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.
Michael is lovely. Team player. I am happy he is training with ASU. The comraderie, trash talkin showers, great vibe….He’s gonna hang nicely.This is so great. It’s not all about winning. It’s Delta Swimswam 6.
Sometimes my heel comes out of the water in breaststroke, and it is basically a wasted cycle – destroys my momentum. How someone can push 25.1 with their heel breaking the surface is beyond me.
Then again I swim more double-arm backstroke than breaststroke, so what do I know.
The kick at the 3:03, 3:38, 4:00 mark… going into the wall looks like a dolphin kick to me.
Training 50s, huh….
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?
Also how does anyone expect swimmers to make money and stay in the sport? This is 100% a part of doing his job.
I dont understand how he expects to have the endurance to compete in prelims, semis and finals at an older age.
Prelims, semis, and finals are spaced out by more than 5 minutes