U.S. Olympian and Olympic gold medalist Michael Andrew posted a video of an Arizona State training session ahead of the team’s big trip to the ASU-Texas-Virginia NC State dual meet last month.
The training shows that even in his new coaching, there are elements of head coach Herbie Behm’s training that are still similar to what he was doing in USRPT – short sprints at high speed with lots of rest.
The set was 6 x 50s short course yards, from a push, with each swimmer having a target time. The goal of the workout is to take as little rest as possible to be able to repeat the goal time – an interesting structure in that it requires swimmers to feel and understand their bodies.
The set was Andrew, Jack Dolan, and Mikel Schreuders, with the other two swimmers doing freestyle.
Andrew’s times got faster throughout the set, and did them all on 5 minutes’ rest:
- 25.72
- 25.48
- 25.45
- 25.10
- 25.06
- 25.16
Andrew said after missing the first one, he realized his tempo was off, so he added a stroke per 50 and went “max effort” versus “100 pace,” which shows the old USRPT habits are still there – USRPT training for a 100 would involve swimming 25s or 50s at your 100 pace on repeats.
Schreuders was holding 20.6s before finishing in 20.35, and Dolan swam 19.6 on his last 50.
Andrew is still swimming his signature ‘flat’ breaststroke, working on minimizing any up-and-down momentum lost in the pull phase, with his heels still breaking the surface of the water on occasion.
His almost seems to be riding even higher in the water than he used to, especially through the start of the kick cycle, though the kick overall is more compact and appears to have a little more snap to it than his pre-training change 50s.
After missing the 2024 US Olympic Team, Andrew made the choice to move to Tempe and train with someone other than his dad for the first time in his career. Andrew, 25, won an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in 2021 by swimming the breaststroke leg of the American World Record setting 400 medley relay. The versatile swimmer also has a 2022 mixed medley World Championship gold medal with a prelims butterfly leg and is a six-time World Champion in short course meters.
I think I want to see underwaters of his kick. That moght answer some q about the kind of odd technique / timing …
Can’t wait till TYR Westmont to see his progress. My coach met him and said he was super nice so I am def rooting for him.
Great summer league workout. Maybe less vlogging, more swimming.
Do you dislike Michael Andrew so much that you’ve now decided that, by association, Herbie Behm doesn’t know how to coach his athletes?
I dont understand how he expects to have the endurance to compete in prelims, semis and finals at an older age.
From what Michael has posted, how is this training that different from what he was doing before? It doesn’t seem too different, to be honest.
USRPT has less rest and more volume than this training
Oh please!!!!
Don’t let videos like these fool you. Michael has been working his ass off in training and is totally loving the sport again and Integrating well in the group. He’s doing full sets and things he’s never done before in practice, so it will likely take a lil while to notice significant improvements. He was never the strongest scy swimmer so I think we may hopefully start to notice the changes/improvements more come this summer
I have so many questions about this comment.
He was always the strongest SCY swimmer.
I also don’t see anybody questioning if he’s doing work, I think everyone understands that this is just kind of a fun set.
Yeah I kind of left this comment a bit premature assuming there would be more haters. Also the scy comment was completely relative. In the same way that Carson foster acknowledges that he’s not as great at short course even though they both have multiple records throughout all levels. Michael just in the recent part of his career seems to thrive in his long course performances more-so than anything he’s done in short course. He’s an elite athlete regardless of everything I said, and I hope this move overall helps give him a titanium mental confidence and trust that he has the ability to succeed at the highest levels again
OR watch me go 4x25s Max Effort on the 8 minute (with fins)