Arizona State head coach Herbie Behm has sent SwimSwam the workout that Olympic gold medalist Michael Andrew swam in his first practice as part of the Sun Devils training group.
For anyone expecting that Andrew’s new coaching regimen would launch into some kind of massive aerobic-work, quite the opposite took place. Andrew swam a total of 3,880 yards, and aside from a 200 warmup, no repeats were longer than 100 yards.
In total, the set was 3,880 yards (rounding to about 4,000 for where he presumably completed a length after a 15 yard effort), plus a presumed cooldown (which wasn’t on the document that Behm provided).
While the workout wasn’t pure USRPT, the training that Andrew made famous, it did have a lot of short efforts on fairly-long rest intervals. USRPT is predicated on training full-speed at mostly under-distances, replicating race speed for a shorter length, on repeats.
This workout incorporated some less-than-max-speed work, and the closest thing it had to aerobic work was a set of 8×100 loaded up with equipment. That’s another derivation from Andrew’s previous training, where he used very little equipment.
The Workout Dissected (original workout follows)
Warm-Up and Relay Starts
- 200 choice – 200 yards
- 4 relay starts – Generally, relay starts don’t cover a lot of distance; let’s estimate 15 yards per start = 60 yards
Total for Warm-Up: 260 yards
First Set (2 Rounds)
- 2×100 flutter kick w/board = 200 yards per round
- 2×50 w/4 kicks + 7 strokes = 100 yards per round
- 4x (5 kicks + 4 strokes) MAX SPEED on :30 = 100 yards per round
Total per Round: 400 yards
Total for 2 Rounds: 800 yards
Second Set
- 8×100 w/buoy + paddles + band + breathing every 3 = 800 yards
- 4×25 w/paddles + buoy @ ankles = 100 yards
- 4x (6/6 buoy drops) MAX SPEED = 100 yards
Total for Second Set: 1,000 yards
Third Set
- 4×50 w/4 kicks + 7 strokes = 200 yards
- 4×15 MAX SPEED – Since 15-yard swims are specified, 4×15 = 60 yards
- Alternating MAX SPEED and easy swims:
- 1×50 easy = 50 yards
- 2×25 MAX SPEED = 50 yards
- 1×50 easy = 50 yards
- 1×50 MAX SPEED = 50 yards
- 1×50 easy = 50 yards
- 1×50 MAX SPEED = 50 yards
- 1×50 easy = 50 yards
- 2×25 MAX SPEED = 50 yards
- 1×50 easy = 50 yards
Subtotal for Alternating Section: 400 yards
- 4×15 MAX SPEED = 60 yards
- 4×50 w/4 kicks + 7 strokes = 200 yards
Total for Third Set: 920 yards
Fourth Set (2 Rounds)
- 1×100 streamline flutter on back = 100 yards per round
- 3×50 IM switch = 150 yards per round
- 8×25 on :30 = 200 yards per round
Total per Round: 450 yards
Total for 2 Rounds: 900 yards
Total Yardage
- Warm-Up and Relay Starts: 260 yards
- First Set: 800 yards
- Second Set: 1,000 yards
- Third Set: 920 yards
- Fourth Set: 900 yards
Total Yardage: 3,880 yards
Click to Enlarge
It’s crazy to me how MA finally does what everyone has been yelling at him to do for like 10 years and the naysayers are still being hella noisy. Guess they just thrive off of their own negativity.
Swimswam commenters 12/25?
next swimstats post?
I can’t believe this is news… I remember my first practice out of 8&unders!
Grant House is still swimming?
Proud of him💖
Michael Andrew has clearly succeeded with unconventional training methods that puts him at odds with most swim fans…but he’s an American record holder and part of a world record setting 400 medley relay. The talent is obviously there, and he’s put in the work to be among the best of all American swimmers whether you agree with the work or not. Yes he’s had a rough go of the World Cup in the last month, but he’s now committed himself to something new to set himself up for success in the future. Not everyone’s path to success is linear – there are ups and downs, but do we want someone so talented to bow out when things are looking down,… Read more »
Round 2 has some whisperings of “aerobic” work. Obviously it is not anywhere near the average college level aerobic set but for someone of MA’s background and age I’d imagine Coach Behm is looking to build his aerobic base over an extended period of time. It will be interesting to see what his training looks like in 3 months.
How did you get the work out