Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
This set was a favorite among a few of our freestyle sprinters. The “Nathan Adrian” breath is a breath that is early in the stroke, very quick, and so low to the water as to barely be noticeable.
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
This was a really good set for us… The 2 x 50 at 200 pace is relatively easy to make on the first 2 rounds, but it is immediately followed up with the challenge of making the 75 (oof!). The 175 is just active recovery, getting them to remain technique-aware while using the legs. The changing interval on the 50s ups the ante for the middle rounds and then eases up again for the last round to have them finish on successful note.
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
We train primarily in short course meters and compete primarily in short course yards. This set performed in the 25m pool helped to challenge our swimmers in a meaningful way at practice.
6 rounds @ 6:00
1 x 175 fast — 25 no free/25 free, goal is to beat your best 200 SCY time of the non-free stroke
1 x 125 easy freestyle
We had 26 athletes and 5 lanes, so in order to avoid a drafting effect and allow for decent fly swimming without having to dodge teammates, we performed the 175 in 4 lanes with half of the group while the other half swam the 125 easy in the 5th lane.
This turned out to be a good challenge for those who did backstroke and fly. Those who did breaststroke were generally able to make the 200 time — I would suggest setting a goal to beat it by 8 seconds or so.
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
We had a big quality set off the blocks coming up, and I wanted us to be fully warmed up and ready to rock all 4 strokes, so we did the following set. The quality set after this went really well!
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
These two sets were run in parallel so that I could time swimmers on either set. This allowed us to get some good work in for both our freestylers and Bk/Br/IMers.
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
On every 25, we enforced zero breaths in the last 8m of the race. We use these orange hockey pucks on the bottom of the pool to mark the 8m distance. Penalty for a breath in that zone was the entire group starting that set of 10 over again.
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
This IM Set can get quite challenging in a hurry. The set is somewhat tame at the start, but switching out the Free in the later rounds adds an interesting wrinkle
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
“Deep” = deep practice, swimming whole stroke with specific intentionality
“FPA” = Fastest possible average
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
This aerobic freestyle set mostly called for moderate pace swimming, but we were looking for some very specific technical details.
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
This is not a super-hard race pace set, but it helped our IMers get a better feel for their transition pace. The next time we do this set, we will probably do it at P200IM rather than P400IM.
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
We only have enough powerbags for about 1/3 of our group to wear at a time. Thus, we split the set up as indicated.
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
For this set, we set up our underwater video camera in the end lane. Swimmers performed the 15m fast underwater kick in that lane. They watched their video on a time delay on our flat-screen TV and then did the 5 x 25, one in each of our 5 remaining lanes. We repeated this circuit for 30 minutes.
This could obviously be easily modified to look at any stroke or any technical aspect in that first 15m.
Mike Cook
Mason Makos
We wanted to come up with a fun type kicking set with our 12 and unders to help them with that last 10 yards of their races
Warm up
12 x100
4 free @1:45
4xIM @1:40
4xfree @1:30
2x
4×50 free to back @50 with fast turn and 5 second underwater dolpins
KICK SET
40 x 12.5 @25
1 minute rest
30 x 12.5 @20
1 minute rest
20 x 12.5 @15
1 minute rest
10 x 12.5 @13
All 30 swimmers left from middle of pool to both ends. We had 5 lanes. We got some good kicking with high energy from the kids. It provided a good change as I noticed they were dragging a little the other day
We than went into a big main set of 20×100’s
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set with three intervals for the IM portions. It turned out to be a little more challenging than I expected. SCM pool.
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
Ashraf Salah
Technical director & head coach
ALAHLY CLUB (Egypt)
Mike Cook
Mason Makos
We had extra room today and so we decided to have the kids race a lot. We wanted them to understand that even though they were tired they were still able to get up and race back to back.
WARM UP
24×25 free with snorkels@30 (focus on long stroke head steady)
24×25 back @30 (focus how far can you push the underwater, but you have to be up in 5 seconds)
Pre set
12×50 kick @1:00
12 x50 free pull@1:00 paddles
12×50 free to back @1:00 fast turns hold underwater for 5 seconds
Main set
1×50 free all out for time
10×50 free all out for time with fins ( must beat time fro first)
100 easy kick and get ready for one more 50
1×50 free for time with fins (fastest of day)
We had 24 8-12 year olds and all 8 lanes (3 heats of 8 with one heat swimming at a time. The next heat was responsible for getting the time and letting them know. The kids had a good time and felt involved with each other.
Did you like this post? Check out Coach Cook’s IM Ready Set and his Broken Miles Set
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
Coach Mike Cook
Mason Makos
We are 2 weeks out from our IMX meet and so we did this set with our senior prep group(11-14)
4×200 IM/free @2:45
4×100 IM FAST@1:40
4×50 fly/back @1:00
3×200 IM/free@2:45
3×100 IM FAST @1:30
3×50 back /breast @50
2×200 IM/free@2:45
2×100 IM FAST@1:20
2×50 breast/free@1:00
1×200 IM/free@2:45
1×100 IM FAST @1:15
1×50 free all out
1×400 IM ( get out and dive at each wall how tight can you make those streamlines)
All 200 IM are distance for stroke on IM portion. All free is fast
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
Our normal training pool is SCM, so I went into this set thinking that best 200 SCY time might be a good goal for the total 75 swim + 75 kick time. That was a bit ambitious but this set still worked out well and we got a good effort in general.
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
We did this IM set in a SCM pool recently. Mixing up the stroke order was interesting and our kids did a good job on the 1st 75 each time. The idea was to practice truly efficient swimming under fatigue.
Brad Herndon
Head Coach
GCY Makos
GCY Makos National Team 1/3/2018
Warm-Up (24 min, 1500):
500-400- 300-200- 100
Swim – Kick w/ Fins – FR Pull – IM – Drill w/ snorkel
Pre-Set (22 min, 1200):
8 x 50 Free Kick Only @:55 (Board)
:40 sec transition
8 x 50 FR Pull Only @:50 (Buoy, paddles, snorkel)
:20 sec transition
8 x 50 FR Swim Only @:45 (Continuous Boil Kick)
Main Set 1 (44 min, 2400):
Underwater focus, pop up “between the 15m marks” every length!
4x
3 x 50’s Kick @ 1:00 (no board, max out underwaters)
First – Fly/Back on back, Second – Back/Breast on back, Third- Breast/free
on stomach (MAX underwaters on fly, back, and free kicks)
3 x 50’s Swim @ :55
First – Fly/Back, Second – Back/Breast, Third – Breast/Free
Execute turns efficiently , max underwaters
3 x 100 IM’s @ 1:45
All 3 = Max Underwaters Descend, 3 rd is all out still with max underwaters!
Main Set 2 (18 min, 1200):
8 x 150’s @ 2:15 with fins
1-4 Freestyle w/ paddles and short fins, DESCEND!
5-8 Back, long fins, no paddles, focus is on underwaters popping up between
the yellow, still descend time! ALWAYS max out last 25 underwater effort!
Cool Down (2 min, 100):
EZ choice 100 minimum
TOTAL = 6500
Wibke Ahrens
Head Coach
Schwimmverein Mannheim/ Germany
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
Each distance is 1/3 Back, 1/3 Breast, & 1/3 Free. We did this after a lengthy Fly set. Seems to work well for us splitting the fly out from the other strokes.
The Swimming Wizard 