Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This was in a 25m pool. The goal on the 85s was to beat your best 100y time.
The I.M. Merry-Go-Round
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. We did this IM Set recently. At the conclusion of the set I asked each swimmer two give me two scores on a scale of 1-10. The first score was for how challenging the set was (lowest score was an 8), the second was for how well they thought they did (lowest score was a 7).
Note the stroke instructions on the right were different for each of the four parts on each round. On the 16×25 of the fly round, the EZ 25 was permitted to be freestyle, but on all other rounds all 25s were of the specific stroke.
Total distance: 4,000m
Total time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Q: Why is it called the “I.M. Merry-Go-Round”?
A: Because it looks fun, but after an hour you can’t wait for it to stop!
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Setting up for Speed
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The first set was just a little cycle count/technique work, setting up for resisted swimming with buckets. Each round finished with a FAAAASST 50!
Kickin’ Fifties
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
FPA = Fastest Possible Average.
30 Swim Coaching Videos You Need to Watch
Many of these have been featured in “the wake-up swim.” Here I put them all in one spot so you can binge-watch them if you wish. -RW
Drill Videos:
1. “Paddlehead” drill for perfecting freestyle breathing technique.
2. Backstroke Start Progression with Georgia Davies:
3. Breaststroke Speed Drill
4. Start Drill with Tyler McGill and Brett Hawke:
5. Breaststroke Single-leg kicking
6. The “Plunge for Distance”
7. Early Vertical Forearm Drill with Beth Winkowski
8. One-arm scoop drill. Classic. Simple. Helpful.
9. Freestyle catch drill with coach Steve Jungbluth:
10. Backstroke weight drill:
11. Backstroke cues:
12. Tow-in turns:
13. Stay tight for the turns:
Motivational/Philosophical Videos:
14. The great coach-player relationship between Steve Kerr and Steph Curry:
15. WHY do you coach?
16. Billy Donovan on building the best teams:
17. David Cutcliffe on confidence:
18. How NOT to motivate the lazy athlete with Brett Bartholomew:
Example Videos (to show your swimmers great technique):
19. Butterfly technique
20. Getting tight on a freestyle flip turn:
21. Dolphin Kicking and a Backstroke breakout:
22. Breaststroke Turn example with Nic Fink:
23. Freestyle from all angles:
24. Adam Peaty breaststroke:
25. Breaststroke from a head-on angle:
26. Backstroke head-on:
27. Kim Vandenberg’s Streamline and breakout:
28. Dana Vollmer’s Butterfly:
29. Butterfly from a side angle:
30. Breaststroke, “hiding” the kick behind the body
Crank it up!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This set builds toward a fast finish.
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Some of our favorite sculling positions
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Fearsome Fly Set
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Fantastic Fly Set. We have posted some similar sets to this one this season, it this one was particularly excellent. The three 75s really pushed a few out of their comfort zones in profound way.
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Gettin’ Groovy Breaststroke Set
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We combined this set with a cord set to make two stations 2x through.
Back Half 100/200 Set
Coach Matthew Jaynes
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Unleash Your Performance By Unleashing Your Mind
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.”
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Breaststroke Broken & Drill
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
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Fly Sprints and Wall Kick
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. We started this set with 4 swimmers per lane (2 at each end).
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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”
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Sharks in the Desert!
Coach Luis Vidana, Desert Sharks Swim Club, El Paso, TX
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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Weak Stroke/Best Stroke IM Set
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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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
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