Sprint Free Tournament

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

For the last 15 minutes of our practice, we only have 2 lanes for the 20 swimmers in our National group.  Today we had a fun “Sprint Free Tournament” in that time. Every swimmer must know his or her best 50 free time to the tenth of a second. Here’s how it works:

1. Coach selects a swimmer (or youngest can go first). This swimmer chooses a teammate to race in a 50 free.
2. The race is handicapped, meaning that if swimmer A’s best time is 24.0 and swimmer B’s best time is 25.2, swimmer A must swim a time at least 1.2 seconds faster than swimmer B to “win” the race.
3. The head to head race commences.  The winner advances to the next round. The loser is out.
4. Repeats steps 1 – 4 until all swimmers have competed once.  Continue until only 1 swimmer remains as the champ. Be sure to keep an eye on each competitor getting amounts of rest between swims to keep it fair.

Works best with 8, 16, or 32 swimmers, but can be done with any number. Enjoy!

Fun and Speed at the End of Practice

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We did this set at the end of practice just for fun and to get a little speed/power set.  The relays worked really well, with teams of 2 swimmers starting from mid-pool and alternating 25s.  We got some fast quality turns that way.

A post shared by SwimmingWizard (@swimmingwizard) on Sep 18, 2017 at 11:33am PDT

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Friday Fly Day Relays

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We sometimes swim butterfly relays in order to get some quality butterfly swimming done without the need to one-arm drill or lose our rhythm in order to not smack arms in narrow lanes.  Recently, we did a little change-up on the relays that worked well.

  • 3-4 swimmers per lane are on a relay team.
  • We placed markers (in our case, orange hockey pucks) on the bottom of the pool 15m and 20m from the start end.
  • Each swimmer swims 3 times.  The first time, the swimmer sprints fly to 15m mark, does an open turn on an imaginary wall at that point, and swims back.  Next swimmer does the same.
  • The second time a swimmer goes, he goes to 20m and back.  The 3rd time to 25m and back.
  • After the relay concludes, swim a bit easy, and do it again! Change up the distances, the order, the number of total swims, whatever you want!

Early-Season Set that Worked Well (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Brad Herndon
Head Coach
Greensboro Community YMCA


SET TWO (different day): This set was designed for EASY intervals where we as coaches would have time to give appropriate INDIVIDUAL feedback, as opposed to general group stuff that we have been emphasizing all week:
·        3 x (1 min additional rest between rounds, 50 min total)
o   25 Free @ :30
o   50 Fly @ 1:00
o   75 Free @ 1:15
o   100 Backstroke @ 1:45
o   125 Freestyle @ 2:00
o   150 Breaststroke @ 3:00
o   125 Freestyle @ 2:00
o   100 Backstroke @ 1:45
o   75 Free @ 1:15
o   50 Fly @ 1:00
o   25 Free @ :30
See other sets submitted by Coach Herndon

Early Season Set That Worked Well (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Brad Herndon
Head Coach
Greensboro Community YMCA


SET ONE:This set followed up on drills learned early in the week, and was designed for COMPLEX DRILL combos and OVER-EXAGGERATIONS:
·        8x (56 min, padded interval on last 100 free)
o   Part One (IMO by Round)
§  1 x 50 Drill @ 1:00
§  2 x 25’s Over-exaggerations @ :40
§  1 x 50 Swim @ 1:00
o   Part Two (All free)
§  100 Freestyle ¾ Catch-Up Drill (Power strokes/Body Alignment) @1:40
§  100 Freestyle FAST with GREAT TECHNIQUE @ 2:00
·        Drills during this set were the following:
o   Fly: 4 press/Underwater Recovery Combo
o   Back: Triple-Scoop (early catch only, 3x skull style, pause opposite hand at highest point perpendicular)
o   Breast: 4 press/1 cycle of breaststroke/plus 1 dolphin kick after cycle
o   Free: Sail Drill with 2 second pause each phase
·        Over-exaggerations:
o   Fly: TOO WIDE on hand entry
o   Back: TOO HIGH on recovery arm above water (shoulder blade lifted)
o   Breast: TOO LONG on stretch phase/i.e. low cycle count
o   Free: TOO MUCH BOIL KICK – over-kick so much so that it is awkward to move arms smoothly
Check back tomorrow for Part 2
See other sets submitted by Coach Herndon

Freestyle Pre-Set with Deep Practice

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We used this as a little pre-set before a longer freestyle set.  It really helped many of our swimmers get in a “good technique groove.”

“Deep Practice” is a concept we use to denote whole-stroke swimming while maintaining a very specific focus on an aspect of the stroke.  The list at the bottom was our brainstormed list of freestyle deep practice possibilities.

Tempo Trainer Kick Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We did a version of the following kick set to challenge our dolphin kicking ability and to probe the limits of our ability to kick fast underwater.  We used Finis Tempo Trainers and did the first round with the beeping tempo set at .60, second round at .50, third round at .45, fourth round at .40.  Some swimmers were able to maintain an effective dolphin kick down to .40. Others lost “hold” on the water and became inefficient.  This is potentially useful information for our training.

4 Rounds of:

8 x 25 @ :35
10 underwater kicks at TT tempo, then swim ez the rest of the way

1 x 50 ez free B3

First Set of a New Season

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We started a new season today with some freestyle work emphasizing underwater kicking, technique and a little bit of speed (think reverse periodization).  Here is the set:

12 x 100 free @:20 rest with streamline sticks @ 6m off wall
#1 – done with open turns and clean breakouts, kicking out past the sticks
#2 – done with flip turns and clean breakouts, kicking out past the sticks
#3 – done with fast flip turns, fast dolphin kicks, and 1 sprint cycle after kicking out past the sticks

12 x 75 free with snorkel @ :15 rest with hockey pucks on bottom @ 6m off wall as breakout target
1st 25 scull “Y” position
2nd 25 reach and catch scull (high elbows)
3rd 25 one-arm free

12 x 50 free @ 1:00
odd minimum cycle count
even descend 2-4-6 and 8-10-12

12 x 25 free @ coach’s pace
odd RACE! off the blocks
even max uw distance dolphin kick and then swim ez

Fast Suit Friday

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

One of my favorite workouts of the short course season is “Fast Suit Friday” (we usually do it on Friday) when we have the swimmers bring in an old tech suit and do a timed set off the blocks.  Here is one of our quality sets from the past:

8 x 75 all from a dive
4@ 3:00
2 @ 2:30
2 @2:00

400 smooth swim focusing on good habits

8 x 50 all from a dive
4 @ 2:00
2 @1:30
2 @1:00

400 smooth swim focusing on good habits

8 x 25 odds from a dive, evens from a push
4 @1:00
2 @:40
2 @:20

400 smooth swim focusing on good habits

Kick Set #2,395

Posted on by rdwoodruff

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

A Set for the Off-Week

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This is a simple generic workout for our swimmers to do during their break IF they wish to swim.  Nothing too complicated, just keeping them moving and moving well.


10 x 100 @:20 rest individual warmup
3 rounds:
3 x 300 free @ 3:40 3:50 4:00
     descend 1-3 and always negative split
3 x 200        @ 2:40  2:50   3:00
      #1 – 100 fly/100 back
      #2 – 100 back/100 breast (+:10)
      #3 –  100 breast/100 free
3 x 100   FPA @2:30
      Round 1 – Free
      Round 2 – Choice (no free)
      Round 3 – Weakest stroke
200 ez warmdown with open turns