USRPT

Chatting with one of my swimmers

I’m Denaj. I’m a nerdy swim coach from Nassau, Bahamas and I love hacking everything I do. As a life hacker and an engineer one question is always on my mind, “How can I be more efficient?” I think this is one of the reasons for my fascination with Ultra-Short Race-Pace Training, USRPT. It is the epitome of working smart and hard. 

No, I didn’t create USRPT, but it’s hands down the best training method I’ve heard about to date and I’m desperately trying to spread the good news to everyone who will listen.

My Story

I clearly remember my first day of learn to swim at the Barracuda swim club because I declared it the worst day of my life. My 9-year old brain couldn’t comprehend how my mother could be evil enough to interrupt an intense weekend of Mario Kart 64 with my best friend. This is one of the moments I remember wishing I was adopted by parents that didn’t hate me so much. Honestly, I didn’t fight my mom too much because the idea of hopping into a pool on a summer day in The Bahamas wasn’t exactly a bad deal and as it turned out, I kinda liked the whole swimming thing.

18 months later I was swimming on the national team. And what can I say, it was better than Mario Kart! (Good decision mom.)

Three years after my first national team I was four seconds away from an Olympic B cut, but I had a big problem that I didn’t know how to deal with.

Four years later I couldn’t run from my problem anymore, I had to face it and as a result I walked away from from an NCAA Division I swimming scholarship.

My problem was that I had burned out from the age of 15 and by the time I quit the college team I hated everything even remotely related swimming.

Why Create this USRPT Blog?

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”
– Nelson Mandela

I created this USRPT blog to change the world–of swimming.

Looking back, a lot of bad things went down during my swimming career because I didn’t know any better and neither did my coach. Ignorance. At 11 I had an intense weight lifting and dry-land routine several times a week. Ignorance. I swam on a college team that had a very high shoulder injury rate. Ignorance. I swam mind-numbing sets daily for years because of a coach who believes in generalised training programs, building an aerobic base and a bunch of other hogwash. Ignorance!

That level of ignorance is no longer acceptable.

I can rant all I want, but rants don’t change the world and they leave you exhausted and out of breath. Action changes the world.

I created this website for two people:

1. I created this website for you. This is a site where you can have intelligent conversations about using science to swim faster.
   
   
2. I created this website for all the 10-year old swimmers that are still in love with their sport and have not yet been ruined.

This website is a toast to the future! Raise your with me glasses and join in the conversation.

[ois skin=”About Page”]