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Wow, A three week taper for a 10 year old girl?!
Now matter what the yardage in season that is an excessive taper.I am convinced the USRPT works bet for mid distance and doesn’t have to be
altered much for the 1000 ( or 800 now that it is long course season ) and above.It sounds like those home school kids you mentioned are doing well with it.
Managing a big group can be a challenge but that is the case no matter what the program.
Thanks Kevin,
We are just getting started ( meaning everyone is trickling back from spring breaks )
When you mention the +2 seconds is that added on to each individual repeat or the goal time? The former seems a little too slow and the latter a bit challenging.
I have found that 200 free pace is probably the hardest pace for my swimmers to hold. I usually try to stay with 50’s as much as possible but do throw in 25’s at P200 occasionally. To me the key to differentiating between 25’s @ P100 and 25’s @ P200 is the amount of rest. If they are doing them at 100 pace I try to make sure they are getting between 15 and 20 sec rest( or less if we are doing a short amount of repeats) but when trying to hit their 200 pace I will try to make sure they have between 10 and 15 seconds.
When they are doing 50’s I have them switch to 25’s after the second or third failure. If they fail on the 25’s I have them continue doing 25’s where they do double leg kicking for 12.5 and easy swim for 12.5, on the 50 interval. This way they are doing something non stressful but still race relevant instead of congregating in the “Failure” lane.I find training girls in USRP a little easier because they generally can train at a higher percentage of there top overall speed. Where as with, especially older, guys they are often trying to hit paces that they did taper and shaved that were way faster than anything they had done in season. Having said that, when I have expressed this to others, usually I find that they don’t see a noticeable distance. Either way, I think USRP is great for Girls.
As far as non specific training, I think dryland can be beneficial in two ways.
First if you are doing it as a sort of occupational therapy. Addressing individual issues that keep them from moving properly. If they lack strength or mobility in certain areas etc.
The second is with girls who are having weight issues.
I think there is a possible use for anything as a teaching aid, but I do not see much use in traditional kick board ( promotes bad kicking form) and pull bouy use.I was told the same thing by Dr. Rushal, to train the distance above and below your event but not in place of training for your event.
Yes, if you do 25’s at 200 fly pace but not at 100 pace that may lead to a slow 100. But if you do 50’s at 200 pace and some dive sprints as if you were training for the 50 fly along with a steady diet of 25’s at 100 pace then you will be OK.
You speak of the Goal Setting nature of competitive swimmers and I agree that is something the USRPT really caters to.
My challenge is with the swimmer who just can’t seem to hit their pace ( even though it is based on a realistic race time ) and then either starts to get discouraged ( the failure thing takes some a while to get used to ) or adapts the traditional mentality of ” I am just going to keep going and train my way though it”.
Also
I was wondering if anyone else has found that boys, who have achieved their best times based on big end of the season shave/tapers, have a harder time repeating their assigned paces?
These have been my two biggest challenges to what, otherwise, has been a very successful training modelBrad from NY.
Used the USRPT format last summer with some good results.
Did a bit of a hybrid system this year. Results were decent but issues with pool time and attendance made the season less successful than it could have been.
As someone alluded to before I think the biggest challenge is the lack of variety and predictability in the sets. I worked in more Salo type sets this season for that reason.
Was that wise? I don’t know, but I think if you do it in a way that allows the swimmers to stay on pace or faster a little novelty can go a long way.
