I have begun the 2014-2015 season with W Ross Macdonald Swimming after deciding to leave the Brantford Aquatic Club after a year and a half. I will now mostly be training out of the 6 lane 25 yard pool at W Ross Macdonald school in Brantford, with some 25M water workouts at WGSC as well weights at the Gretzky center. This season I am working on 3 major things that I think will help improve my swimming as well allow me to excel to heights I could have never reached before.
1) Training Using USRPT (Ultra Short Race Pace Training)
Now this is simply training at race pace and goal race pace during workouts. I am still looking into research in this area of training and I will say it is tough to research because most North American coaches don't like or believe in this type of training. One may stop and say well hold on this swimmer isn't a 50 swimmer. To answer, I'm not a 50 swimmer and USRPT isn't just used for 50 swimmers you can swim any race from a 50 all the way to a 1500 using this training method. It's simple and thinking about it for a while now, it's makes so much more sense to be training at race pace. This will allow the swimmer to have an idea of where there at going into a meet. Yes those crazy 'where did that swim come from'? will still happen but at least training at race and goal pace will ease that. This season I will be using the USRPT formula to improve 50, 100, 200, 400 free, 50, 100, 200 back and 200, 400 IM. On paper the plans look incredible, now it's seeing how things will shape up in the water and I can not wait to get started.
2) Technical Training
In order to be an efficient as well fast swimmer technique has to be up to pare. At this stage in my swimming technique took the back burner while mileage was up front and important. Now it's all about returning to the basics of swimming and getting those little 'over looked' items under control and solid. 3 cameras that are live via 15 second delay will run at every single workout to allow all swimmers to see what the coaches see. Also iPad's can be used from different angles, close ups, and the use of the 'Coaches Eye' app to draw lines, zoom in on technical errors, and slow motion for even more correction. Huge improvements have already been made in an extremely short period of time, but there is still a lot of work to do and a lot of correcting ahead of me.
3) Body Awareness
A lot of you may know I have been dealing with an on and off shoulder injury since late April. This made the end of the 2013-2014 season a challenge filled with emotions, frustrations, anger, and discomfort. Any injury really makes one stop and doubt, feel down, left out, and unprepared to train and race. This season I'm trying to drop the negative and think positive on this injury. This weekend at camp I learned quickly that an injury doesn't just go away in a couple weeks, I did a lot of running and only a small amount of swimming. There was a lot of icing going on and physio stretches are making a full time come back. Heading into the season, this week with dry-land starting up I have to be careful and over cautious to ensure no new injuries develop as well monitor the existing one from all angles. I plan to start with easy swimming before dry-land to ensure everything is fully warmed up and ready to go before hitting the gym. At first it will be a lot of modifying, not doing some exercises, and maybe having to add exercises my teammates might not be doing, This is all alright because I'm looking at the future and understanding that this isn't going to be forever that it's a minor setback in the plan sometimes plans have to be changed, revised, and rethought.
Finally, I want to end off with a huge thank you to everyone at WRMS for the warm welcome. I mentioned this to the seniors at the camp fire Saturday night "I may have just joined the team, and I may only have been with this new group of people for a few short days, but it feels like we have been together for years". Honestly the support in this club is unlike any club you'll ever step foot into, it's great to know I can go to any swimmer and just be myself and not worry about being judged. I can't wait for what the season has to hold for everyone else and I look forward to getting to know everyone on WRMS more and making new memories that will last a lifetime!
Tyson this is yet another good move for you. I have watched the results from Mike's coaching and have been impressed with his results. He has developed a good training method and it is working.
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the results of WRMS in Quebec last December, I tried similar training methods with the group I was coaching at the time. As one parent told me, I took a group of swimmers that no one really worried about with the club, and achieved more than what even the swimmers themselves expected.
The training works and develops keen and quick response swimming. By the time my contract with the club was cancelled, more of these swimmers qualified for Regionals and heading to Provincials.
Keep up the good work I know you will achieve your goals. Again, I believe this was another good move.
USRPT isn't hard to research at all. The research rather is mostly ignored, but it's easy to find. All the best!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the positive words Ed. Means a lot!
ReplyDeleteYes I was sent everything anyone would want to know about USRPT and from what I've started reading (which isn't a lot) it's beneficial to the swimmer.