Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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This was our biggest set on a recent Saturday morning. The instructions were the same for the 50s all the way down through the set. The A-B-C intervals represent different lanes/levels of swimmers in our practice. “MIN CT” = minimum cycle count.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
We did the vertical kick in the deep end with hands held out of the water. The 10 high-knee jumps happened in a 4-foot shallow end. The 10 squats were done on the deck.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This is a full workout for a first long course course practice of the season focused on butterfly. This is after a 15-20min warmup:
Pre-Set
9 x 100 @:20 rest
#1 Dolphin kick on side
#2 8 Dolphin kicks on side, 1 cycle fly
#3 6 diolphin kicks on side, 2 cycles fly
Main Set
2x:
4 x 150 @ :15 rest, 10 cycles strong fly then steady free each 50
6 x 100 @ :10 rest 14 cycles strong fly then steady free each 50
8 x 50 @ :50
Round 1: All fly Descend 1-4 and 5-8
Round 2: #1,3,5,7,8 are FPA fly, #2,4,6 are free B5
Kick Set with Freestyle
6 x (75 fast kick try to best best 100 LCM time + 25 EZ kick ) @2:20
1 x 200 freestyle descend cycle count by 50
4 x (75 faster + 25) same as above
1 x 200 freestyle descend cycle count by 50
2 x (75 faster + 25) same as above
1 x 200 freestyle descend cycle count by 50
Warm down
by Ryan Woodruff
I had the good fortune to meet Dudley Duncan in 2015 when I moved to Virginia. Having only observed his team from a distance previously, I enjoyed conversations on the pool deck with him until his retirement in 2019. The title of his book spells out his philosophy — that swimming well is an art and learning how to compete is figuring out the game that is happening within every race.
My favorite thing about this book is that it reads as though one is having an informal conversation with the author. If you have ever wanted to pick the brain of a master coach but are too afraid to ask, this is the book for you. Coach Duncan tells stories from his career and explains every step of his 51-year coaching journey. He delves into the business side of owning a swim team and a pool facility (very informative!) and advocates for more coaches to control their business destiny. He doesn’t sugarcoat the realities of ownership, even detailing the difficult schedule he had to keep to turn his vision into a reality. Sure, there is a chapter on technique (humbly titled “A Way”, not The Way), but the real gold nuggets in this book for me were the chapters on Team Consciousness and The Mental Game. Duncan describes his process for elevating a group to next-level performance and how to most effectively communicate with different personalities.
Coach Duncan’s ideas have caused me to reflect on my own coaching process and re-framed my thoughts on how I lead and guide a group. Though he is writing from the club coach’s perspective and very much aiming at helping the career club coach, there are lessons here for anyone interested in becoming a better swimming coach. “The Art of Swimming and the Game of Racing” is available in paperback ($19.99), on Kindle ($12.99), or as an audiobook ($17.99). Get it and read it twice or listen to it while you drive back and forth to practice. It will be a valuable addition to your coaching library.
You can purchase the book or read the reviews on Amazon.
Editor’s note: I received zero compensation for this review other than a copy of the book.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The blue 25m is underwater kick off the blocks for time.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY.
On the 200s, steady medium effort with focus on underwater kicks. On the red descend parts, stick with a stroke for 3 swims in a row.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
This set is swimmer’s choice of stroke, though I mostly encouraged back or breast.
Golf = add swimmer’s time and cycle count for the 50, aim for a lower score.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Golf = cycle count + time (in seconds). Aim for a lower overall score
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Within each descend set, we aimed to descend to a slightly faster time each time.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The broad aim of this set was to give our group (that has a wide range of speeds for middle-distance swims) a challenge to push themselves on the 400 while still getting some recovery/drill/technique work in. We timed the 400s and then swimmers would start right into the fartlek (continuous swimming). After 5-7 minutes of the fartlek, I would verbally stop the group and we would rest a minute before starting the next 400. FPA = fastest possible average. K.O.S. = Kick on Side
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
The 400s here got down to a challenging interval by the last one. The sets of 4 x 100s in between were on moderate interval. Just getting good work in. The two columns represent an A and B interval within our group.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. For the 400s and 200s, swimmers were instructed to do an open turn before the “strong” part to check the clock and get their split. The emphasis is always on being fast at the end of each repeat and the end of the set.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. This one worked great for our group. “UWK” equals “underwater kick”. Be sure to only do this type of set with mature swimmers who understand how to safely work on this skill. No hyperventilation permitted – ever!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We love using vertical kicking to work the legs and practice alignment of the body. The :30 vertical kick is done with the hands out of the water. The :20 is with head on hands (a little more difficult), and the :10 is done in a streamline position (most difficult). There are endless variations and permutations one could make to this structure.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA.
We did this set on a day where we had less pool space than ideal and needed to get a good solid set for the various different specialties in our group.
This set was in a 25m pool. Intervals were the same for everyone.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This is the sort of workout that could work well in the context of many high school practices. We had 5 lanes (lanes 2 through 6 in our pool). Swimmers dive off the blocks in lanes 3,4, and 5 for an all out 25. Their next instruction was depends on what lane they were in – either a 15m underwater kick, 5 push-ups/10 squats, or a 15m sprint. Get back behind the blocks and do it again!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
How a coach presents a set can have large implications in how it lands for the swimmer. In this particular case, the way the set is revealed is key. This set was given to the team in parts. At first, I told them just about the 10×100 and 1 x 150. Then, after we calculate their paces, I gave them the second part and challenge them to go faster. We did the second part, then we calculated their paces and revealed the 3rd part and challenged them AGAIN to go even faster. We could keep going, but the slow reveal effect starts to go away after the 3rd part. In total, this was an excellent set for our crew in terms of pushing themselves to go faster than they thought they could.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We have had many posts on this blog using the “Golf” concept (adding seconds swum and cycles taken over a distance and aiming for a lower score). Here is a twist to that concept focusing on underwater dolphin kicking
6x (1x 100 back, fly, or free + 1 x 50 EZ) @ 3:00
On the 100s, get your time and then SUBTRACT the total number of dolphin kicks that you took in the 100. Calculate your score during the EZ 50. Give a high level of effort on the 100 and aim for a lower score each time.
Example:
Swimmer goes 1:08 in the 100 back and took 7 dolphin kicks off each wall (28 total), the golf score would be 40.
68 seconds – 28 dolphin kicks = 40
Coach Blake Proffitt, SwimRVA, Richmond, VA
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Standard Warmup w/ a 600
(600+ 2×150 + 4 x 50)
6 x 50 descend 1-3 to P1000, 4-6 at P1000 @:50
Athletes swim entire championship lineup (minus 1650 free) consecutively, all timed finals
1,000 free (done as 10 x 100 free @:10 rest)
200 free @9:00
100 breast @6:00
100 fly @6:00
400 IM + break ➡️ day change @14:00
200 Fly @ 9:00
50 Free @ 6:00
200 Breast @9:00
100 Back @ 6:00
500 Free + break ➡️ day change @14:00
200 Back @9:00
100 Free @ 6:00
200 IM – Done!
Add up all times to determine your score!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Some old-fashioned distance work today. This was for two of our distance swimmers who are about 30 seconds apart in their best times. One went 500s and the other went 450s. Worked out pretty well for both on this set. Base paces for each distance are in parentheses.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. We aimed to hit a range of speeds and improve our self-awareness of our pacing.
The Swimming Wizard 