Author: rdwoodruff

Awesomely Fun Halloween Set

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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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Long Axis Day

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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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IM 6-4-2

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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

Free the Flyers

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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.

Short Axis Cycles and Pace

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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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Lactate Threshold Set with Coach Andy Copley

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Andy Copley, Malibu Canyon Aquatics

Lactate Threshold Set working on 2nd 50 of goal 100 with a little bit of underwater dolphin kick worked in…
GEAR: Fins; Tempo Trainer
7×50 w/fins @ 2nd 50 goal pace                    1:00
8×25 no fins, 12subkk @ .45 tempo               :25
6×50 w/fins @ 2nd 50 goal pace                     :55
10×25 no fins, 14subkk @ .45 tempo              :30
5×50 w/fins @ 2nd 50 goal pace                     :50
12×25 no fins, 16subkk @ .45 tempo              :35
4×50 w/fins @ 2nd 50 goal pace                      :45

I do variations of this set a few times each season with different strokes, going off the blocks, etc… it has been one of my most effective sets for a couple of years now as the kids love it and I always get a huge effort out of everybody.

Age Group Speed with Coach Gordon Brown

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Coach Gordon Brown, Head Age Group Coach, Regional YMCA of Western Connecticut

This is another one for my 10-13 year-old swimmers that go 6-days a week for 1-hour & 45-minutes. I included a description of what we talked about prior to each set.

See the FULL WORKOUT IN PDF FORM HERE.

CTAG 100119 workout for Swimming Wizard

See the FULL WORKOUT IN PDF FORM HERE.

Big focus on the first IM & UW FL kick set is replicating the feeling of a 200 IM with 25’s of race plan swims mixed with 25’s UW FL K. We talked about some of the key transitions in the IM before we began the set.

For example, we begin with a 25 UW simulating what they will do off their start and how they should focus on holding their rhythm in butterfly to finish the 50. When they get into backstroke, they need to establish their tempo and make sure they have a great wall leading into breaststroke. This is why we started with BK swim into UW kick. We talked about breaststroke being the make or break part of an IM. Having a strong build to the BR leg of the race really sets up a big finish in free. Starting with UW kick into BR sprint w/flutter kick allows them to really turn on the hand speed. Lastly, we finish with Free sprint establishing tempo right off the wall and finish with UW kick to ensure we have a great last wall. We did this all with fins.

They looked great and were putting down some good speed with the swims and improved their UW 25’s as the set went on.

We finished up the day with a Max VO2 set they will do about every 3 weeks. This was their first attempt at this set this season so they knew they were establishing their baseline times. Since we have a distance meet on Friday and a Long Axis Pentathlon on Saturday we wanted to focus on FR and BK. Everything in the set is all out effort and we mix in a kick distance that rotates by round. To keep it entertaining, I gave them some goal times that allowed them to earn “medals”. As the distance gets longer it is more difficult to earn Gold.

They really enjoyed the “medal” aspect of the set and were definitely going after it!

Exploding Off the Blocks with Huracanes Swim Team

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Coach Pablo Villarreal Guzman

Huracanes Swim Team, Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico

200 CHOICE

6X150 (2X25 CHOICE DRILL+ 2X25 Progressive KICK + 2×25 u/w)

1 round

3X HIGH JUMP (from the block into the pool)

3X Long jump (from the block into the pool)

*COMBO*

4X HIGH JUMP AND LONG + JUMP FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE POOL + 25 SWIM FAST & STRONG *CHUTE*

*COMBO 2*

4XHIGH JUMP AND LONG + JUMP FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE POOL + 25 SWIM FAST & STRONG *CHUTE*

(Back in Imaginary Wall 12 mts)

3X25 DIVE MAX

3 rounds

*All Pace for 100 Free*

3×35@1:30

2×50 @2:00

1x 75 @3:00

1×100 broken 10 SEC REST EACH 25

10:00 *MIN LONG REST*

100 mts race pace

200 CHOICE

10X50 25 U/W + 25 regressive ( only one breath)

300 CHOICE

500 Race Pace Challenge Set

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

500 Free Race Pace Challenge Set. Intervals were for SCM for swimmers whose best times are sub-5:00. 50s were do-able, 100s were challenging, and the 150 turned out to be a very tough swim at this point in the season.

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Underwaters & Speed Backstroke

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

In this set, we used orange hockey pucks on the bottom of the pool to mark the 10m mark we wanted them to kick past.

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