Michael Phelps and Coach Bob Bowman received questions about Michael Andrew and USRPT. Both were gracious responding about the rising star and the training method that has delivered him over 60 National Age Group Records. Phelps was happy for Andrew’s success, but said he wanted to see him swim more, especially meters races. Bowman offered that USRPT was one part of how he and many other elite coaches train their swimmers…but “only” one part. Bowman added that he would be keeping an eye on Andrew’s development as well and wished him continued success.
Michael Andrew, typically covered by the swim media (with a few national outlets picking up his story as a human-interest piece), received questions about his success and USRPT (Ultra Short Race Pace Training) from everyone at the 2014 Arena Grand at Mesa. Andrew is clearly riding the Phelps wave in Mesa. Many national and international outlets learned about him at this competition. In sum, the Phelps Effect works for everyone, especially Michael Andrew. Both swimmers appeared to enjoy meeting each other in Mesa.
Andrew’s looking forward to his next USA Swimming Grand Prix competition in Charlotte, but said — off camera — that he’d be taking a break from training after a long run at the 13-14 NAG records. (Andrew recently turned 15.) Andrew is hoping for fast 50 swims in Charlotte.
personally, I think he may be pretty much done growing in height. There’s this thing called “regression to the mean.” Because his parents are SO far above average in height, he’ll likely not be quite as tall.
yeah, and good luck “revolutionizing the sport”
Please keep in mind M. Andrew just a kid. Anyone ‘hating on’ a 14 year old, there is something wrong with you.
MA is actually 15 but whose counting. Anyways, not sure there are any “haters”, but many who apparently are a bit jealous of the attention he is getting. I think some here think MA may have a significant advantage on most other swimmers his age given his situation. It is quite possible that other swimmers of Michael’s age catch up, or even surpass him, once they can dedicate as much of their lives to swimming and competing as MA currently can.
Interesting to see his interviews, as always. I like to keep track of how he uses ‘I’ and ‘we’ interchangeably often. I think he is trending towards saying ‘I’ more, but I can’t be sure.
Hmm. I’m pleasantly surprised. The kid is very articulate, he gave a good interview.
Always interesting in interview.
OK OK OK, I’mma preface this saying I don’t think all the ka-billion posts about this kid on the site so far were anything too excessive. (NAG record = post, he has a lot of those. Therefore, lot of posts.) That whole team has been super-open w/ this site, so I get it.
But. BUUUUUUUUUUUT. Michael Phelps and Bob Bowman fielding questions about this kid is basically beyond the pale. Do I kinda want to know what Bowman thinks about their type of training methods? Sure, but I’ll listen to coaches talk about how they tighten lane lines. Do I want to hear their thoughts on Andrew specifically? Noooooooooope.
So you don’t think our top coaches and athletes should talk about up and coming stud age groupers?
I think that’s a silly stance to take. I’d love to hear what Lochte and Phelps and Clary and Dwyer are thinking about Seliskar. Or Adrian and Feigen think about Dressel. Or Schmitt and Romano think about Manuel. Or Ledecky and Sutton think about (pick a strong young freestyler- Homovich, Rongione, Harnisch)…
In a lot of cases these kids are breaking these older guys records… it is always interesting to hear their thoughts- and it just inspires the next wave.
Would Mel have scoffed if someone asked him about that skinny 14 year old from Baltimore who was setting records in… Read more »
I honestly don’t care what pros have to say about age groupers, mostly because I wouldn’t expect any kind of deep insight. Something like, “He’s really swimming fast and I hope he continues developing…” blah blah blah it’s the exact thing you’d hear about all of ’em from any of ’em. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to hear about those youngins, but not from people that honestly probably couldn’t care less. I dunno, it’s just a weird line of questioning to me.
This post reminded me about the second point in this post from a couple days ago. I don’t really care if Phelps takes the spotlight away from some people, obviously the dude deserves… Read more »
GO MICHAEL!!!!!!!!! He is so fast!
Michael is certainly handling the pressure. He and his family are always gracious. He swims in our district so we see him a lot. He makes swimming exciting and is certainly a great sport. My swimmers admire him a lot. Good luck Michael!!!
If you take into consideration the height of both of MA’s parents he could be dwarfing Grevers by the time he fully matures.
Lol hes pretty close to fully matured, height wise he probably wont get any bigger. He will put on more muscle as time goes on though
There you have it, KiethM… Josh says he’s done growing.
(He’s grown at least an inch since January. He’s a big puppy still)
Josh, his father is 6 foot 5 inches. But this is the real kicker: His mother is 6 foot 2!!
Let’s revisit your assertion in a couple years.
And How Tall andrew is by now’?
I don’t know. I can’t keep up.
I agree with Josh, here. When a young kid is in the throes of a growth spurt, he looks like stretched-out taffy – long, lanky, and not enough muscle mass for his size. MA already looks like he’s starting to fill out and, given that he’s essentially looking his father in the eye, it’s likely that his growth rate is slowing down dramatically, which is pretty common for some kids as they turn 15. When he fully fills out, he’s going to be a huge swimmer, but I don’t think he’ll be freakishly big. In 2-3 years, he could be 6-5, 6-6 and competing at 220, 230, which is gigantic for a teenager but not unheard of in our sport.… Read more »
Michael Jordan was 5’10 as a sophomore and ended up growing 8 inches in four years.
Dennis Rodman was 5’6 and grew a whopping 13 inches by the time he played in the NBA.
Rodman was 5’6″ as a HS freshman