2022 SI CSTE 13 & Over NTS
- January 22-24, 2022
- Coronado, California
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Results on Meet Mobile: “2021 SI CSTE 13 over NTS”
Michael Andrew raced at a local age group meet on Saturday at his home training pool in Coronado, California.
In his adult career, Andrew is most renowned for his results in 50 and 100 meter races, stretching to the 200 IM, but he swam a couple of races that are more outside of his primary frame on Saturday. In total, he swam three events: the 400 IM, the 200 fly, and the 100 breaststroke, the latter of which he raced at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
None of the races were all that close to personal bests, which in itself is noteworthy: in an interview last week with Brett Hawke, Andrew indicated that he has increased his training volume as he heads toward the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
While Andrew’s USRPT training lends itself to a lot of fast in-season racing, an increase in volumes means that we’re likely to see more of a peak-and-taper cycle from him going forward.
Andrew’s Results:
- 400 IM – 3:54.16 (PB: 3:49.57, 2017)
- 100 breast – 52.95 (PB: 51.18, 2018)
- 200 fly – 1:49.36 (PB: 1:45.39, 2014)
This was just the second meet for Andrew since the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and the first on domestic soil after he raced at December’s Short Course World Championships.
Andrew also said he’s going to train more for 200 meter races, while staying within the USRPT framework. That implies more volume, though not necessarily the volume that most athletes at his level would race with.
In spite of the criticism that Andrew’s USRPT style receives, as an age grouper, Andrew was very proficient in 200 and 400 yard and meter races. At one meet in 2014, he broke 13-14 National Age Group Records in both the 200 yard fly and 400 yard IM in the same meet. He was almost the exact same time in the 400 IM, and about three seconds faster in the 200 fly, at that meet.
Aside from Andrew, the meet was mostly local and age group swimmers. Among those local swimmers was high school junior Sam Quarles, who was rated as “Best of the Rest” in SwimSwam’s recruiting rankings for the class of 2023. The Cal commit swam the 50 free (20.66), 100 breast (58.16), and 100 back (51.33), with the 100 breaststroke being a lifetime best, and the 50 free being just two-tenths slower than the 20.47 that he swam at Winter Juniors in December.
Now do it Long Course
He said he plans to at pro series in Des Moines so we will see if he actually does.
Good for him! On right track!
Looked up the splits:
400 IM
51.8
59.2
1:06.0
57.0
200 Fly
23.7
27.3
28.5
29.7
Not a single one of the IM splits was very strong. Interestingly, I would say Breast was relatively weakest. As far as the 2 Fly goes, judging by his first 2 splits, he just swam it totally wrong. I am not sure how full USRPT effects race strategy, but it strikes me as a poorly executed race. Thoughts?
Who cares it was a local age group meet. He probably did a practice afterwards.
You mean surfing afterward.
More of an observation. I am curious what his splits were from his best time and what his strategy was.
Comparatively speaking, that’s a pretty slow breast split, though the rest of the IM splits are decent.
My 400 IM PR as an age grouper (as someone who wasn’t a 400 IMer) was about a 4:30. My individual 100 breast at the time was something like a 1:09, while my breast split in that race was a 1:19. A 14 second delta between his individual 100 his 100 split is pretty bad. As a point of comparison, even now as a old and fat USMS swimmer, I normally only have a 11-13 second delta between my individual 100 breast and my breast split in the one 400 IM I do each season.
Your comment made me look at my last meet, at which most of my swimmers competed in their first 400 IM. Most of my kids were about 8 seconds slower in the 100 BR split than their best time. Again, I’m not sure what his strategy or goal for the swim was. I thought one of the benefits of USRPT was that you’re always race ready. Maybe this indicates his training regime has significantly shifted, which he sorry of indicated.
USRPT works for any distance. It’s just a question of what events you choose to focus on. It simply means breaking down the race distance into components that allow them to be performed at race pace with short rest. Anyone who thinks it’s easy hasn’t done it correctly.
It certainly worked for Lydia Jacoby
One distance. `100 meters.
Correct- you just have to be diligent enough to do it for races 200 and above
So where is the proof for an elite swimmer above 150 meters? Name one. Sure for masters swimmers it works, but it’s theoretical, at best, and MA’s collapse at the end of the 200 LCM IM, despite training for it, is more evidence that it doesn’t work than there is evidence that it does. It may not be easy, but I guarantee you it isn’t a 10th as hard as what Troy put Dressel through to train for 100’s.
and all that work was totally unnecessary for someone just swimming 50 and 100 meter races and he didn’t make the 800 free relay
When MA first hit the news cycles for going pro, I implemented USRPT for about a month in my self training, which was for the 200 fly and 200 back at that time.
No joke, it was some of the hardest training I’ve done in my ~30 year swimming career.
You can’t hide in USRPT. You can’t coast on a set and hope coach doesn’t notice.
30.69
I’m just gonna say it. His heart’s not into racing the 200 IM LCM, especially after the trauma of failing in Tokyo. If he had his druthers, it would all be 50’s of strokes and surfing. If there is one 200 event he should be swimming over and over outside of the 200 IM, it’s the 200 free. Until he can clean up his raptor arm free at the end of his 200, he’ll always have trouble finishing the 2 IM.
Wrong….again. The 200 IM is a priority for MA. May not always be, but it is squarely in his crosshairs now.
I would like a full breakdown of how raptor arms differ from t-rex arms.
Longer, though still disproportionately short. Elbow drops more. Exactly like MA at the end of he 200 IM.
Today Becky swims fly with t-rex arms. 14yo Becky swam fly with orangutan arms.
I honestly think that MA just doesn’t have that long of arms relative to his body. Maybe it’s still a bit longer than his height, and his extremely long torso makes them look really short, but he obviously doesn’t have the “gorilla arms” wingspan of a guy like Phelps–MP’s arms still looked long for his body despite his extended torso.
Phelps got extremely lucky in having short legs but very long arms. These are some really funky genetics, because most people with long arms also have long legs, and most people with short legs often have short arms. MA seems to be the latter.
Wrong he has already stated his goals.
Seriously who hasn’t stated their goals. Aaron Rogers is home today with his “goals.”
^^^ Honestly though.
Still can’t finish the IM faster than a 13yr old girl
Whenever a 13y old girl takes out the 200im under 24″ calle me
Whenever a 13 yr old boy or girl takes the 150 of the 200 IM out a second faster than either MP or Lochte could do in their prime call
He made the Olympic team. Lol
and he had a great first Olympics capped off with a WR and Gold medal.
Completely understand the effect tapering has, and that this is far from peak form. But it’s still crazy to me that 22yo Michael after 8 years of doing this professionally, maturing, refining technique, getting stronger, becoming a world class 1fly LCM swimmer, and apparently adding training volume, is almost 5 seconds slower in the 2 fly than 14yo Michael.
That’s nothing. 14yo Becky laps today’s Becky about twice in the 200 fly.
It’s probably gonna take him a while to adjust to higher volume training. He’s still doing it with really high intensity, so it’s gotta hurt.
He is the American Record holder in the 100 m breast and ranks the 3rd fastest in history so there is that.
My comment was not meant as a criticism of Michael at all, just an observation of how little I understand the sport and how people swim fast.