this myself. One of the consequences of no-breath breaststroke is a shorter arm movement. You simply cannot bring the arms/hands under the body, as that requires the body to move upwards, almost enough to breathe anyways.
So one has to start with the hands in front at shoulder width, move slightly outwards with the hands, then go to a high-elbow phase followed by a very short power phase. Then finish with a (wider) recovery at shoulder width of the hands.
You end up with a wider stroke. It makes me think of the technique of Agnes Kovacs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDv03qswT6c). Except the head stays down of course, and no recovery above the water.At this point most of my swimmers cannot complete 20×25 @RP100 on 35s. So I’m planning on having them progress on this set. When they start to make it till the end, do I first move to 30×25 before increasing the pace?
My swimmers are nowhere near to complete a set like 40×25 @RP100 on 30 or 25×50 @RP200 on 50/55s as shown here: https://twitter.com/agswimcoach/status/456102291439759360
Those are some pretty hard sets. I try to keep the sets as small as possible, so their first failure is at least over half way the set. Otherwise it’s just depressing.One thing that I have not completely grasped is the interaction between distance and intensity over the course of a macro/meso cycle. Rushall does talk about this in the DVD sets, but it’s not quite clear to me (yet) how to manage these two.
Well, the DVD’s are basically Rushall talking for about 9 hrs about his studies/beliefs/experiences. It starts with USRPT but also covers psychology/technique/pedagogy (see his books). The first DVD contains handouts, then it’s simply Rushall talking.
It is interesting to hear him explain things and this certainly adds to the available written articles. However, I expected a bit more out of the DVD’s. For example, an insight of how the Andrews are implementing USRPT (especially since the DVD’s are produced by them), how do they build macro/meso/micro cycles, etc.
Or other coaches explaining hands-on experiences (maybe from the Carlile club Rushall supports). Showing progress of swimmers over the course of a season while following a USRPT program.I feel they did not exploit very well the fact that it’s a video medium. Not a lot is “shown” (well, Rushall talking or an image from his slides).
I do recommend the DVD’s, it’s very interesting. But I must also mention that I find the price to be steep for the above reasons. Note that I only watched them once, maybe my feelings change after watching it again. It’s up to you
In attachment the log sheet I use. They have a plastic folder with a sheet of target times of 25’s and 50’s per stroke-distance combination, this log sheet and a sheet with their dry-land warm-up.
Here is a page with more info on the book I mentioned: http://www.lactate.com/bkolbr.html
I bought the dvd’s, they do not contain a lot of new info, it’s mostly Rushall going over all the principles and his ideas. Of course, hearing someone explain it helps in understanding.
He does mention the beginning of the season and suggests, as you said, to start at paces above (+2sec) personal best and build up from there. He claims swimmers should be able to reach their previous performance level in ±3 weeks.
