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.”
Category: Sets
Fast Feet to the Wall
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.
Speed at the Start, Speed at the Finish
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.
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.
Buckets and No Buckets
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
OTB = off the blocks
Anything but breaststroke!
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.
Resisted Underwater Kicking and Breaststroke Sets
The Freestyle Squeeze
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.
Make sure you are following the Swimming Wizard on Instagram and Twitter for hundreds more ideas, sets, and swim workouts from coaches all over the world.
23 x 1
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”.
Free Get Faster Set
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. The aim of this free set was to gradually accelerate into some high effort swims.
Do you sometimes need an idea for practice? Would you like to receive a free email to help spark your creativity? Then sign up for my e-newsletter to get a dose of information, inspiration, and innovation delivered every once in a while.
Breaststroke Broken & Drill
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Do you sometimes need an idea for practice? Would you like to receive a free email to help spark your creativity? Then sign up for my e-newsletter to get a dose of information, inspiration, and innovation delivered every once in a while.
Fly Sprints and Wall Kick
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. We started this set with 4 swimmers per lane (2 at each end).
Another 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.
Distance, Speed and Kick with Coach Graham Smith in New Zealand
Coach Graham Smith, Head Coach, St. Paul’s Swimming Club, Hamilton New Zealand
“In this workout, the focus was for our distance swimmers to hold a descending cycle time in 100’s and neg split the distance swim i.e. 800/400/200
Finishing the sessions with stroke work in the 50′ set. Our form swimmers did the set as rounds 1 & 3 form round 2 free
Then some MAX kick to finish the set”
—–
Another 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.
Sharks in the Desert!
Coach Luis Vidana, Desert Sharks Swim Club, El Paso, TX
—-
Have you seen our free e-book “The Quotable Swimming Coach”? Preview and download it for FREE here.
12 & Under IM with the Makos
Mike Cook, Mason Makos
12 & Under Age Group workout trying to get them to understand how to race the IM.
—-
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.
IM Day with All-Star Aquatics
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.”
Do you sometimes need an idea for practice? Would you like to receive a free e-mail to help you spark your creativity? Sign up for my free e-newsletter to get a dose of information, inspiration, and innovation delivered every once in a while.
Backstroke Descending Set
Tempo Work with Cornell Men’s Swimming
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.
Do you sometimes need an idea for practice? Would you like to receive a free e-mail to help you spark your creativity? Sign up for my free e-newsletter to get a dose of information, inspiration, and innovation delivered every once in a while.
Age Group Long Axis and Dolphin Kicking
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.
Do you sometimes need an idea for practice? Would you like to receive a free email to help spark your creativity? Then sign up for my e-newsletter to get a dose of information, inspiration, and innovation delivered every once in a while.
Weak Stroke/Best Stroke IM Set
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Another 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.
IM/Free Ascend/Descend Set with Cornell University
Jake Lichter, Assistant Men’s Swim Coach, Cornell University
This was a great workout because our guys attacked the first 200 like it was the only one. We had a hand full of swimmers go sub 2:00 with the fastest guy going 1:55.8. It was a challenge for them to maintain the effort as they Ascended because we limited by how much they could slow down. By the time they got to #8 & #9 they were able to recover enough to be able to give a best effort on the final 200 free with most guys under 1:50 and a 1:43.4 as the fastest. OTB = Off the blocks
15:00 Dynamic Dryland
Warmup:
400 Fr-IM
4 x 100 IMO Drill on 1:30
8 x 50 on :50
fly/back
back/breast
breast/free
free/back
16 x 25 IMO Dec 1-4 on :30
20 x 50 kick on 1:00
4 hard 4 ez
3 harder 3 ez
2 harder 2 ez
1 hardest 1 ez
6 x 75 on 1:10
fly/back/breast
back/breast/free
free
10 x 200 on 3:00
Odd: IM Ascend 1-5
#1: OTB For Time #2: No more than 10 seconds Slower #3: No more than 5 seconds slower
Even: Free Descend 1-5
#10: OTB for Time
200 loosen
Do you sometimes need an idea for practice? Would you like to receive a free e-mail to help you spark your creativity? Sign up for my free e-newsletter to get a dose of information, inspiration, and innovation delivered every once in a while.
Underwater Excellence
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. We did this kick set recently and our swimmers were very engaged. We timed the underwater 25s (we keep team records on this) and asked for an elite effort on the green parts. We ended up with several lifetime best 25s underwater and an excellent overall group effort.
The intervals on the ez Swim were deliberately large so that the last person would finish before we had to dive on the next 25.
