Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Little bit of speed, underwater kicking, and fly. Dirty 20 = 10m no breath free sprint, flip, and dolphin kick back to the wall. B3 = breathe every 3 strokes.
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Coach Mathieu Leroy, Bishops Stortford Swimming Club, UK
This is the progression I actually do with my swimmers . They were born in 2006 or 2007 and they swim between 4’50 to 5’20 on the 400 Fr (SCM).
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Karissa Kruszewski, UCLA Assistant Coach
This one gets a little tougher at the end as you go!
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This set was intended to help swimmers hold their fly technique under fatigue.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Hit 30 cycles of breaststroke on the cord. The 75s focus on dropping the sum of time and cycles (GOLF). 100s free totally focused on technique.
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Coach Mike Anzano, COM Aquatics
Great quality work with power bags this morning.
We pushed the effort with the bags on then we saw how fast we could swim for 75s kicks. We had 2 boys go 51 and a girl go 52, that’s some fast kicking! PK means posture kick, kicking with your body straight with a snorkel.
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Jonathan Kaplan, SwimRVA
I’m really fired up about these lactate tolerance sets specifically focusing on finishing the last 25 of your 100! Based on resting breaths instead of seconds. Our Rapids are looking strong and put their hard hats on today! Ready to work!”
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Underwater kicking with stretch cord placed across the lane lines at 12.5m. Instructions are to kick past the cord every 25 and add fins when the interval requires it.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Remember when everything used to be $1 at the dollar store? Simple and easy to figure out like today’s workout intervals.
Done in 6 sets of 10. Everything is @ 1:00. Every set finishes with 1:00 vertical kick with hands out of the water. This allows time to see the next set of 10. FPA = Fastest Possible Average. JMI = Just Make It
Set #1 — 3 x ( 25 no breath free + 50 choice FPA + 75 JMI) + 1:00 vertical kick
Set #2 — 4.5 x (50 choice FPA + 75 JMI) + 1:00 vertical kick
Set #3 — 3 x (75 choice FPA + 50 ez choice) + 100 Free FPA + 50 ez + 100 Free FPA + 1:00 vertical kick
Set #4 — 3 x ( 25 no breath free + 50 build w fast turn + 75 choice FPA) + 1:00 vertical kick
Set #5 — 25 all out + 50 ez + 50 all out + 50 ez + 75 all out + 50 ez + 50 all out + 25 ez + 25 all out + 1:00 vertical kick
Set #6 – 4.5 x (100 free FPA + 50 ez) + 1:00 vertical kick
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. This set came in three parts and really challenged our swimmers. They could do back or breast for all three parts, and were instructed to choose the interval that made the FPA (fastest possible average) set challenging. We did 2 rounds.
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Mike Cook, Mason Makos
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set last year on Halloween with our top group. The sets each have a slight Halloween theme. “Candy Clash” was a race where the group was divided up into three teams and each team had to put up at least one team member for a race, and each team member had to participate in one Candy Clash. Candy Clash swims were handicapped to best times and Candy was awarded to the group with a system similar to point scoring at a meet… 9 pieces of candy for first, 5 for second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth, and 1 for fifth. At the end of the night, each team split up the candy as they saw fit.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This set uses a classic concept with a twist to get some fly in. The “A” instructions are in black and the “B” instructions are in red.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Coach Chris Brookover, YBCC Phoenix
2x through:
4 x 75 @ 1:00
4 x 50 @ :35 – [Target :29 or Under]
Rest :40
4 x 75 @ :55
4 x 50 @ :40 – [Target :28 or Under]
Rest :40
4 x 75 @ :50
4 x 50 @ :45 – [Target :27 or Under]
1 x 100 @ 2:40 EZ
See more sets from Coach Brookover here.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
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Mike Cook, Mason Makos
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This practice was devoted entirely to long axis strokes – back and free.
The blue set in the middle was a technical progression. The 25 was scull, the 50 was 25 scull/25 kick and rotate, and keep adding a skill or drill up to 150. On the way back down to 25, subtract the skill/Drill from the front end to finish with a 25 Swim.
“People paddle” = free with underwater recovery, like advanced doggie paddle
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
1 x 600 IM/Bk/IM/Br/IM/Fr by 100 @8:30
1 x 400 free steady w snorkels, optional paddles @5:30
1 x 400 IM/Bk/IM/Br by 100 @5:40
1 x 400 Free same as above
1 x 200 IM @2:50 Goal is to be within :30 of best SCY time )swimming in SCM)
1 x 400 free same as above
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This one was a small twist on this set.
Several of our breaststroke swimmers had all-time best practice performances at the end of the 29 x 50s.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Yesterday’s post was a fly set for our true Flyers. Today’s set was for the portion of our group that is primarily distance-free focused whom I also wanted to challenge with some fly.
This set was for SCM, and we had a “roll the dice” component just like the Flyers. In the case of the distance group, we rolled two dice and added the numbers rolled together to determine how many 50s we would do at the end of the set. The 50s were fly/free by 25 and hitting P1000 turned out to be a tough yet appropriate challenge.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
At the end of each round, we rolled one die to determine the length of the timed Swim. Roll a 1 = 50 for time, a 2 = 100 for time up to a 6 = 300 for a time. We rolled a 1, a 4, and a 5!
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Swimmers could do fly or breast on this set. For fly on the Blue portions, they did 3 normal cycles/1 single arm cycle to maintain rhythm and body position through the 150. The goal on the blue parts was to hold the low cycle count as the distance increased.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this one recently to get some swimming done and hit a little of each stroke before doing some quality swims off the block.
