Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA, Virginia
We did all of the 50s from a push until the last round when we went from a dive. Great performance by our team on this one.

Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA, Virginia
We did all of the 50s from a push until the last round when we went from a dive. Great performance by our team on this one.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Yesterday I posted about a set our breaststroke group did leading up to a main set.
Here is the main set that came next:
P200 = 200 yard race pace
FPA = fastest possible average
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Our breaststroke group did this set recently as preparation for our main race pace set. This set seemed to flow well and then we really had some great results on the race pace set (which I will post tomorrow).
SCY
Explanation of terms:
3K1P = 3 kicks 1 pull drill
2K1P = 2 kicks 1 pull drill
2 up/2 down= 2 strokes underwater, 2 normal strokes
2 x P.O. = double pullouts off each wall
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Coming off a 3.5-day championship meet that was pretty successful for us, the main part of our top group took a day off and then did this set on the first day back. Lots of kicking and freestyle to swim the meet out and get our legs behind us again.
We did this in a SCM pool.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set this week and got some tremendous results. Swimmers got to choose their strokes by round. The 2 x 25s with the bucket seemed to help awaken their speed for the following 100. We did this in a SCM pool.
3x:
1 x 25 fast from start @:40
2 x 25 fast resisted with a bucket @:40
1 x 25 fast (no bucket) from a push @:40
1 x 100 easy swim any stroke 2:30
1 x 100 all out from dive
1 x 400 25 kick/25 swim with paddles and snorkels
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set 48 hours after coming off a brief taper for our high school state championships. We took the early descending sets a little light, and really hit the last 1500 pretty strong.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We started this set with about 40 minutes left in practice:
We started doing 50s fast from a dive. I wasn’t sure how many we would do. Just when I thought their enthusiasm (and speed) was starting to wane, I challenged an individual to hit a faster time to end the round for the group and start the 200 easy.
It worked better than I could have hoped. On each round, we had at least one swimmer expand their perception of their capability and get to be the hero for their teammates.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
In this one, we spent some time working on fly and breast together. It turned out to be a little more challenging than I expected. We did this SCM.
The 50s breast started out with 2 pullouts and swim the rest of the 1st 25. On the 2nd 25, do 2 cycles with a 3-second glide, and then 1 cycle with a 2 second glide, 1 cycle with a 1-second glide, and then hit “speed drill” br (narrow pull, narrow kick, fast hips a la Dave Salo) for the remainder of the 25.
Fly 25s we were looking for a consistently high effort and no breath on the last 7m into the finish.
The 8 x 25 fly is only done once before you head back up the set.
Coach Mike Cook, Mason Makos
Good IM day leading into IMX this weekend.
Green smooth 60%
Yellow hard 70-80
Blue fast 80-90
Red fast all out
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This race pace set is similar to many we have done, but with a twist: on the 5th 50, we drop the interval by :10 to put a little fatigue squeeze on them. It definitely added a difficulty component.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The third round was definitely the hardest, and the fourth round enabled them to get the speed back up.
SCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Our pool has been a little fuller the last few days with college swimmers coming home to train. This means having to consider our space a little differently when creating workouts.
This one was a good one-size-fits-all for us today. Some speed, some endurance, a little racing, some equipment, and some underwater work.
They are “Christmas 25s” because 12 x 25. For the 2nd round, we pulled 1-gallon buckets, and if swimmers went fr or fly, they were to hold their breathe for last 8m. The fourth round we did the even ones fast from a dive (HVO)
All around a solid day.
Chris Brookover
Senior Leader – Aquatics
MLY Phoenix
SCY
We have a ton of high school meets this time of year, so attendance is sporadic at best. We are trying to get the best out of whoever shows up. Lots of leg work and some fly at the end to develop mental and physical toughness.
Speed Set:
3 X
2 x 75 @ 1:15 – E/F/E — F/E/F – Min. 4-UW Kicks Off Wall
2 x 50 @ :50 – E/F — F/E – Min. 6-UW Kicks Off Wall
2 x 25 @ :25 – Both Fast – Min. 8-UW Kicks off Wall
Rest :30
Kick:
2 X
6 x 100 @ 1:20 – W/ Fins and Snorkel [B=5 @ 1:30 – R- 1:00]
Rest :30
2 x 25 @ :25 – UW – 6-Kicks (No Fins)
2 x 25 @ :30 – UW – 8-Kicks (No Fins)
2 x 25 @ :35 – UW – 10-Kicks (No Fins)
2 x 25 @ :40 – UW – 12 Kicks (No Fins)
Rest :40
Swim:
3 X
4 x 25 @ :30 – Fly
3 x 50 @ 1:00 – Fly #2 = Free
2 x 75 @ 1:30 – Fly/Free/Fly
1 x 100 @ 2:00 – Fly
Coach Mike Cook, Mason Makos
A football set for change of pace coming off championship meets gearing up for winter training. 12-14 year olds.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Each round of this set, we swapped in a mystery set that the swimmers did not know ahead of time as the “unique challenge” in brackets.
The last challenge was “Save your partner”. Each swimmer had to swim a 100 off the blocks under a certain coach-determined time. Fail to make the time and your partner has to do it too. It was a somewhat clumsy attempt to get some peer-pressure motivation going.
The rest of the set worked well, with some of the unique challenges being a bit off-the-wall.
FPA = Fastest Possible Average
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This is the kind of set I would have loved as an athlete. Simple. Room to get in a groove and go.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Yep, that was the feedback I got on this one. They like that the fast IM parts got smaller through the rounds. I probably should have made the 50 free parts some specific technical work or made them shrink like the 75-50-25s.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This was a workout in SCY that I wrote for one of our swimmers (with 2:15 200y fly best time) to do on her own when she was traveling. Got the feedback that it was tough but a good one.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Challenged our group with this one recently. Loved the results. Putting out a high level of effort that many times requires a high degree of focus and desire, but most got it done very well.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did these sets in a SCM pool. The cords provided some resisted power and assisted speed. The bucket set (we use 1-gallon buckets) was a fun competitive challenge and got the juices flowing for the group before we went into the broken 100s.
35m from dive + 65m from push = 100m
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
A fartlek is a continuous swim for time with vary speeds or instructions. I like to use them on lower-intensity days or as a pre-set for something fast. This version served as some good technique work for all four strokes.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We have been focusing on underwater kicking quite a bit recently. Today we injected some underwater work to our warmup (SCM):
Ryan Wooodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
I have posted several “Hour of Power” type workouts on this blog over the years. Each one has been slightly different to work for the swimmers in my group that year, where we are in the season, and what course we were swimming (we train in SCM and SCY). Today’s version is one that I was particularly happy with for our squad for this year.
We used AquaVolo’s DragSox and simple 1-gallon buckets to pull behind us.
Coach Mike Cook, Mason Makos