Product Review: Squeezeline, “The World’s First Streamline Sensor”

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

We recently tried a new innovative product from the folks at SwimSmart. It is called Squeezeline.

The Squeezeline is a small rubber-covered sensor that resembles a soft blue rubber pierogi in size and shape. It can be placed under a goggle strap or inside a swim cap so that when a swimmer streamlines tightly, the arm presses down on the sensor and creates an audible beep. This gives the swimmer feedback that they have “squeezed” the streamline well.

As a coach who has gone hoarse hollering “streamline!” at practice, this little device is a game-changer. Our age groupers tried it and liked it. Their feedback was that the beep was a little hard to hear when it was placed in a cap but was easier to hear when worn on the goggle strap.

It is important that the device be properly placed. If it is not directly between the arm and head, the pressure won’t trigger the beep. The Squeezeline works, though. The instant feedback it provides might be the exact thing that your absent-minded age groupers need to help them remember to do swimming’s most basic skill. My guess is that a few weeks of using this thing on a daily basis and a new lifelong habit of excellent streamlines will be in place.

Our club is going to buy a handful for our worst streamliners. Once we have new habits established, we will pass them along to the next ones who like to “Superman” off the walls. Thank you SwimSmart!

Big Set with Quality 100s

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

LCM. The intervals for the longer swims were pretty loose on this set, and we got some good results out of the dive 100s, particularly for early in the season. On the black sets, swimmers could pick the freestyle or FRIM (IM with free instead of fly) track. On the purple 100s, the instructions were to pick one stroke and stick with it or go in IM order.

Competing on Technique in Backstroke

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Yesterday I posted that we were using the classic backstroke drill balancing a cup on the forehead. Today, we added a competitive component.

50m backstroke (LCM) race with a cup…winner is the person who goes the fastest without having the cup fall at all. Everyone else does 20 squats after the 50. We had 2 swimmers per lane go at a time, so they were racing 8 swimmers across in our 4 lanes. Most swimmers were able to make it without losing the cup, but it was interesting to see who pushed the envelope in terms of speed.

For the second competition, we split into two groups, and we tried to see which group could have more people make it an entire 50 LCM without losing the cup. 14 out of 17 made it the whole way successfully. Got me thinking about what other kinds of “technique competitions” we could have…got any ideas you would like to share?

Tempo Trainer Set for 1/2 of the Group

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

We have enough Tempo Trainers for half of our top group to use them at the same time, so I devised this two-station set.  The set in red is designed to use the Tempo Trainers to challenge their ability to hold Distance Per Cycle at  race speed.  The set in blue encouraged long, kick-driven strokes.

Editor’s note: This set first appeared on this blog on August 28, 2017

Kick, Fartlek, and Descend

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff

Head Coach

Lynchburg YMCA

Kick Set (last 25 of every repeat is MAX UW- at least 12.5 yards)

Slower kickers should drill or swim the first part of each repeat to keep up

No kicking with board, no br kick

Options: face down fly, face down flutter, side fly, side flutter. Snorkel is o.k.

4 x 25 @ :30

3 x 50 @:55

2 x 75 @1:20

1 x 100 @1:45

100 smooth swim @1:30

4 x 100 intervals same as above

3 x 75

2 x 50

1 x 25 all out all UW kick

100 smooth swim @1:30

Wrench Bang Fartlek Set

6 rounds (4:30 per round)

2 x {Round 1 – free, Round 2- No free, Round 3- weakest stroke}

:30 scull

WRENCH BANG

1:00 drill (athlete’s choice of stroke)

WRENCH BANG

1:30  smooth swim with CRAZY FAST turns & underwaters

WRENCH BANG

Sprint between 25 and 50 yards (do one great turn and one great finish)

Start next round all together

Main Set

20 x 150 free

(paddles and/or buoy optional on all descending parts)

1 @1:35/1:40/1:45

5 descend @ 1:45/1:50/1:55

1 @1:35/1:40/1:45

4 descend @ 1:45/1:50/1:55

1 @1:35/1:40/1:45

3 descend @ 1:45/1:50/1:55

1 @1:35/1:40/1:45

2 descend @ 1:45/1:50/1:55

1 @1:35/1:40/1:45

1  @ 1:45/1:50/1:55

Editor’s Note: This set was originally published to the blog in July 2016

Kick Set with a Kicker

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

This kick set will be a bit of a challenge if done correctly.

