Butterfly Jeopardy

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

We did this set as a fun twist on our tradition of doing a fly Set today. The secondary goal was to expand their knowledge of times (and encourage them to memorize theirs).

One swimmer picked a category and distance. I then asked them for the correct question (this is Jeopardy, remember) to go with my answer.

For instance, if a swimmer picked “Your best times (SCY)” for 200, I gave the answer “this is your best time in the SCY 200 IM. Swimmer would say “What is 2:01.26.” If he was within the range mentioned in the picture above, the group performed the 200 as 50 kick/100 drill/50 swim all fly. If he was incorrect, we did the 200 fly fast for time and a 100 ez free.

This picture below shows which swims we ended up doing fast (red X) and which we did as 1/4 kick, 1/2 drill, 1/4 swim. The swimmer who was the contestant selected the member of the group who went next.

There are of course tons of variations you could do on this theme. I printed up our best times, team records, and world records ahead of time, but I imagine this could also be fun to do with swimming trivia.

Breaststroke “Feel” Set

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

We did this set aimed at helping our breaststrokers feel propulsion from their pull and their kick separately and then combine them into full stroke swimming. We modified the three 150s so that they did a 50 of each instead of 150 of each as written. The second part of the set emphasized leg quickness and strength with the descending 100 breaststroke.

Quality Set for 3rd 50s

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

The purpose of this set was to work on the 3rd 50 of our 200 events. The shorter interval on the 2nd 50 makes that 3rd one a bit tougher, so the goal was to keep #3 equal to number 1 and 2. Then bring #4 home even faster. The first three were done to a “foot touch” and the last one to a hand finish.

Big Burn Set

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

The goal was to all out on each 75, keeping the ones from a push within the margins listed in the box on the right. Swimmers could choose their stroke but had to do the same stroke for an entire round.

Race Pace and Technique Set with Video

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

We use 5 lanes of our 6-lane pool during practice. We did the following circuit that used an underwater camera hooked up to a time-delayed DVR and TV. The camera was positioned to gets “head-on” look at the swimmer coming down the lane. We looked at the video immediately after each swimmer finished the 25 in lane 6. This allowed us to make some technical adjustments while still performing a challenging set. Swimmers left the wall :15 apart so that the camera could adequately film each one.

Sprint Set for Meters

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

This set can be done in a SCM or LCM pool. All 35, 65, and 95s are done from a start and times to the head crossing the line.

Athletes are instructed to go all out on the 35. The goal for the 65 equals 2 x 35m time. The goal for the 95 equals the 35m time + the 65m time.

4x

35m sprint, 100 ez @4:00

65m sprint, 100 ez @4:00

95m sprint, 100 ez @5:00

We did the set 4x through to allow our IMers to go 1x each stroke.

Challenge Kick Set

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

This set is a spin-off from the 15-minute Kick for Distance Test Set from yesterday.

Use the distances achieved in that set (1/3 of total distance achieved in that set) to set a goal for this one:

3x

(5:00 kick for distance + 200 ez free) @9:00

Divide the swimmers into two teams — the team that successfully achieves their 5:00 goal the most times wins (think of a good reward for winning).

15- Minute Kick for Distance Test Set

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

This is one of my favorite kick sets. For each of the blue times, the swimmer is trying to kick as far as possible. I use a wrench banging on the side of the pool to tell each successive group when their time is up. When they have completed the time, they pick their head up and check their distance (I have set kickboards on the side of the pool every 5m/yards) to the nearest meter. Returning to the wall, they immediately start the 200 ez.

The goal for 2:10= 2x the achieved 1:00 Distance.

Goal for 4:30 = 2x the 2:10 distance

Goal for 4:20 = beat the 4:30 distance.

Goal for 2:00 = beat the 2:10 distance.

Goal for :50 = beat the 1:00 distance.

Total time kicked is 15:00, so we write down the distances and add them up for total distance kicked in 15:00.