Michael Andrew's 100 Fly

 When we met Michael Andrew in November, he told me he was changing his breathing pattern in his 100 fly to breathing every other stroke.

 He is a 16 year old. Watch his forward motion, breathing close to the water, hips high, low sweep of his arms, underwater kick.  Count his strokes.

USRPT and Michael Andrew

 Michael Andrew is 16 years old, holds more than 80 age group records, went professional at age 14 with Addidas. His father is his coach, his mom is his agent, his sister is his chef.

 We met Michael and watched him swim in the Lander pool this past Thanksgiving, with Josh Davis and the Mutual of Omaha Breakout Clinic. He's training for the Olympic Trials this year and uses Dr. Brent Rushall's USRPT (Ultra Short Race Pace Training) method. It's not a new method, but using it exclusively is "controversial" and it's causing renewed interest in the training. Short yardage is tempting, but it takes intense focus, conscious intention, and discipline.

 A sample workout, done 2-3 times a day:
Warmup and drills
Set#1: 30x25 on :30, holding a goal time (i.e. 12.5 sec for 50-100 free training). Principle: You must hold goal time or faster. If you miss it, you sit out the next one. If you miss 3, the set is finished. Recovery set
Set #2: 30x25 on :30, perhaps another stroke, a different goal time, same principles. Recovery/warmdown.

Freestyle with Dolphin Kick into the finish

 Watch Michael Klim in 2000 finishing with a head down, no breathing, dolphin kick freestyle in the final 15 meters.

Michael Phelps talks below about using this finish for the Olympic Trials this year.


 

The Power of a Great Kick

Hi again!  I'm back after a bit of a break....

This video is so inspiring:  Zheng Tao of China, kicking 100m (long course) in 1:13.56, dolphin and flutter from a strong core body, no arms flip turn, starting from his teeth and finishing on his head.

If you can duplicate this, you will know you have developed a great kick.

Learn to do the Back to Breast Crossover Turn

The crossover turn is a sideways flip turn.  An earlier blog post featured videos of this turn done by Eric Shanteau and a slo-mo step by step video.

Ariana Kukors is the 200IM world record holder.  She and the other Olympians are using this turn for back to breast.  We introduced this turn several years ago at the swim club and the high school and while many were intrigued by its efficiency and beauty, no one has persistently practiced it enough to use it in racing.  It is faster than the traditional open turn by at least .3 seconds, about the same difference as the freestyle flip turn is faster than an open turn at the wall.   All of us do freestyle flip turns.  We learned to do it by practicing it over and over.  Same with this IM turn.  Anyone can do this turn with enough practice.

Yoga for swimmers

Yoga is a lifelong practice to train the mind, body and soul. It is easiest to discipline the body, so Yoga often begins with physical yoga poses (Asanas). Next is control of the breath (Pranayama). And most difficult is control of the mind (Meditation).

 Flexibility, core strength and focus are vital to optimal performance as a swimmer, and all three of these areas are addressed and improved through yoga.  Swimming involves bending, stretching, twisting and extending, involving the psoas, obliques, rectus and traversus abdominus, and the erector spinae muscles.

 Flexibility: There's an ongoing debate about static(holding) vs. active(moving) stretching and I think it's good to do active stretching to limber up off the bus or before race warmup and static after racing to loosen tight muscles.  Young swimmers who have such limited range of motion that they can't comfortably grab the front of the block while doing starts, or whose stroke technique is compromised because they can't streamline with their arms over their head would seriously discover huge improvements in their speed if they devoted even a small amount of time to flexibility training.  For us older swimmers, spinal flexibility is key to maintaining joy and energy in motion. "You're only as young as your back!"  Like many things, it can feel hard in the beginning, but the more you do it, the better it feels.

 Core Strength:  Standing yoga postures require balance to stand steady and strong. This balance comes from the core, and rooting through the legs and feet into the earth.  Swimmers need to achieve balance with a fluidly moving environment, finding an anchor and leverage through the core of the body.  "Whole body swimming", connecting through the whole body through the core takes core strength in the front, side and back of the body core.

 Mental Focus: One of the principle foundations of any yoga practice is an attention to and an awareness of the breath. Focus on the breath is used to help deepen the stretch felt in some postures. For swimmers, this focus can be used in stressful (i.e., pre-race) situations to bring attention back to something simple and controllable.

(Shiva Rea, Baron Baptiste, Rodney Yee are 3 of my favorite yoga teachers who have inspired me over the years I have been doing yoga.   The 3 videos posted here are a small sample of the beauty and joy they share.  Enjoy!)

Cheating to Win

South African Cameron Van der Burgh from South Africa set the world record for the 100m breaststroke (58.46) at the London Olympics in 2012.   Watch the whole race here (starts around 3:00)
Go watch it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g7oRASpJO0

When he returned home to South Africa, he admitted to the press that he had cheated by adding in dolphin kicks at the start (3 dolphin kicks with the pullouts) and finish (1 dolphin kick into the final wall to finish).

There's a video of the dolphin into the finish:  http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/World/31435.asp

Here's a video showing the current legal breaststroke pullout with the 2 options of timing on the dolphin kick, early and late.

 "It's got to the sort of point where if you're not doing it you're falling behind or your giving yourself a disadvantage so everyone's pushing the rules and pushing the boundaries, so if you're not doing it, you're not trying hard enough," van der Burgh told the Sydney Morning Herald. He added that "99 percent" of the swimmers are taking advantage of the rule allowing dolphin kicks by adding more at the start or implementing them where not allowed.

"If you're not doing it, you're falling behind.  It's not obviously -- shall we say -- the moral thing to do, but I'm not willing to sacrifice my personal performance and four years of hard work for someone that is willing to do it and get away with it," van der Burgh said in the article.

What do you think?

Should we tell kids that this is happening and show them what Olympians are doing, including the techniques for cheating?

Is a discussion useful on the ethics and morals in competing?

Is it really cheating or is it just smart?  After all, when Kitajima first added a dolphin kick in 2004, the rules were changed to allow it after that.  Is the allowing of multiple dolphin kicks in breaststroke just part of the evolution of a stroke?

How does a world record feel to you if you deliberately cheated?