From an earlier report:
Swimming a time trial on Saturday at the College Station, Texas sectional meet, Andrew broke the old record of 3:54.23 set by Curtis Ogren in 2010.
This follows the National Age Group Record that he swam in the 200 fly on Saturday.
He’s also swum a 1:40.38 in the 200 free and 47.79 in the 100 fly.
His splits:
- Fly – 51.94
- Back – 58.40
- Breast – 1:06.32
- Free – 55.42
The main reason USRPT is a good method on swim training is that it develops the swimmer’s potential more efficiently than traditional method.
The main reason of Michael Andrew’s success as a young swimmer is the mix of his talent, USRPT training and the deep understanding of his coach/father Peter on swimming technique.
I am just amazed at Michael Andrew’s success and raw talent. So many have commented above about his flawed technique – but I’m old enough to remember Janet Evans and her “windmill” stroke which nearly everyone criticized, but it sure worked for her! You win races and medals by how quickly you move through the water, not how ‘pretty’ you look doing it. Go Michael!
Bobo,
Aside from Phelps, Thorpe also swam 4:24 in 400 IM at 14 yo. Andrew’s LCM 400 IM PB is still far behind. HOWEVER, his 200 IM record is stunning. A WR for 14 yo I believe. So, he seems to be equally great in LCM and SCY in 200 or shorter, but his 400 time is still lagging behind.
Love your analysis hkswimmer. I am also skeptical about Rushall’s outright dismissal of Mellouli’s technique (some might call this “hip-driven” freestyle?). That being said, people like Lotte Friis,Brooke Bennett,Ryan Cochrane and Kieren Perkins seem to show that a more rotary, less front-quadrant oriented freestyle can also work well for distance swimming. Ryan Cochrane is no Sun Yang, but with considerably more strokes per length (36 vs Yang’s 28) and a much higher stroke rate (82 strokes per minute vs 60) he can still go 14:39.
Very interesting discussion.
Finally we talk about technique.
It’s refreshing.
Too bad I don’t have the knowledges to enter the discussion. 😆
I’m just a simple swimming fan. 😳
Talking about technique, I’m eager to know what the best swimswam readers or contributors think about the technique from my favorite US age group swimmer of the moment on the men’s side, 12-year-old Destin Lasco. I’m not a specialist but I was totally amazed by his technique when I watched him at the last Tom Dolan Invitational, especially on backstroke and on freestyle. It looked so effortless which is very rare for so young swimmers.
Hopefully he will break some NAG records next week at… Read more »
To Matthew at the beginning: If we are allowed to include women in the 100 breast and 200 fly NAG’s by the same person, it HAS happened. 1978 worlds in Berlin, Tracy Caulkins ties the world record for the 200 fly, and at the same meet finished with a silver and best time and American record in the 100 breast as a 15 yr old- if they somehow weren’t also NAG’s in what AAU back then had her in the larger 15-18 age group, then I am missing something. She also went the 2nd fastest time in the world in the womens 50 free in 81, in 79 broke the 500 free american record by something like 3 seconds that… Read more »
I have to agree with coachd – though I am seriously impressed with MA’s range, he most definitely does not have some of the technical skills that would be expected of someone who is already a professional and who looks to make an impact on the international youth stage as early as this summer (Youth Olympics).
Looking at MA’s stroke from some of the videos, I would definitely say that his freestyle is not efficient, especially for longer distances. With an extremely low elbow, on his recovery he actually pushes a fair amount of water back. If USRPT is focusing on reducing drag, something clearly isn’t right in this case as it’s visibly bad from the videos, even compared to… Read more »
To HKSwimmer,
“I don’t believe that you necessarily need to have such fast rotation for shorter events too – for example, Magnussen takes his time on the stroke to properly catch the water.’
I agree. Not only Magnussen, but even more pronounced on the fastest female sprinter, Cate Campbell.
If you saw Campbell and Missy swam side by side in the Barcelona 4×100 free final, Campbell was seemingly at standstill (Im exaggerating of course) as she took her time compared to the frantic rotation of Missy.
He does seem to break a lot of records in “time trials”.