Michael Andrew has an uncanny knack for breaking National Age Group Records in threes. He did it at Winter Juniors, and he did it at the College Station Sectional last weekend. Along that vein, the young 14-year old had broken his third National-Age Group Record of the 2014 Jenks Sectional meet.
He swam a 1:45.14 in the 200 yard backstroke on Sunday evening which broke the 2013 record set by PEAK’s Benjamin Ho at 1:45.73 almost exactly a year ago.
The comparative splits:
Ho ’13 – 24.69/26.53/27.12/27.39 = 1:45.73
Andrew ’14 – 24.85/26.62/26.68/26.69 = 1:45.14
Andrew’s closing speed was impeccable in this race, and his splitting – in true USRPT fashion – was spot on, with a pair of 26.6 splits after his opening 50, followed by a 26.9.
Earlier in the meet, Andrew also broke National Age Group Records in the 50 free and in the 100 breast.
Once MA qualifies for National teams (which I do believe will happen in the next few years), how will USA swimming manage the relationship with team Andrews? Will national team coaches permit his father on deck during practices? It seems that his presence would undermine their authority and responsible to build a strong team. Certainly MA will not deviate from USRPT to traditional methods just because he’s a national team member. Personally, I am very impress with Michael, his family and their accomplishments. I look forward to following his career. Your thoughts?
Michael, Congratulations your records. They & you are remarkable. There’s no doubt there’s more to come. Keep working on your SDKs. I look forward to seeing how fast you get. Time will tell & Times will tell.
Josh, glad to hear you’re training & planning to race at Masters Nats in Santa Clara. I’m completely confident that you will Swim Faster Faster.
That DVD would sell very few copies without Michael Andrew, or not even exist. I am assuming the Andrew Family must get a royalty on each copy sold.
Looks like the DVD is out!!
http://www.usrpt.info/
it seems they have just launched a couple of “official” youtube channels on the subject, USRPT and SwimUSRPT
I attended the January clinic hosted by the Andrews. How many coaches do you know who open their doors and share their swim programs. At the very least they should be admired for their openess and willingness to share. Michael is very humble and a credit to our sport. I had my doubts in the fall when he turned pro but after numerous discussions with Tina I am sure they will make sure he is guided carefully thru his career. Oh,we swam great at sectionals following the guidelines given to me at the clinic. I hope to study and learn more as I experiment with my team.
Some swim clubs started doing USRPT this season and they improved a lot.
It seems all those young swimmers love it, as far as I know.
The more I am reading in these posts, on swimming in general and all the information that’s being provided by Swimswam – the less surprising MA’s success and development is becoming to me. I think I can demonstrate this by reference to what a really great coach (Bill Sweetnam) once wrote on the topic of talent identification and maximization. Sweetnam identifies nine key elements that might need to be present in an athlete (which would embody the concept of talent) such as: swimmer attitude, “aquatic feel”, parent commitment and so on. I won’t bore you with them all, but simply say they all seem to be present in what I can see and read about MA.
But the real killer… Read more »