On Friday, Reece Whitley broke the National Age Group Record in the 100 meter breaststroke, and thanks to the quick hands of Michael Gobrecht, above we’ve posted the last 75 meters of that race.
Whitley’s final time of 1:03.82 cleared Michael Andrew’s old mark of 1:03.83, which begs for a stroke comparison between the two. In one of the hallmarks of USRPT-driven technique, Andrew is much lower to the water in his breaststroke than Whitley is. Whitley still stays fairly low to the water, though his posture is more upright when he begins his recovery. Both have very fluid motions, with no discernible hitch on the back-half of their stroke.
Whitley’s technique is much more leg-driven than is Andrew’s and includes a much bigger glide, though again that’s exactly what one would expect with the different philosophies.
As an aside, this editor would like to point out how deft Mr. Gobrecht was with his camera. Besides a steady hand, at the turn end, capturing the splits without losing the shot was masterful. Well done.
See Andrew’s breaststroke here.
Read more about Whitley’s record-breaking swim here.
Thanks for the short video.
And congrats to Mr Whitley.
He can probably swim much faster at juniors.
1.02 something isn’t out of reach.
Talking about Michael Andrew, he struggles on breaststroke for some weeks.
He swam only 1.06.44 at sectionals this week.
While at the same meet he broke his PB in the 100 fly.
Weird to be so slow on breaststroke.
I wasn’t at the meet, but the coach who went with our qualifiers said he looked fast, but more tired than usual. My assumption (AKA: this is pure speculation and I have no inside knowledge on the matter) is that they’ve been training through the past few meets instead of doing a two day “unloading phase” like Dr. Rushall advocates. Up til now, the main game has just been NAGs, so they were willing to sacrifice a day or two of training in order to go fast, but now it’s crunch time. What’s a sectional meet in Missouri when you’ve got Nationals in a few weeks?
My prediction (based on nothing but my trust that MA is the real deal):… Read more »
You seem to know MA very well.
Will he swim at US juniors?
It would be cool to see him try to win 1 or 2 junior titles.
It’s interesting what you said about taper.
I believed the word “taper” didn’t belong to their vocabulary. 🙂
Like I said, that’s all speculation on my part, I’m not trying to set myself up as a reliable source on all things MA. I went to the USRPT clinic in January and was able to talk to them, but otherwise, I know the family as much as any coach in the area knows them. I do seem to remember hearing that they’re shooting for Nationals (I’m pretty sure it’s in an interview, either on here or SwimmingWorld). I’m not sure about Juniors (is a swimmer allowed to do both?)
As far my comment about Nationals prep, that’s more groundless speculation on my part. I’m just thinking that he could be more rested with 4 or 5 days of lowered… Read more »
Is a swimmer allowed to do both?
If you are a coach, you must know that much more than me, a simple swimming fan from France. 🙂
But why would it be forbidden? No it’s allowed as usual.
Wow. Not that this is a super huge deal, but if you watch his kick to the surface off the turn, his feet catch some air and make a splash. Looks like it might have compromised his breakout a bit. Either way, he got the job done. I can’t wait for this kid to taper.
I would be curious as to the difference in training. Whitley does a better job engaging his core to get into his streamline. His legs are also stronger. I feel the weakness in current USRPT is to train without kick sets. Having experimented with the system this summer, I introduced Sprint kick sets with assigned goal times with failure rules the same as the swim sets. This has helped greatly and coinsides with the rules of specificity. When sprinting most swimmers naturally will stress arms but too often neglect the kick.
The one area where I feel Dr Rushall is wrong is his comment that this is based on science. True, the science doesn’t change but our understanding of… Read more »
I think if you’ve got a swimmer whose kick is great within the stroke, there’s little need for kick sets. But you’re absolutely right, many swimmers have trouble connecting the kick and pull when it’s time to go fast. I do some similar work, but my sets will generally involve a short distance of sprint kick, followed by sprint swimming trying to incorporate that same kick. For example, 25 sprint kick, 25 sprint trying to use the same technique/get the same feel from the kick, and then 25 easy back to their kickboard. It’s definitely a more cerebral way to sprint, and I dig it a lot.
Re: Rushall and USRPT. Far too absolute and static for my tastes. And… Read more »
Thank you Sven. I have a girl who can kick a 25 in under 12 off the blocks. Even she feels she’s not getting enough without kick set. I like your integration idea, however. Thanks for the response.
Wow, what an amazing difference in stroke technique! Thanks for posting that link to Michael’s swim, because I enjoyed comparing the two swimmers. I suspect Mr Andrew will end up using his breastroke skills for the 200 IM and try to swim either fly or free in the medley relays of the future while Reese swims breast (maybe 2020?).
That was an impressive swim to watch. I didn’t think he was quite going to get it at the 50, it literally came down to the touch. I’m sure he’ll improve on that before the season is through.