#swimmingwizard
.
.
.
.
.
#swimming #swim #swimmer #swimming🏊♂️ #swimmingtraining #swimwod #swimworkout #swimworkouts #swimtraining #swimcoach #schwimmen #swimminglife #swimmingfun #swimminglaps #swimmingislife #poolworkout #hardwork #workworks #natación #swimmingcoach #swimlife #swimclub #swimteam #swimmingislife #instaswim #mastersswimming #iloveswimming
IM Descending Transitions
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The first 50 is always strong to simulate some IM fatigue… and descend the last 100s 1-3. Intervals were for our squad in SCM.
Make sure you are following the Swimming Wizard on Instagram and Twitter for hundreds more ideas, sets, and swim workouts from coaches all over the world.
Breaststroke Fartlek Set
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
These non-stop 6:00 swims repeated the instructions within the 6:00. At about 5:00, coach would yell “Go!” signifying a FAST 50 breast starting immediately.
The instructions on the second round are 5 cycles kick, 4 cycles Swim, 3 cycles speed drill (head up, narrow pull, narrow kick) and repeat.
Do you sometimes need an idea for practice? Would you like to receive a free email to help spark your creativity? Then sign up for my e-newsletter to get a dose of information, inspiration, and innovation delivered every once in a while.
Speed Spectrum and Active Recovery
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM pool. The goal was to really push ourselves to hold some aggressive times in practice. The main group did the top set while the distance crew did the bottom set.
If done in a SCY pool, I would probably change the goal on the 150 to “beat your best 200 time by :20”
Do you sometimes need an idea for practice? Would you like to receive a free email to help spark your creativity? Then sign up for my e-newsletter to get a dose of information, inspiration, and innovation delivered every once in a while.
Steal the Underwater Bacon
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Swimmers are divided into an even number of lanes with each lane serving as a team.. Lane 1 competes with Lane 2, lane 3 competes with Lane 4, etc. On the coach’s “go,” one swimmer in each lane pushes off to begin an underwater dolphin kicking length. As they push off, a coach throws one of our orange hockey pucks (we frequently use as bottom markers, but you can use anything that rapidly sinks) into the pool between each pair of lanes. The swimmers in each pair of lanes race dolphin kick to the puck and try to grab it off the bottom first. If you have the swimmers evenly matched by dolphin kicking ability you will get some excellent races!
Another 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.
Working Toward the 500 Free with Derek Young
Derek Young, Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club
Senior Performance –Friday January 10, 2020 (500 freestyle)
1 x 200 (315) w/ snorkel + 12 x 50 (45) FR/BK x 25 (max UWKs) + 3 x 100 (150) kick, descend 1-3
1 x 200 (315) w/ paddle head + 4 x 100 (145) R/L/6 kick switch/swim x 25 + 6 x 50 (130) kick, fast
9 x 50 (115) deadstart sprint FR/stroke x 25 w/ fins
3 x 50 (1) drill + 1 x 50 (55) 500 pace + 2
3 x 50 (55) drill + 1 x 50 (45) 500 pace + 1
3 x 50 (50) drill + 1 x 50 (35) 500 pace
1 x 200 2ABD
6 rounds:
1 x 125 (215) red
1 x 50 (50) 500 pace
1 x 25 (45) easy (+1 x 25 each round)
3 x 150 (3) FR, FR/BK x 75, BK x 150
Broken “500” as
100 + 50 + 100 + 50 + 100 w/ personalized rest
1 x 200 social kick w/ friends
———–
Make sure you are following the Swimming Wizard on Instagram and Twitter for hundreds more ideas, sets, and swim workouts from coaches all over the world.
IMX Prep with All-Star Aquatics
Chris Schlegel, Head Age Group Coach, All Star Aquatics
Do you sometimes need an idea for practice? Would you like to receive a free email to help spark your creativity? Then sign up for my e-newsletter to get a dose of information, inspiration, and innovation delivered every once in a while.
The Set Before The Speed
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This served as a “pre-set,” getting us ready to go FAST!
Make sure you have signed up for my once-in-a-while e-mail to keep up with the best and most interesting workouts and much, much more from the Swimming Wizard blog, delivered straight to your inbox.
200 and 100 Race Pace
Frog Day at the Icy Pond
David Orr, Cascade Swim Club
Make sure you have signed up for my once-in-a-while e-mail to keep up with the best and most interesting workouts and much, much more from the Swimming Wizard blog, delivered straight to your inbox.
The Swimming Wizard 