6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

Former Member — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 11:38:45 GMT

Always wonderful to connect with you! Have a great summer Allen.

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

Former Member — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 11:38:05 GMT

Good luck!

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

Former Member — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 11:36:59 GMT

Very good explanation. I tried asking several months ago, what specifically people were referring to as USRPT and I never got a very satisfactory answer. I didn't start swimming seriously until 67 and will be 70 shortly. A 5 minute 500 is so far from my capability that we may as well be talking about a different sport. I would like to tailor my workouts to an 11 minute 500y, and adjust both volume and rest periods for my age. My best 50y was about 51 sec., but doing multiple 50y repeats I cannot keep them consistently under 60, and after 8 or 10 of those, my arms would fall off. Jack, If you want to see significant gains, I'd try experimenting with different pulling patterns. Straight arm pull underwater, S- shaped pull, EVF pull, a combination of patterns. Hold your breath and see what your arms are doing. Open the hand and stiffen it up. Extend more, front and back (mirror images of each other). Have someone video you and then post it so you can get some suggestions. Most importantly, make your experimentation, FUN! Have a great day Jack.

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

Former Member — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 11:30:52 GMT

Very interesting and inspiring article. I'm in the middle of reassessing my training again and a few of these points hit me smack between the eyes. Thank you! Do you or your swimmers now their SPOT? By Coach Tom Topolski I would like to take the mystique out of what coaches are calling Ultra Short Race Pace Training (USRPT) or for short High Intensity Training (HIT). HIT is not a new idea and in fact is a concept that exercise physiologists have used for decades, even before the Doc Councilman era. HIT, requires following the same truisms that are at the core of all successful sports training. These sports training maxims have and will always revolve around specificity, recovery, regularity and progressive overload. The difference of HIT from past and current training is the laser focus it has on specificity. The way coaches habitually train swimmers is the way their swimmers will perform. HIT coach’s habitually train their swimmers to acquire speed. The most important measuring parameter is a twenty-five sprint push-off time (25 SPOT). Every season should begin with goal setting and every swimmer should have a set of short-term, seasonal and long-term goals. Once these goals are established and written down, swimmers should know what their twenty-five yard, sprint push-off time (SPOT) is for every stroke and at every distance. The only reason a swimmer does not know their SPOT, is that coaches do not measure it often enough. Coach must test for SPOT’s often, record them and post them. Speed specificity training does not ignore the importance of skill sets that improve, endurance, pace, pain tolerance (lactate tolerance), strength / flexibility (becoming a better athlete), pulling pattern and stroke efficiency, mental acuity, as well as other important facets needed to become a faster swimmer. With that said, improving SPOT is the primary focus of USRPT / HIT, and to me, that is the difference between what coaches do now and coaches who use speed specificity training. Until SPOT times are acquired, skill sets like lactate tolerance sets, endurance sets and pace sets take a back seat to training (not to be ignored but to be emphasized much much less). Until a swimmer’s twenty-five yard time is fast enough to reach their end-goal, everything else is a mute issue. To solidify this point, a swimmer who has a SPOT time of 15.3 seconds cannot break a five-minute five hundred until they that time becomes a 14.9 ( very little room for debate, right?). Speed is an elusive skill set a swimmer can only improve upon by specifically training to get it. Here is the mystery, during the age of Mark Spitz, coaches espoused specificity training but did just the opposite and trained their athletes around “yardage” and more was always better. Today, a majority of great coaches still train swimmers and most of them will swim less that one minute per event, with miles of swimming and much of it at threshold race pace times. Training swimmers to drop times by adding recreational yardage sets throws speed specificity training out the window. On the other hand the yardage using USRPT / HIT or speed specificity training is likely to cut yardage in half or more because it all but eliminates redundant or recreational swimming (long monotonous and arduous sets with little relevance). At a Michigan Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association Clinic, head Coach David Salo from USC, talked about “6 points to a Meaningful Practice” and I associate them with specificity speed training, they are: 1.) Race Pace 2.) Varied Stimuli 3.) Hard 4.) Fun 5.) Faster-Faster – More Faster 6.) Relevance. Specificity speed training uses all of the six points he emphasized in his talk. The question I get most from swimmers is; how can I get faster? I tell them, become a better athlete and focus on dropping your SPOT, everything else will come together after that. So, improve body type (weight and strength), ankle flexibility, pulling pattern effectiveness (Timed DPS), lactate tolerance (pain). As coaches create a baseline of objective measurements, that are accumulated and recorded, swimmers should be responsible for following the prescribed course of action given by the coach. When a swimmer is doing everything the coach is telling them and they are not dropping time, the responsibility for finding an answer as to why a swimmer is not improving now falls on the shoulder of the coach. Dropping times, using specificity speed training is the most effective and fun way to train and I hope you use it. Good luck swimmers and coaches.

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

flystorms — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 08:10:03 GMT

Very interesting and inspiring article. I'm in the middle of reassessing my training again and a few of these points hit me smack between the eyes. Thank you!

