Our 5 Most Popular Posts of All Time

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Based solely on the number of views, here are the 5 all-time most popular posts on this blog:

1. Backstroke Workout #1

2. Speed Set for Taper Time by Coach Jack D. Roney
 
3. Halloween Set for Adaptation Week by Coach Clare Labowitch

4.  19.5 Ways to get Better Even When Practice Gets Cancelled

5. Important Concepts for a Successful Taper

Got any sets for Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hannukah, or New Year’s that you would like to share? Send them our way so that we can feature them in the coming months!

Workout Combo with Coach Tony Carroll

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Coach Tony Carroll
Lakeside Seahawks

I wanted to share two of my workouts with you.  I coach for the Lakeside Seahawks Swim Team in Louisville, Ky and coach our Senior 13-14 group which is our highest level 13-14 year olds, along with 1 or 2 really advanced 12 year old girls.

We typically do these two sets 3x per year. The first set is usually done on a Monday night and then the second set is done the following morning. 
The first set: Monday PM 

The second set: Tuesday AM
Meet warm up followed by – 
         – 16 x 50 @ 2:00 – As Fast As Possible, Best stroke (1 stroke only), Choice gear, no 15m rule
For the first set, I seperate them into interval groups based on their goal times because it makes it really challenging at the beginning of the season and it reminds them what they are working for. As we repeat the set again in January and then the week before we start our taper in late February / early March, they tend to be very successful with the set and they can see the progress they’ve made. 
The first set pushes them to their limit and is very challenging aerobically. I like doing the second set the morning after for several reasons. 1) It’s good for them to get up and go fast after working hard the night before. 2) When you give them fins and take away the 15m rule, it encouages them to really work their underwaters and they can see how much faster they can go from working their underwaters. They also have to push themselves to stay fast through the whole set. The kids get really excited for this set and do a great job racing each other. 
Last year doing this set the third time, I had a 14 year old girl who averaged 21.3 with seven sub 21 50’s (backstroke with fins) and a 13 year old boy that averaged 20.4 (free with fins) and was able to go under 20 seconds on two of them. Both had huge drops over the course of the season (girl went from a 1:06 lcm / :58 scy 100 back to 1:02.1 lcm / 54.03 scy 100 back. The boy went from :59 scy 100 free to a 50.3 100 free and 9:48 1000 free. The first time they did the set, the girl averaged 23.7 back with fins and the boy averaged 23.9 free with fins. 
It’s fun to watch how the excited the kids get when they see how fast they are able to go. This will be the third year we’ve done these sets and it’s been great for us. Hopefully someone else will be able to benefit from the sets as well. 

Medley Madness

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

Recently, it was announced that for 2018 the TYR Pro Series would include a 200 IM where the stroke order would be announced right before the race.  That got me thinking about a name for all 24 possible stroke orders.  Here is what I came up with:

So I thought it would be fun to do a set with this concept.  Each round, I told the swimmers what the stroke order would be for the 200 IM about 10 seconds before they started.  It made for an interesting workout that many of them enjoyed.

Middle Distance Push/Tolerance Set (42-48 min, 3000)

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Brad Herndon
Head Coach
Greensboro Community YMCA

These intervals worked well for us earlier this week (8th grade and up group with minimum of 3 Capital Classic cuts):
ALL = freestyle fastest possible holds each round, no equipment.  At end of set we recorded fastest 200, median 200 (time repeated the most), and the slowest 200.  This was all freestyle, our group was about 30 % A group, 70 % B group, higher failure rate on those last 2 with A group…1 min rest went really fast, this was a very successful set, kids stepped up:
A Group   B Group  
5 x 200’s @    2:40        3:00
1 min rest
4 x 200’s @    2:30        2:50
1 min rest
3 x 200’s @    2:20        2:40       
1 min rest
2 x 200’s @    2:10        2:30       
1 min rest
1 x 200 @       FASTEST POSSIBLE

Top Male (1 boy, only one other with median at 2:00) 1:52, 1:55, 1:56

Top Female (3 different girls around this mark) 2:03, 2:06, 2:08