10 x 100 kick choice, but all same stroke, descend 1-10, pay attention to clock

#1-4 @ :10 rest

#5-7 @ :20 rest

#8-10 @ :30 rest

200 ez swim with fast turns and 4+ underwater kicks

6 x 100 kick @ :20 rest, goal is for all 6 to be faster than #8 from the first set

Editor’s note: This post was originally published to this blog in August 2017. Check out our scrollable archives below for more hidden gems!

Age Group Breaststroke Set with Caradon Swim Club

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Keith Haynes
Head Coach
Caradon Swim Club

Below is a Breaststroke set I ran this evening with my age group swimmers – although I think age group is different in the US, so 11 – 14 year olds. They said they really liked it and that it was easy! Outrageous.

I love doing descending work with this age group, as when it comes to a race situation they really understand the concept of applying more effort throughout a race to maintain speed even though they are getting tired. Just like when we do descending work in training!

Clearly I was too generous with the turnaround times, but I will get them back on Tuesday and Friday. So adjust turnaround times to suit your swimmers capabilities or where they are in their training programme…

1 x 100 as 50 F/S – 50 BK on 2.00

4 x 25 BR/S Descend 1 – 4 to sprint speed on 45

2 x 100 as 50 F/S – 50 BK on 2.00

4 x 50 BR/S Descend 1 – 4 to sprint speed on 1.30

3 x 100 as 50 F/S – 50 BK on 2.00

4 x 75 BR/S Descend 1 – 4 to sprint speed on 2.15

3 x 100 as 50 F/S – 50 BK on 2.00

4 x 50 BR/S Descend 1 – 4 to sprint speed on 1.30

2 x 100 as 50 F/S – 50 BK on 2.00

4 x 25 BR/S Descend 1 – 4 to sprint speed on 45

1 x 100 as 50 F/S – 50 BK on 2.00

Editor’s Note: This set was first published to the blog in June 2014.

Flying Pigs

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Coach Doug Russell, Austin Trinity, Austin Texas

We got this base set for under-waters from the women’s program at the University of Arkansas several years ago and we use it often with variations. We call it Soo-E-Pig.

We almost always use it as a fin set. We train in a 25 meter pool. The basic set is 4 under – 1 recovery (we call it “over”) , 3 under – 1 recovery, 2 under – 1 over, 1 under – 1 over. We usually repeat it 4 times though. Today we went with a variation to work our butterfly and up tempo our Freestyle.

Soo-E-Pig

1 6 dolphins – 3 strokes Fly – if not at wall back under water and work finish.

2 5 dolphins – 4 strokes Fly – same

3 4 dolphins – 5 strokes Fly – also

4 3 dolphins – 6 strokes Fly – again

As they work through the set they drop a round in sequence.

Set:

Round 1 Soo-E-Pig > :40

Swim 6 x 50 Free > :40 (Descend 1 – 3, 4 Negative Split, 5 Build, 6 Faster than first three)

Round 2 Soo-E-Pig > :35

Swim 6 x 75 Free > 1:00 (Descend 1 – 3, 4 Ez-Ez-Fast, 5 Ez-Fast-Ez, 6 Fast-Ez-Ez)

Round 3 Soo-E-Pig > :30

Swim 6 x 100 Free > 1:20 (Descend 1 – 3, Descend 4 – 6)

Round 4 Soo-E-Pig > :25

Swim 1 x 200 Free > Goal Time for 200 Free LC minus 3 – 6) They have fins on!

Total 2650 meters SC

Editor’s note: This set was first posted to this blog in June 2014.