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

Sumorunner — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 06:39:41 GMT

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

Former Member — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 05:23:58 GMT

Good post. So how do you get your 25 yd time faster? Begin with realistic goals and then go from there. Please read on and good luck. I would like to take the mystique out of what coaches are calling Ultra Short Race Pace Training (USRPT) or for short High Intensity Training (HIT). HIT is not a new idea and in fact is a concept that exercise physiologists have used for decades, even before the Doc Councilman era. HIT, requires following the same truisms that are at the core of all successful sports training. These sports training maxims have and will always revolve around specificity, recovery, regularity and progressive overload. The difference of HIT from past and current training is the laser focus it has on specificity. The way coaches habitually train swimmers is the way their swimmers will perform. HIT coach’s habitually train their swimmers to acquire speed. The most important measuring parameter is a twenty-five sprint push-off time (25 SPOT). Every season should begin with goal setting and every swimmer should have a set of short-term, seasonal and long-term goals. Once these goals are established and written down, swimmers should know what their twenty-five yard, sprint push-off time is for every stroke and at every distance. HIT does not ignore the importance of skill sets that improve, endurance, pace, pain tolerance (lactate tolerance), strength / flexibility (becoming a better athlete), pulling pattern and stroke efficiency, mental acuity, as well as other nuances. With that said, improving SPOT is the primary focus. Until SPOT times are acquired, skill sets like lactate tolerance sets, endurance sets and pace sets take a back seat to training (not to be ignored but to be emphasized much much less). Until a swimmer’s twenty-five yard time is fast enough to reach their end-goal, everything else is a mute issue. To solidify this point, a swimmer who has a SPOT time of 15.3 seconds cannot break a five-minute five hundred until they that time becomes a 14.9 ( very little room for debate, right?). Speed is an elusive skill set a swimmer can only improve upon by specifically training to get it. Here is the mystery, during the age of Mark Spitz, coaches espoused specificity training but did just the opposite and trained their athletes around “yardage” and more was always better. Today, a majority of great coaches still train swimmers and most of them will swim less that one minute per event, with miles of swimming and much of it at threshold race pace times. Training swimmers to drop times by adding recreational yardage sets throws speed specificity training out the window. On the other hand the yardage using USRPT / HIT or speed specificity training is likely to cut yardage in half or more because it all but eliminates redundant or recreational swimming (long monotonous and arduous sets with little relevance). At a Michigan Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association Clinic, head Coach David Salo from USC, talked about “6 points to a Meaningful Practice” and I associate them with specificity speed training, they are: 1.) Race Pace 2.) Varied Stimuli 3.) Hard 4.) Fun 5.) Faster-Faster – More Faster 6.) Relevance. Specificity speed training uses all of the six points he emphasized in his talk. Dropping times using specificity speed training is the most effective way to train and I hope you use it. Good luck swimmers and coaches.

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

Allen Stark — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 03:35:43 GMT

Thank you. That is a much better description/rationale than i could have given,

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

Former Member — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:22:45 GMT

Not too close to you,but he is doing an advanced breaststroke clinic in Seattle May 5. Breaking 50 in the 100 yard breaststroke and 1:49 in the 200 Yard Breaststroke ---- Allen, I'm shocked!! These kids are super swimmers. Next... under 40 100 free and under 17 50 free (if you would have told me that thirty years ago I would have laughed.

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

Michael Heather — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:10:20 GMT

if you would have told me that thirty years ago I would have laughed. You might not have been alone. Coach Peter Daland of USC predicted the continued lowering of records in the 1970s and (incorrectly) theorized that the 50 free would approach zero by the turn of the century. This was after a rash of new records in that distance throughout the decade. I won't be a bit surprised when the 50 finals at NCAA have a wave of 17.8s. The real question is what is the absolute number at which the combination of human strength and swimming technique will no longer result in faster times?

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

Former Member — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 05:01:25 GMT

I really like Salo's perspective. I attend a lot of clinics but seem to miss him. Is he going to be a speaker at a clinic this summer?

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

Allen Stark — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 03:09:38 GMT

I really like Salo's perspective. I attend a lot of clinics but seem to miss him. Is he going to be a speaker at a clinic this summer? Not too close to you,but he is doing an advanced breaststroke clinic in Seattle May 5.

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

tigerchik — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 02:59:24 GMT

Good post. So how do you get your 25 yd time faster?

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

Michael Heather — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 11:30:28 GMT

Seems like everything could be covered by #6, Relevance. Maybe I am just oversimplifying, but all aspects of training should be relevant to a particular goal. Everything else is subheadings.

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

orca1946 — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 12:48:48 GMT

Deep reading! Good stuff to think about when I swim now! Faster - faster - faster ---- try to get AIRRRR!!

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

Former Member — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 07:49:06 GMT

Good stuff!!

RE: 6 Points to a Meaningful Practice by:

Former Member — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 07:26:04 GMT

Great read thx