Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This was our finish to practice today. We have done 25s underwater pretty consistently, so every swimmer knows his or her best time. The lifetime bests were written down on a dry erase board and this challenge was thrown. If you can beat your best twice, you get to go home. Amazingly, more than half of our swimmers were able to accomplish this feat. The mind is an amazing thing!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This was in a 25m pool. The goal on the 85s was to beat your best 100y time.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. We did this IM Set recently. At the conclusion of the set I asked each swimmer two give me two scores on a scale of 1-10. The first score was for how challenging the set was (lowest score was an 8), the second was for how well they thought they did (lowest score was a 7).
Note the stroke instructions on the right were different for each of the four parts on each round. On the 16×25 of the fly round, the EZ 25 was permitted to be freestyle, but on all other rounds all 25s were of the specific stroke.
Total distance: 4,000m
Total time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Q: Why is it called the “I.M. Merry-Go-Round”?
A: Because it looks fun, but after an hour you can’t wait for it to stop!
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The first set was just a little cycle count/technique work, setting up for resisted swimming with buckets. Each round finished with a FAAAASST 50!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
FPA = Fastest Possible Average.
Many of these have been featured in “the wake-up swim.” Here I put them all in one spot so you can binge-watch them if you wish. -RW
Drill Videos:
1. “Paddlehead” drill for perfecting freestyle breathing technique.
2. Backstroke Start Progression with Georgia Davies:
3. A drill to help with timing of the breath in freestyle:
4. Breaststroke Speed Drill
5. Start Drill with Tyler McGill and Brett Hawke:
6. Sean Quinn puts a new “spin” on open turns:
7. Breaststroke Single-leg kicking
8. The “Plunge for Distance”
9. Early Vertical Forearm Drill with Beth Winkowski
10. Ankle flexibility exercises to improve dolphin kicking:
11. Backstroke drills:
12. One-arm scoop drill. Classic. Simple. Helpful.
13. Freestyle catch drill with coach Steve Jungbluth:
14. Freestyle “archer” drill
15. Backstroke weight drill:
16. Backstroke cues:
17. Butterfly power
18. Tow-in turns:
19. Stay tight for the turns:
Motivational/Philosophical Videos:
20. On setting impossible goals with Alex Honnold:
21. The great coach-player relationship between Steve Kerr and Steph Curry:
22. WHY do you coach?
23. Billy Donovan on building the best teams:
24. David Cutcliffe on confidence:
25. How NOT to motivate the lazy athlete with Brett Bartholomew:
Example Videos (to show your swimmers great technique):
26. Butterfly technique
27. Getting tight on a freestyle flip turn:
28. Dolphin Kicking and a Backstroke breakout:
29. Breaststroke Turn example with Nic Fink:
30. Freestyle from all angles:
31. Adam Peaty breaststroke:
32. Breaststroke from a head-on angle:
33. Backstroke head-on:
34. Katie Ledecky Freestyle technique:
35. Kim Vandenberg’s Streamline and breakout:
36. Amazing underwater dolphin kicking:
37. Dana Vollmer’s Butterfly:
38. Butterfly from a side angle:
39. Breaststroke, “hiding” the kick behind the body
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This set builds toward a fast finish.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Fantastic Fly Set. We have posted some similar sets to this one this season, it this one was particularly excellent. The three 75s really pushed a few out of their comfort zones in profound way.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We combined this set with a cord set to make two stations 2x through.
Coach Matthew Jaynes
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Did some fast swimming on this one. In each set, we performed some 50s at 200 pace and then followed it up with some “all-out” 50s, unleashing our performance from the mental constraints of “race pace.”
Mike Cook, Mason Makos
For senior prep 11-15 year olds. We notice a lack of effort with our flip turns. Knees in a ball and feet not accelerating over the top. We worked on Monday with them and put them through this set today. The whole time reminding them the focus feet over the top and accelerate into the wall.
The next issue of “the wake-up swim” is coming soon. Check out the archives here to see what you’ve missed or you can sign up here.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. We timed the first 15m from a dive with a target time from our pace cards. The next 70m was focused on good turns, breakouts, and underwaters. With 15m to go, swimmers paused and floated/sculled at the surface. When 1 swimmer in each lane was ready, a coach yelled “Go” and they commenced a sprint to the finish.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
OTB = off the blocks
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Swimmers had the option of doing fly, back, or free on this one.
Explanation of terms:
Deep practice = whole stroke swimming with specific technical emphasis. Dr=Drill P.T.=perfect technique. P200 = Race pace for a 200.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. This set really brought on the burn. FPA = Fastest Possible Average. JMI = Just make it. Initially, the 7 x 50 were not written on the board and then were added during the 2nd 200 scull/swim by 25. This added a surprise challenge that they excelled at.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. This set was designed to push to the brink of failure. A few of our swimmers passed that point – all were challenged. Instructions on the first 9 were to make the interval by at least 3-5 sec. The 1×100 @ 2:00 was easy.
Last set of 3 was “just make it”.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. The aim of this free set was to gradually accelerate into some high effort swims.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. We started this set with 4 swimmers per lane (2 at each end).
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Coach Graham Smith, Head Coach, St. Paul’s Swimming Club, Hamilton New Zealand
Coach Luis Vidana, Desert Sharks Swim Club, El Paso, TX
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Mike Cook, Mason Makos
12 & Under Age Group workout trying to get them to understand how to race the IM.
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Chris Schlegel, Head Age Group Coach, All Star Aquatics
“Another practice pre-IMX meet. Definitely challenged the top end today. Pre-Set was working UWD focusing on the power & speed you need to breakout properly. Most did 6-8 UWD focusing on the last 2-4 faster & harder in both directions.”
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Jake Lichter, Assistant Men’s Swim Coach, Cornell University
This afternoon workout (following this morning workout) was all about giving them some speed and opportunities to go fast. Our guys are crazy competitive so the flag races were a blast and got them working hard without realizing it. This set them up well going into the 30 x 50.
10 x 50 fr/bk on :50
8 x 75 k/d/s on 1:10
6 x 150 on 2:00 Paddles
O: hyp 3-5-7
E: hyp 5-7-9
4x
4 x 25 from mid pool Dec 1-4 on :30
1&2: no propulsive movement, get back to middle on jump alone
3: Identify when you start to slow down then kick and break out
4: Put it all together
1 x 50 of that stroke on 1:00 Put it all together with the two turns
10:00 Flag Races
Start with both hands on the wall, whistle jump out to the flags, flip at the flags and sprint back to the wall
Tempo work
30 x 50 on :50
Distance
2x
6 @ [1000p] + 1 EZ
4 @ [500p] + 1 EZ
2 @ [200p] + 1 EZ
Mid Distance 1
1: Fast (100-200p)
1: EZ
Mid Distance 2
1: Fast (100-200p)
2: EZ
See Coach Lichter’s previous post IM/Free Ascend Descend set here.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This practice was for our group of 10-12 year-olds. We focused on long-axis efficiency and finished with an emphasis on underwater kicking. The “bang bang” refers to a coach tapping a wrench in the side of the pool to indicate when to take a stroke.
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