Undie-Sprint-Undie

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

SCY

The purpose of this set was to develop our underwater kicking ability while also working on sprinting after the underwaters. We typically took about

3 x (25 underwater off the blocks, walk back to the blocks) @ 1:00 rest

100 EZ

3 x (25 underwater kick off the blocks + open turn + 25 sprint free) @ 1:30 rest

100 EZ

3 x (25 underwater kick off the blocks + open turn + 25 sprint free + flip turn + 25 max underwater kicks + walk back to the blocks) @ 2:00 rest

100 EZ

Early Season Fly Set

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Did a little fly for the first time of this young new season.

SCM

5:00 fartlek (non-stop repetition) doing 25 dolphin kick on side/back/front and 25 fly drill 2 right-2 left @5:40

8 x 25 strong fly @:30

:30 extra rest

5:00 fartlek,same as above @5:40

10 x 25 strong fly, 6@:30, 4@:25

:30 extra rest

5:00 fartlek, same as above @5:40

12 x 25 strong fly, 6@:30, 4@:25, 2@:20

Day 1 of a New Season

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

SCM

400 smooth free with open turns, great streamlines and 3 dolphin kicks

10 x 25 flutter kick @:35

    With snorkel, on side at 45 degrees

400 smooth free with open turns, great streamlines and 4 dolphin kicks

8 x 50 dolphin kick @ 1:00, On side at 90 degrees, snorkel optional, change sides by 25

400 smooth free with open turns, great streamlines and 5 dolphin kicks

6 x 75 br kick with board @ 1:45 (those with knee issues do flutter or dolphin)

400 smooth free with open turns, great streamlines and 6 dolphin kicks

4 x 100 choice kick descend 1-4 to all out @ 2:15

400 smooth free with open turns, great streamlines and 7 dolphin kicks

30 x 50 freestyle

2 x through this sequence of 15

    3 with tennis balls @ 1:00

    2 swim B3 @ :50

    3 fists drill @1:00

    2 swim B3 @:45

    3 catch-up drill @1:00

    2 swim B3 @:40

High Octane with Nova of Virginia

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Alex Muni, Assistant National Coach – NOVA of VA Aquatics

For this one, we were targeting 100 pace and 50 speed. For the 50s off the block, swimmers were instructed to treat the race portion as they would a 50 (rate, power, and breathing (if free or fly)). For the 50s with equipment, we wanted them to get full reach and grab as well as getting as high out of the water as possible with assistance. There was a lot of race pace efforts, so active recovery was built into each swim/rep.

The Octathlon

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

SCM

We did this set recently and our group accepted the challenge pretty well! We used an approximately 1:1.5 work:rest ratio and recorded the times on a dry erase board for all to see during the workout. Swimmers were able to do a 100 EZ after the 400, 300, and 200 each time.

Hybrid Swim-Dryland Set

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

B5 = breathing every 5 strokes
In & Outs = Climb out, jump back in
Push-ups with flutter kick are done with the feet in the water, hands on the edge of the pool.
🐸 jumps = on the deck, squat down until fingertips touch the ground, jump up until feet leave the ground.

Fly-Focused Long Course

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

This is a full workout for a first long course course practice of the season focused on butterfly. This is after a 15-20min warmup:

Pre-Set

9 x 100 @:20 rest

#1 Dolphin kick on side

#2 8 Dolphin kicks on side, 1 cycle fly

#3 6 diolphin kicks on side, 2 cycles fly

Main Set

2x:

4 x 150 @ :15 rest, 10 cycles strong fly then steady free each 50

6 x 100 @ :10 rest 14 cycles strong fly then steady free each 50

8 x 50 @ :50

Round 1: All fly Descend 1-4 and 5-8

Round 2: #1,3,5,7,8 are FPA fly, #2,4,6 are free B5

Kick Set with Freestyle

6 x (75 fast kick try to best best 100 LCM time + 25 EZ kick ) @2:20

1 x 200 freestyle descend cycle count by 50

4 x (75 faster + 25) same as above

1 x 200 freestyle descend cycle count by 50

2 x (75 faster + 25) same as above

1 x 200 freestyle descend cycle count by 50

Warm down

Book Review: “The Art of Swimming and the Game of Racing; Reflections of a USA Swimming Club Coach” by Dudley Duncan

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by Ryan Woodruff

I had the good fortune to meet Dudley Duncan in 2015 when I moved to Virginia. Having only observed his team from a distance previously, I enjoyed conversations on the pool deck with him until his retirement in 2019. The title of his book spells out his philosophy — that swimming well is an art and learning how to compete is figuring out the game that is happening within every race.

My favorite thing about this book is that it reads as though one is having an informal conversation with the author. If you have ever wanted to pick the brain of a master coach but are too afraid to ask, this is the book for you. Coach Duncan tells stories from his career and explains every step of his 51-year coaching journey. He delves into the business side of owning a swim team and a pool facility (very informative!) and advocates for more coaches to control their business destiny. He doesn’t sugarcoat the realities of ownership, even detailing the difficult schedule he had to keep to turn his vision into a reality. Sure, there is a chapter on technique (humbly titled “A Way”, not The Way), but the real gold nuggets in this book for me were the chapters on Team Consciousness and The Mental Game. Duncan describes his process for elevating a group to next-level performance and how to most effectively communicate with different personalities.

Coach Duncan’s ideas have caused me to reflect on my own coaching process and re-framed my thoughts on how I lead and guide a group. Though he is writing from the club coach’s perspective and very much aiming at helping the career club coach, there are lessons here for anyone interested in becoming a better swimming coach.  “The Art of Swimming and the Game of Racing” is available in paperback ($19.99), on Kindle ($12.99), or  as an audiobook ($17.99). Get it and read it twice or listen to it while you drive back and forth to practice. It will be a valuable addition to your coaching library.

You can purchase the book or read the reviews on Amazon.

Editor’s note: I received zero compensation for this review other than a copy of the book.

Challenge and Technique Freestyle Set for Diverse Group

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

The broad aim of this set was to give our group (that has a wide range of speeds for middle-distance swims) a challenge to push themselves on the 400 while still getting some recovery/drill/technique work in. We timed the 400s and then swimmers would start right into the fartlek (continuous swimming). After 5-7 minutes of the fartlek, I would verbally stop the group and we would rest a minute before starting the next 400. FPA = fastest possible average. K.O.S. = Kick on Side