Butterfly Cycle Up and Cycle Down

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

LCM. The aim of this set was for us to train good-quality butterfly while accommodating the wide range of fly speeds in our top two groups. We used the :10 rest to allow swimmers to go at their own pace, and the changing instructions in terms of cycle count promoted mental engagement. Having some freestyle in each 50 also allowed them to recover their technique for the next 50 and avoided “butterstruggle.” Total fly cycles: 440.

IM Challenge Set

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

We did this set the other day with a few of our 13-14 year-olds in SCY. It proved to be a motivating and challenging set.

In each 8:00 part, the goal was to do as many repeats of the given distance and stroke as possible. We recorded the total distance covered, which allowed us to calculate average pace and set goals for possible future sets.

Rhythm Fly and Free

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

The purpose of this set was for us to get some medium-intensity butterfly reps in during some aerobic freestyle. We interspersed that with some brief fly sprints on large rest. Performance was solid on this one, but not amazing probably due to a difficult practice the day before. SCM.

Pre-Set with Fast Turns and Then We Go Racing!!!

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

In the pre-set, we used an approximately 10-foot long rope (with a loop in each end) to have a swimmer stand on deck and pull a teammate into a fast turn (imagine a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier accelerating from zero to takeoff) and then sprinting through the breakout and one cycle. P100 = 100m race pace. OTB = off the blocks, FAST!!! EZ = Easy speed. We did this set in a 25m pool.

More Butterfly Snakes

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

SCM. We have done similar sets before, but doing “Snakes” remains one of my favorite ways to get in a challenging fly set with good technique. We have 5 lanes to work with, so we do 125s swimming up lane 1, returning in lane 2, then lane 3, etc. We split the swimmers up into three levels of ability based on how well they hold together their butterfly strokes under fatigue. We go in order from fastest to slowest and everyone is on the same interval. The fly swimming has to be fast enough to be “in rhythm” and on top of the water.

Shorty IM Set

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

SCM. This IM set turned out to be a good challenging one for our group. The 150s IM were done with 50m of 2 strokes and 25m of the other two strokes, with the assignments rotating each rep. For example, #1 was 50 fly/50back/25 breast/25 free. We used 4 different intervals for our group in a 25m pool.

Speed Lemons

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

This set was a pretty good one for us tonight. Swimmers who were diligent with their efforts got some very good results, particularly at the end. All of the 50s were swimmer’s choice of stroke, but the instructions were to stick with the same stroke for three 50s in a row. We did this set in a 25m pool. The 50s on :40 definitely made them feel the squeeze of fatigue, but they were able to give it a little extra juice when the interval opened up at the end.

Distance Freestyle Pacing & Control

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

This set was seeking a very specific pattern of pacing on each 600, as indicated by the line graph for each one. Failure to split it correctly meant repeating that 600. To interpret…

#1 – 300 at a consistent pace, 300 at a faster pace, also consistent

#2 – 3 x 200 descend, each one at a consistent pace

#3 – 2 sets of 3 x 100 descending

#4 – 4 x 100 descend + 200 fast and consistent

#5 – 3 x 100 descend + 300 fast and consistent

#6 – 2 x 100 descend + 400 fast and consistent

Here is how it turned out for our swimmer, with splits written next to each graph:

We had to do the first 600 twice due to some early set rusty-ness. Splits for the first of those two are not included.

The 2050 Challenge

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Coach Gwynn Harrison, Bridgewater College

This is a test we do at least 1/season (often 2).  I keep all results and have an all-time spread sheet of overall time and times for each effort.  This way, swimmers can compare progress from 1st-2nd semester, as well as over course of career at Bridgewater.  It started as a way to get the swimmers more comfortable on the blocks, and more able to swim back to back events during dual meets.  Mostly, its a mental challenge because it is all the individual events of a college dual meet (short order) back to back, all best effort.  I try to do it toward the end of our overload training period to mark the occasion 🙂  Though they complain about it – it occupys a positive tradition in our program

800 Free

200 Free

50 Free

200 IM

100 Fly

100 Free

100 Back

400 Free

100 Breast

**All 100’s + 50 free are done from dive in heats / all others are from push

*We are short course meters pool, so the distance events are 800/400 instead of 1000/500

*We go a 50 recovery after each effort and take an additional 1 minute between efforts

Hit 1,650 in Race Pace!

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Coach Gwynn Harrison, Bridgewater College

Start at 200 and see how many 200’s you can hit at MILE PACE :30 RI (keep doing until you miss pace.  If you miss, go 50 easy, then see how many 175’s you can hit at Mile PACE :30RI.  Continue all the way down (with the 50 easy after each ‘miss):

150: 25 RI

125: 20 RI

100:  15 RI

75:  15 RI

50: :10 RI

25: :5 RI

The first time I did this set in the fall, the swimmers enjoyed the concept, but it was chaotic. The second time this week it was fantastic, with a few tweaks. Kids need a printout of each goal time and they need to be prepared to honestly keep track of their own made yardage. It also helps to have no more than 3 swimmers to a lane if possible (or start at opposite ends). It forces swimmers who never lead to take ownership of their own set, so they need to start with that fact in mind. Swimmers will go different yardage amounts in this set. When swimmers have completed their 1650, they then must actively cheer for those still finishing. It was a good galvanizing set for our distance group – and a confidence builder!