Infinity 50s

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Of course they’re not really infinite, but they might feel that way!

This one’s a mindbender. Start by doing 50s off the blocks. When coach is satisfied that the desired level of work has been achieved, the round may end and the 200 smooth commences. An even better way to end the round is to throw out a goal time for a particular swimmer to end the round for the group. Start with an outlandish number. If failure occurs, the group does another 50 and then a second swimmer gets a goal time, a bit more reasonable. Repeat until success. Carefully monitor how the team responds. Do they rally together or get negative and resentful? Use it as a team-building exercise. Coach determines how many rounds.

Inside-Out I.M. Set

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

SCY

This IM and Free set was a good one for us. The intervals indicated were for a portion of our group with 500 free times generally sub-5:00 and 400 IM times sub-4:20. We really tried to hit the 50s hard, with the big 1:30 interval serving as a decent mental break.

5 x 500
#1 – Free @6:00
#2 – 100 Free/100 IM @6:15
#3 – 100 IM/100 Free @6:20
#4 – 200 IM/100 Fr/200 IM @6:30
#5 – 5 x 100 IM @6:40

7 x 50 FPA (Fastest Possible Average) @1:30
Odds IM Order
Evens Transitions
#2 – Fly/Bk
#4 – Bk/Br
#6 – Br/Fr

5 x 500
Same as before but in opposite
order (finish with 500 free)

Quick Vertical Kick

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Vertical kicking works great in our 9-ft deep end. :30 is done with three arms across the chest. :20 done with hands out of the water. :10 done in a streamline position. Blast-offs involve sinking to the bottom and then rocketing through the surface as high as possible. Hit the 25 underwater dolphin kick with as much effort as possible.

Push Your Limits 75s

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

SCM

This was a solid quality set for us recently. Swimmers were instructed to pick a stroke and stick with it for all 7x 75s of a round. We did this in short course meters — if we were doing it in short course yards I probably would cut the intervals down to 1:10 or 1:15. The 1:20 gave most our swimmers between :25 and :40 rest on each 75. The challenge is to hold your time as the repeats increase and then go even faster off the blocks in the last one.

Mid Distance Set with NOVA of Virginia

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Coach Alex Muni, Nova of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia

This set (SCY) offered a lot of variety to our national mid-distance group. It allowed for a freestyle mid-to-high aerobic progression and pace with the addition of some descending prime stroke work. We finished with a broken 200 OTB with 30 seconds of total rest. For the fourth week of the season, the swimmers approached this workout with impressive focus. 

Simple Freestyle Challenge Set

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

SCY

This set went well for us this week. The three columns represent an A, B, and C level within our group.

A interval swimmers generally had best times faster than :50 in the 100 free. B interval swimmers :50-55, C interval swimmers :55-:58.

The interval on #14 was a stretch for most, but we came away with a good understanding of our current fitness level.

Kick Set for a Large Group

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

In any training group, having a wide range of speed/ability can present challenges when trying to create or run a workout. This set is an example of how we make it work for a kick set:

16x (:40 kick + :20 rest)

Descend the effort (get faster) on the :40 kick 1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-16.

We start the set with all of the swimmers in each lane spread out over the length of the pool. We all start at the same time and the coach calls out “STOP” at the conclusion of each 40 seconds. Swimmers get their rest by either standing on the bottom or treading water in whichever spot they are in when they stop, this eliminates the need for separate intervals for different kicking speeds. We did this set with six swimmers per lane and had everyone do flutter kick with a board.

Of course, there are endless variations and creative changes you could do with this framework.

You could vary the number of rounds or manipulate the length of time for kicking. I like keeping it short like this so that we can get a high level of effort on the 4th one each time and not have an extreme amount of passing going on.