Kick and Swim For Distance Set

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

Longtime readers of this blog will know that I like to use timed swims (or kicks) for distance as a way to get some aerobic training in a slightly different-than-normal way.  The swimmers dictate the effort level, and I certainly encourage them to give it all they’ve got!

This particular set was performed LCM, and I tapped a wrench on a metal pipe at the end of the 3:00 time period (repeating every :10 for each successive group) to let them know when to stop.  Swimmers then swim easy to the nearest wall to start the next repeat.  We place kickboards along the edge of the pool every 10m so that they can pretty accurately tell how far they have gone.

KICK & SWIM FOR DISTANCE – GO :10 APART!
5x through:
1 X 3:00 CHOICE KICK FOR DISTANCE @ 4:00
       – BOARD FOR BR ONLY
       – DESCEND ACROSS ROUNDS (ALL OUT ON ROUND 5)
1 x 3:00 FREE SWIM FOR DISTANCE @ 4:00
       – DESCEND ACROSS ROUNDS (ALL OUT ON ROUND 5)

60 x 50 Friday Fly Day Set

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

It is critical to train fly with excellent technique or it becomes what I call “butterstruggle” and is counterproductive. This set allowed is to get a decent volume of fly in while keeping it in manageable chunks. We allowed two versions of the set: The A is for our strongest flyers. The B is for our non-flyers or flyers without as much strength. Doing the set in “zipper” fashion allowed us to never half to “fly-dodge” or take one-arm strokes.


60 x 50 @ 1:00 DIFFERENT INSTRUCTIONS BASED ON A/B LEVELS
DONE IN 6 SETS OF 10, “ZIPPER STYLE” – DOWN IN LANE 2, BACK IN LANE 1 AND 3.
5x:          A                                  B         
#1        DRILL                           DRILL              
#2-3     25m FLY                      15m FLY         
#4-6     35m FLY                      25m FLY         
#7-9     50m FLY FAST              35m FLY FAST
#10      EZ FREE                       EZ FREE
FOR THE LAST SET OF 10:
ODDS: 15m FAST FLY THEN EZ FREE
EVENS: 50m FLY at P200 TIMED TO HAND TOUCH

Butterfly Stations

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This week we split into 3 stations for our customary Friday Fly Day.  This allowed us to use a variety of equipment and stagger our numbers to give us more space where we needed it (Station 3). We did 2 rounds through the 3 stations.

Station 1 – with Power Bags
12 x 25 Fly @ :40
descend 1-5 and 6-10, take the bags off for #11 and #12 all out
Hold consistent cycle count & breathing pattern, use the core to drive the kick.
For round 1, swimmers wore the Power Bags on their calves.  For round 2, swimmers wore the Power Bags around the ankle with the mesh hanging off their feet.

Station 2 – No equipment
18 x 25 fly @ :30
1 dolphin kick on side, 1 drill fly, 4 swim fastest possible average

Station 3 – with fins
4x:
3 x 25 Fly @ :25  Kick past 10m underwater, focus on rhythm and breath timing
1 x 50 Fast Fly @ 1:00 with a flip turn, no breath on the last 10m

After each station, do a 100 easy before rotating to next station.

"Empty the Gas Tank" Freestyle Set with Coach Todd Kramer

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Todd Kramer
Assistant Coach
Columbia Swim Club

Here is a set that we did at the Columbia Swim Club earlier this week. Our hours have been limited this week at our pool, so we had to swim our Senior 2, 3, and 4 groups together. Swimmers are 13-18, ranging from just below the Sectional level to OT qualifiers. This was done LCM. We just wanted to get a tough freestyle set in designed to push their limits, physically and mentally. ‘Empty the gas tank’ is just a phrase to remind them to not ‘save up’ for later in practice. We wanted them to push the fast parts of practice to their limits from the beginning of practice.

Here is the set(intervals listed are interval groups)
3×150 Free – add on fast 50 from back to front(the rest is ‘fast enough’) @ 2:00/2:10/2:15
3×150 Free – all fast @ 1:55/2:05/2:10
1×100 Free – Empty the gas tank @ 2:00

5×250 Free – add on fast 50 from back to front @ 3:20/3:30/3:40
5×250 Free – all fast @ 3:10/3:20/3:30
1×200 Free – Empty the gas tank @ 3:30
2×350 Free – #1 change gears each 50 #2 all fast @ 4:30/4:45/5:00
1×300 Free – Empty the gas tank

"Crack the Code" Aerobic Block

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Clarke Nyman
Eagle Swim Team

Here’s a creative way to break up the monotony of 40×100 or 20×200 aerobic blocks.

The Legend:
(1) 100 @ 1:30 [p500]
(2) 200 @ 2:30 [0 beat kick, 2 bk, 4 bk, 6 bk by 50]
(3) 300 @ 3:45 [Descend x100]
(4) 400 @ 5:00 [Neg Split x200]
The Code:
Rd1:  (1)    (2)    (3)    (4)
Rd 2: (2)  2x(1)   (4)    (3)
Rd 3: (3)    (4)   3x(1)  (2)
Rd 4: (4)    (3)     (2)   4x(1)

**This set paces on 1:15 for 100’s.  (1) is a spike to amp it up a bit.  Dolphin kicks and walls are a top priority.

See Coach Nyman’s other posts here.

New Braunfels YMCA with Coach Brandon Fain

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Brandon Fain
New Braunfels YMCA Swim Team 

SW 5 X 150             2:10
       – MIDDLE 100 FAST

SW 4 X 125             2:00
        – 50 DPS / 75 FAST

DR 1 X 100
       – NON FREE     2:00

SW 5 X 100            1:25
        – FAST TURNS / CHOICE

SW 4 X 75              1:05
        – 1ST 50 FAST / 25 DPS

DR 1 X 100
       – NON FREE     2:00

SW 5 X 50              1:00
        – NON FREE / BUILD

SW 4 X 25               :45
        – NO BREATHER

Breaststroke Thoughts from Coach Gordy Westerberg

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Gordy Westerberg
Vipers of Albuquerque

One thing I did this year was 100s (only 3-5 at a time) on an easy interval where they do 25 all out horizontal egg beater kick on a board and then 75 DPK on like 2:30. Totally trashes their legs! Did this 2-3x per week at the end of practice. Brst had MAJOR drops this season. Really improved their IM as well. I’m going to have my entire team do it this season.

One boy went from 1:14 to 1:04.0
One boy went from 1:19 to 1:03.8
One boy went from 1:04.0 to 1:00.3
One girl went from 1:04.9 to 1:02.3!