Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Coach Mike Cook, Mason Makos
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This little breaststroke split was our last chunk of practice. We only had time to do 2 rounds, but our breaststroke group liked the combination of drill/swim and br/fr.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
I thought I had this one planned out pretty well… turns out we had to insert a 25 EZ with the :40 rest t I get back to same end as our fins.
All in all, it was a good set.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
The instructions for the 3 x 50 are listed at right.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
EDIT: We actually did the 4:00 fartleks on 4:40
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
LCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
LCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
LCM. This set makes use of the 12m diving well that sits alongside the 50m lanes we use. In order to maximize our space with our entire team practicing at once, we occasionally use it this way. For ease of communication, we call one width of the diving well a “25.”
We used 1-gallon buckets tied to waist belts for the set of 8 x50, timing each 25 and emphasizing racing a teammate.
For the diving well set, we used the aquavolo drag sox. The contrast between resisted kicking and non-resisted (when we take the Sox off) leads to some excellent speedy UW kicking.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set recently to work on our top-end speed. We used our pace cards to determine our goal times for the 35m sprints. Resisted sprints and dryland exercises helped get all motor units activated for the 35s.
Coach John Beyer, Calvert Aquatics Club, Southern Maryland
Here is a Fly, Back, Underwater practice I had my 13+ swimmers do.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Here is a recent practice of ours in its entirety (except the dryland, which was included in the 3 hours)
LCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this IM set LCM. It got a little hairy/confusing in the second round when we went 200 to 50 instead of 50 to 200.
The 50s in between were best non-free (for non-IMers) or worst non-free (for IMers). The IMers were thus working on their weakness. Being able to go best stroke allowed the non-IMers to make the set a little more relevant for them.
Chris Brookover, MLY Phoenix, Greater Philadelphia YMCA
This set was really good, an actual “fail” set only 3 of the 9 A+ made it. (A+, A/B, C refer to different interval groups)
A+
6 x 25 @ :40 – Fly – One Lane / One Direction
4 x 200 @ 3:00 – 100 BK / 100 BR
Rest :30
6 x 25 @ :40 – Fly – One Lane / One Direction
4 x 200 @ 2:45 – 25 FR / 75 BK / 75 BR / 25 FR
Rest :30
6 x 25 @ :40 – Fly – One Lane / One Direction
4 x 200 @ 2:35 – 50 FR / 50 BK / 50 BR / 50 FR
Rest :40
6 x 25 @ :40 – Fly – One Lane / One Direction
4 x 200 @ 2:25 75 FR / 25 BK / 25 FR / 75 FR
A / B
6 x 25 @ :40 – Fly – One Lane / One Direction
4 x 200 @ 3:15 – 100 BK / 100 BR
Rest :30
6 x 25 @ :40 – Fly – One Lane / One Direction
4 x 200 @ 3:00 – 25 FR / 75 BK / 75 BR / 25 FR
Rest :30
6 x 25 @ :40 – Fly – One Lane / One Direction
4 x 200 @ 2:50 – 50 FR / 50 BK / 50 BR / 50 FR
Rest :40
6 x 25 @ :40 – Fly – One Lane / One Direction
3 x 200 @ 2:40 75 FR / 25 BK / 25 FR / 75 FR
C
6 x 25 @ :40 – Fly – One Lane / One Direction
3 x 200 @ 3:30 – 100 BK / 100 BR
Rest :30
6 x 25 @ :40 – Fly – One Lane / One Direction
4 x 200 @ 3:15 – 25 FR / 75 BK / 75 BR / 25 FR
Rest :30
6 x 25 @ :40 – Fly – One Lane / One Direction
3 x 200 @ 3:10 – 50 FR / 50 BK / 50 BR / 50 FR
Rest :30
6 x 25 @ :40 – Fly – One Lane / One Direction
3 x 200 @ 3:00 75 FR / 25 BK / 25 FR / 75 FR
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This freestyle set had our kids really working, and we got some excellent results both in the main set and on the broken 500.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We alternated a 20 -minute freestyle set of varying speeds with a 4:00 period of dryland or other exercise. Kids seemed to like it for the variety and the challenge.
Greg Johnson, Team Lead Coach, Greater Pensacola Aquatic Club, Pensacola, Florida
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
B3 = breathe every 3
FPA = Fastest Possible Average
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The ? for the fly swims off the blocks were a 50, 100, 150, and on the 4th round swimmers had the option to do a 200 or to do a 100 with the goal to beat the time from round 1 (or face a second 100 from a dive). This set went very well for us.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
FPA = Fastest Possible Average
Coach Emily Wylam, University of Rochester
NB = No breath
Coach Emily Wylam, University of Rochester
For the “Partner pulls”: pulling their partner behind them and then release. I told the partners to be as unhelpful as possible, they really took that to heart!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
That’s an exact quote from one of our swimmers upon seeing this workout. They did a nice job with this one. SCY
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We used our 1-gallon buckets pulled behind us for the first set and then hit some race pace right afterwards. The interval for the 100s was 2:00. SCM.
Elliot Ptasnik, Head Coach, University of Hawaii
Coach Mike Cook, Mason Makos