PREFACE:
More than twenty years ago, Coach Matt Kredich wrote this article after his first experiences with Parametric Training. At the time, he was an emerging collegiate coach with an inquisitive mind and a willingness to explore new ideas. His reflections capture the curiosity and practical thinking that would later become hallmarks of his coaching career.
About a year before this article was written, I had the opportunity to present the 3S concept to Jonty Skinner, then Technical Director of USA Swimming. During our conversation, Jonty asked me what I considered, at the time, a rather uncomfortable question: “Who among the top coaches is using 3S?”
I answered, “Matt Kredich.”
Based on my own previous experience working with world-class coaches, I already believed Matt possessed the qualities of a coach who would eventually reach that level. Jonty, however, was not impressed. In his eyes, Matt was simply another young collegiate coach, still building his career.
Looking back more than twenty years later, that conversation has taken on a very different meaning.
Perhaps the better question was never: “Who is using 3S?”
Looking back today, I believe the better question has always been:
“What happens to coaches who embrace 3S?”
S.B. Beliaev
Super Sport Systems
By Matt Kredich, Head Coach, University of
Richmond Women’s Swimming, 2003
“I am now in my third season of using the 3S suite of coaching tools, and although I use all of them, the one part of the system that I have found most fascinating is the parametric training. Currently, the program has a parametric progression for 200-s of back or free and 100-s of breast or fly, 50-s for all strokes and 15-s for all strokes. Essentially, the swimmer is asked to start at a low number of repeats of that distance at a given speed, and over the weeks the number of repetitions increases while the speed stays the same. It is a powerful form of training, as many of you have probably already found, but I would like to share with you a couple of hints on how I have used it.
First and foremost, having the swimmer achieve the time is critical. It is just as important to not go too fast as it is to not go too slow. This runs counter to what many of us coaches believe, but if you stick to the time you will see some fantastic benefits. Lets say your swimmer is supposed to hold 2:08-s for 9 x 200 @ 15 sec rest, and she goes a 2:05 on the first one. You can tell her to relax not to slow down, but to do a 2:08 as efficiently as she can take fewer strokes, relax more, focus on turns more, etc. If she comes in at 2:08 on the second one, tell her she is dialed in to the right speed, and now the challenge is simply to execute them as well as she can. 50-s and 15-s should be thought of in the same way. A few of our kids could go faster than the given times for the 50-s, but we actually gave them (as a team) the first parametric set of 50-s on a 1 minute interval. The assignment was to complete 7 total if they were more than .3 off then the swim did not count. We tell them that it not matter if they are capable of repeating faster than the times v what is important is to be able to go those times as easily as possible. In this way you are training efficiency at a given speed, rather than efficiency at a given or fixed heartrate, and I believe this give you much more control over the training process.
As a coach, your goal is to help them get to the point where they are going their speed with a minimum amount of energy for a high number of repetitions. You can manipulate the rest and the instructions in order to help them achieve this goal. We make sure that they hit their time from the very first repetition, and then if they do fall off the times, we coach! I try to figure out which of the following reasons are responsible for them slowing down:
1) if they are falling apart due to something that they can control, like poor decisions regarding mechanics, shallow breathing, fear, lack of motivation, etc, I will try to push the appropriate buttons before they repeat more than 2 swims that are off the time.
I have pulled the plug on the set before and come back the next day to try again if I feel that the athlete cannot recover after starting the set.
2) If their effort is in the right place and are falling apart due simply to fatigue, I will manipulate the rest. Very often this only needs to be done once v say an extra 10-20 seconds or a 50 easy, but they need to come back and re-do the repetition that they missed.
This system of training is so powerful because it teaches efficiency through action. In all of these sets I see kids become more efficient and relaxed as the sets go on and as the sets progress from week to week. The speeds are always high enough (over 90% of their best effort on the distance at the start of the parametric training period so that the biomechanical changes they make are very relevant to their racing speeds, and they get excited and motivated by watching their capacity increase so dramatically in such a short period of time.
I have found the key to maximizing the benefit from parametric training is to massage the athlete’s ability to swim fast both during the parametric sets and during the realization phase afterwards. For instance, the week after the 200 parametric progression ends, swimmers then will do short sets of fast 200’s, and they may have trouble getting out of that parametric speed. Make sure you give them enough warm-up, rest, and opportunities to make the most of those sets. Also remember that the time is no longer of primary importance during the realization phase of training the heart rate and effort level are, and this shift may take some time for them to adjust.”
Matt Kredich, Head Coach, University of
Richmond Women’s Swimming
October 20, 2003
Richmond, VA
Matt’s article reflects one coach’s first experiences with Parametric Training.
Twenty years later, the methodology continues to evolve through the experiences of coaches around the world.
Explore more: