Becca Mann, one of the toughest and best junior swimmers in the world, will be spending this week living and training with Michael Andrew, one of the best male 14-year old swimmers in the world, and his family at their home near Lawrence, Kansas, and will share her experiences with us. Becca, who trains in Clearwater, Florida under Randy Reese, was a member of the 2013 U.S. World Championship team after finishing 2nd in both the 5km and 10km at last year’s National Championships, and placed 8th in both the 5km and 10km race in Barcelona. In 2012, at the U.S. Olympic Trials, the then-14-year old Mann qualified for finals in the 400 free, the 800 free, and the 400 IM.
This week I have the privilege to stay with the Andrew family, the family of Michael Andrew. I’m going to share my experience with SwimSwam for the next few days. The Andrews are such good-natured, down to earth people and I’ve really enjoyed my first day!
Michael and Michaela train two times a day, each stroke race pace (with the exception of the warm up). They swim in their awesome 28 meter backyard pool but don’t worry, they have a FINIS Turnmaster Pro so they can train both SCM and SCY.
I was only here for the afternoon practice. It was breast and free today. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Michael does USRPT. He trains completely race specific. Since he’s human, Michael continues his sets until he “fails”. A “fail” means that you haven’t hit your pace after holding it for a certain amount of time. When Michael “fails”, he takes an extra 45 seconds rest. After he “fails” three times, Michael either changes to a shorter distance of the same stroke or a different stroke altogether.
The first set of the practice is the most important set for him because he isn’t yet dealing with fatigue. He can give it his absolute all. It’s important that he holds nothing back because that’s when he’s at his very best. Also, it’s a great way for him to compare his times from previous first sets since he can see how much he’s improved.
Afternoon practice:
10x50s breast with 25 seconds rest, trying to hold 200 pace. I was holding 35 lows and Michael was holding 30s
1:30 rest
Repeat above
We were supposed to do another round of 50s, but we switched to 25s since we weren’t holding our times. They usually do the 25s at 100 pace, but since we didn’t finish our 200 pace set we did them at 200 pace.
20x25s breast. I was holding 16 mids and highs, while Michael was holding 14 highs and 15 lows.
8 minute break
10x50s free holding 200 pace. I was holding 26 lows and Michael was holding 25s.
45 second break
6x50s free, same as above
1:30 break
16x25s free, 200 pace. Once again, their 25s are usually at 100 pace, but since we weren’t making our times in the 50s, we did them at 100 pace. I was holding 12 mids and highs while Michael was holding 12.5s
The Andrews’ only dryland is in the summer when they go wakeboarding. They don’t focus on dryland because they believe that it’s not specific to swimming. However, they do have rings across the ceiling over their pool. Michael demonstated for me, easily swinging across the length of the pool. I made it to the first ring on my first try, and the second ring on my other tries. My goal is to make it to the flags (the first set, in case you were wondering) before I leave.
Tomorrow I’m going to Understanding and Implementing USRPT: A Two Day Seminar For Coaches And Swimmers. I’m going to be blogging with information from the seminar. Also, tomorrow I’m going to answer a few questions from the comments section, so please be sure to post yours!
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Hey Becca, Thank you so much for this blog. It extremely interesting and educational. I am sure this is a lot of work for you and I commend you for answering so many questions that were asked after the first blog. I have one question however that I would really like to be answered. Dr. Rushal and the andrew’s family do not believe in drylands as they are not specific to the motions of the swimming and therefore do not enhance the neurological aspect of swimming (which is stated many times as the primary system to give out during USRPT training). What about dryland exercises like resistance cords and vasa that enable athletes to mimic swimming technique with more resistance… Read more »
This is super interesting. Thanks for sharing this Becca.
Thanks, Becca, for giving us an outsider’s look into what can seem like a mystical cult of swimming. I doubt it makes sense for open water, or even the 400-1500m races, but kudos to you for trying it.
On the above question of technique, how can you do both of these at once:
a) swim at absolute max speed
b) focus on only one aspect of your stroke
Example: A coach helped me get faster by shortening my butterfly stroke – pulling my hands out of the water wider, rather than below my waist. It worked, but not immediately. The adjustment took weeks, and I died on a lot of sets in the process. But, if I… Read more »
This type of training is also known as the Parametric System, the system is much bigger than just race pace training, it’s comprised of technical skills, understanding how the pace training translates to race pace, pace training in all 5 energy zones whether you’re training sprint, mid-distance or distance. I’ve been using this since 2004, there are limits especially when you’re dealing with a whole team, works great on highly talented, smart and motivated athletes. As with anything sometimes you just have to change everything up to take a break without really taking a break.
Very, very interesting stuff! I look forward to the next blog.
I do not think it is coincidence that Becca has chosen to train with the Andrew’s based on the fact that Dr. Rushall presented at Randy’s clinic this past August. Further, you will find elements of this type of training in Randy’s program. Randy has been long been accused of “throwing” work at athletes when nothing could be further from the truth. He has a highly developed “method to his madness”.
An example would be in his pulley system and the specific “work” he employs with his athletes. I would argue it is a form of usrpt-type training. For instance, 20×50 max on the pulleys 3x per week on short rest in the same stroke.
Eddie Reese recently made… Read more »
I’m sorry… pulleys? What does that mean? Like, swimming against resistance?
“Eddie Reese recently made note of Indiana’s success in the IM’s over the past year. He asked Ray what made the difference. The answer: 20×50 pulley’s on :50 weak stroke 3x per week.” You need to remember that just because a successful coach (or one who is likely to be influential) attributes his success to a specific element of his training it doesn’t mean it is correct (especially if there is no hard, scientific evidence to support his case). As Stephen Hawking once said: “The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge”.
Braden, that is correct. Drill work at elite levels, given the studies shown to us, do not consistently yield results. Anything that does occur, according to the good doctor is an outlier. That’s part of the gray area and art of coaching, but you have to know your athletes really well.
He goes through and describes what technique macro-cycles look like some of his literature. Basically identifying a change to be made and doing so at race pace for short distances. As Braden says, the technique is assumed to already be there and anything being done is fine-tuning versus gross motor skill learning. 10 & unders or even 13 & overs who can’t swim proficiently or legally aren’t doing USRPT… Read more »
I have always wondered how you would do this type of training for distance swimming. Reading an article about it, it stated that 300-500% increase in the race for the set and for the 1500 training, you would be at about 4500-7500 per set. Would you change this to something like the Aussies did…30×100 @ pace?
Becca (or CoachErik): I’ve not yet learned the full principles of USRPT, and so my questions may be addressed directly on the website or other literature, but I’ll pose them here anyway. A commenter stated, “After listening to Peter Andrew get interviewed a while back I have a strong impression that he is very much opposed to slow twitch muscle development. I think he believes it is an either/or situation and not a both/and.” Within this training philosophy, where does technique work come in, how often is technique work performed, and of greatest curiosity to me, how is technique work performed? I get the impression technical correction is incorporated as part of the race-pace work described in the blog, via… Read more »
David – I’m sure Peter or Becca could give you a better answer, but in fact USRPT MANDATES that a swimmer have good technique as part of its basic principles. You are correct – the feedback on technique happens during the race-pace training. Because of the nature of race-pace training, the swimmers is expected to maintain good technique throughout the workout and avoid the technique breakdowns that happen in more traditional, high-volume workouts (ask a coach what technique looks like at the end of 8×200 fly).
I think what you’re really getting it as “why isn’t there any drill-work” with your analogy of a teacher. I’m not sure the analogy works, because writing is a significantly finer motor skill than… Read more »