Training with Ryan Lochte

Canadian swimmer Andrew Ford recently spent some time training with Ryan in Floria. This interview with Don Burton, Andrew's coach, provides amazing insight into Ryan's training:

http://swimontario.com/news_detail.php?id=2396

Here is an excerpt:

SwimON: How did this idea of having Andrew go and train with Ryan Lochte come about?

Don: I felt Andrew needed to be exposed to the best in a training environment to continue his progress to be competitive in the world. Andrew gained a really good perspective and attitude after competing at the Commonwealth Games this past October and then getting more world level competition in the World Cups. The OHPSI program has helped us to make it happen with the support of such a project as training with Lochte.

SwimON: So let’s talk about Greg Troy… his philosophy, his way of doing things?

Don: Here are a couple of things that was quite apparent:

Don’t show up on deck after he does- if you do “you are late!”

Practices start 10 minutes before the posted time- but the swimmers know they have to be ready to go! Sometimes a short meeting takes place but anything of importance gets scheduled another time- the practice time is the focus- absolutely no wasting of time- basically “get the work done, if you don’t do that, you have nothing to complain about”

He does not compromise!- two sets of practices- one for the university swimmers one for his post grads. The swimmer is there for the duration of the practice- no early leaves- nothing of the sort.

In your face honesty!—he does this after the practice, never during. He gets into the swimmers about the practice, the set, last week, the last meet, their attitude—he makes a note of a situation and then deals with after the practice with the swimmer.

Weekly meetings outside normal practice time, a meeting does not take away from the training time. In the meeting he is honest and straight to the point and specific to the individual—“Ryan you…; Elizabeth you….”

No racing suits until the main meets, a US Grand Prix does not count as a main meet, only exception is sometimes for 1 race only, he will let someone wear a racing suit for “body position” reasons only.

When not wearing the suit, you must go into the race with the same attitude as when you have a suit—none of the idea of “poor me, I can’t win because I don’t have a racing suit on”—“get rid of that thought and any other that impedes what you are capable of”

Greg is on deck up to 8 hours a day, coaching both programs. He has his assistant coach Anthony Nesty run the on deck Dry land and he is tough!—A strength and conditioning coach does the weight sessions but Greg has input into the program.

The swim practices are geared toward the individual basically categorizing by sprint, IM and distance- the first hour of swimming is the same for everyone and then they split up in their specialty sets.

When doing IM work the main emphasis is on Back and Breast the combination of the two strokes

The dry land on deck consists of mainly AB work, bands and core work—large volumes of work

SwimON: What was the weekly practice schedule?

Don: Monday: 6-8am (really 5:50-8:05) pool/ 2-3 pm on deck dry land—3-5pm pool
Tuesday: 6-8am pool/ 1 hour off then 90 minutes of weights (stadium work-stairs) PM off
Wednesday: 6-8am pool/ 2-3pm on deck Dry land 3-5pm pool
Thursday: 6-8am pool/ 1 hour off/ 90 min weights and Stadium work PM off
Friday: 6-8am pool/ 2-3pm Dry land/ 3-5pm pool
Saturday: 3-4 hours total—mainly in the waterSunday: the 200m and down swimmer do weights (this is their 3rd session of the week)

SwimON: What kind of equipment do they use during the swim practice?

Don: They have 2 sets of fins, they use small weights between their hands during streamline exercises, Snorkels (they use snorkels a lot- caps over the end restricting the air intake, a few sets of paddles but no wrist straps- larger paddles for free and smaller ones for the other strokes, stretch cords in and out of the water, they use the power towers and stretch cords for working on the underwater kick outs. Also they use mono fin for lots of underwater work.

SwimON: Tell us a little about how Ryan Lochte trains?

Don: Ryan is great at dry land!—he works tough at everything he does.

He did 8x100 kick LC @125 (attempted 120) but the key was he always pushed 15m kickouts underwater off all his walls

A good puller but not outstanding

He does everything without cutting corners- very intense during the process whether a swim set, warmdowns, or in dry land.

No special consideration for him- swam in crowded lanes, always early for practice, one of the first ones in for warm up—a great example of how to be the world’s best

He is solid in everything he does, no weakness from all strokes swimming to pulling and kicking.
A focus on his nutrition in order to improve his swimming to be the best in the world

His average volume of training in the water is 65-70km per week plus the intense out of water work. Approximately 28 hours of training per week.

SwimON: Any other comments on your experience with coach Greg Troy and Ryan Lochte?

Don: An outstanding experience for both Andrew and I. I saw work at a whole new level from the coach’s delivery and expectation to what swimmers can do. Greg was fun on deck but serious, he commands the group like Bill Sweetenham does, the swimmers respect him immensely. As for Ryan, he knows how to turn it on and to turn it off. He is exactly how you see him at the competitions, easy going, fun but when its time, he goes. Ryan was a great host to Andrew.

SwimON: So now what?

Don: Now we step it up, in every aspect!

The cool thing is it is even more exciting because we can see the goal even sharper in our minds than ever before. Ryan is a quiet guy, but there is nothing that is going to stop him from his goals. Andrew is very excited about practices, seeing how Ryan handled himself with very difficult practices, was exactly what we were looking for.

Dry land is harder with more intensity, a larger focus on free pull, backstroke inside practices must be faster, Fly work is at race pace, with the focus on body position while doing it.
Making the Olympic team is not the goal as it once was, of course Andrew must make the team, but to get second swims at the Olympics is the goal. The goal is clearer than ever before!

Coach Gregg Troy is an amazing individual and someone else that I can now bounce ideas off of.
We have seen how there were no "bad" workouts. Andrew now bikes to and from 6 of his practice to add extra cardio and power, (some practices are at a different pool). This will add over 2 hrs a week of outside the pool training.

I took some video inside the training sets, a comparison of Andrew and Ryan, thus a fair comparison, showing the good and the bad. Andrew learns very well from seeing what the best do, we continue to make the technical adjustments through video inside practices and we monitor the progress.