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

Posted on by rdwoodruff

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

Posted on by rdwoodruff

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

Posted on by rdwoodruff
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

Posted on by rdwoodruff

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!


Max Effort 100s

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Max Effort 100’s

This was part of our main practice set I did this week for my 11/12’s. At first Glance they freaked but at the end practice they said “I liked this practice, challenging but good.”

100 Max Free (Training time +3) on 2:00
75 Kick (50 w/board 25 SKOB) on1:45 (Streamline Kick on Back)
25 Minimum breaths on 1:15
Repeat 8 times

For the breathing I Challenged them with 3 or less breaths on 1,4,6. 2 or less breaths on 3,5,7 and 1 or less breaths on 8

We set our training times every month based off our test set and meet results – normally 2 to 3 sec’s slower than best time.

My swimmers were hitting close to best times every 100 and really focused on doing less breathing then I had challenge them with

Product Review: SwimmersBest Power Bags

Posted on by rdwoodruff

By Ryan Woodruff, Head Coach – Lynchburg YMCA, & Swimming Wizard Editor

I recently had my group try out SwimmersBest Power Bags. Essentially, Power Bags are a mesh sleeve with drawstring closures at each end.  They can be employed in a multitude of ways to add drag to your swim training.  SwimmersBest provided us with one pair of Power Bags to try.

We tried the Power Bag in two configurations:
1. With the top of the bag tied tightly around the ankles, letting the rest of it cover the feet and extend off of the toes.
2. With the top of the bag tied tightly around the upper calf (just below the knee) allowing the bag to cover the lower leg down to about the ankle.

They can also be used in a few different ways that we haven’t yet tried.

We did a set of 12 x 25 @ :50 in a SCM pool where I was asking them to underwater dolphin kick as fast as possible to 12.5m and then continue to kick on the surface the rest of the way.

Athlete comments:

“These are really good.  They make it a lot harder to kick – I definitely have to use my core a lot more to kick”


“With the bags over my feet, it is like three times as hard.  On the calves, it is like twice as hard.”


“Can I keep using these? I think they would really help me.”

Coaches’ Take:
I noticed that our swimmers were less likely to kick primarily from their knees and more likely to kick from the chest down.  Naturally, with the resistance, their kick tempo was a bit slower, but they definitely were working the back side of the kick much more than normal, which is an underworked part of the kick for most swimmers, in my opinion.

With the importance of underwater kicking in the sport today, resisted kicking is a critical piece of the puzzle to building a swimmer’s underwater ability.

SwimmersBest doesn’t sell directly through their own website, but you can buy PowerBags on Amazon.  They come in three different levels of resistance.  The middle level (PB40) was perfect for my Sectional-level high school kids.

We loved them so much, I have ordered a bunch more for my team.

Other Swimming Wizard Reviews:
NC State Speed & Power Clinic
Jake Shellenberger’s Book: Power & Towers & Swimming: The Guide

Wild and Wacky Kick Set with Coach Dan Mascolo of CDOG

Posted on by rdwoodruff
Dan Mascolo
Associate Head Coach

Cheshire Y/Sea Dog Swim Club (CDOG-CT)

We did this kick set a month or two ago and the kids really liked it. They named it the “Wild and Wacky Kick Set”.

8x      {5x Streamline Blastoffs @ :25

          {:06 Vert Fly Kick (try to do at least 10 kicks) @ :15
          {        2 rounds arms crossed
          {        2 rounds hands out of the water
          {        2 rounds elbows out of the water
          {        2 rounds streamlined
          {:30 Wall Kick right into
          {25 Sprint Kick on board @ 1:00
They LOVED it and worked harder than usual without realizing it.

 

See other workouts from Coach Mascolo here.

Early Season Buckets Resistance Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This was our first resistance set of a new season.  We stuck to 25s with our 1-gallon buckets on an interval that provided an approximately 2:3 work:rest ratio.  Once we have a little more training behind us, we will tighten the interval and lengthen the distance a bit.  Swimmers chose their strokes, but were instructed to keep it consistent throughout the set.  We got some very good times on the final 50 at the end of the set, which was without a bucket.

Finis Tempo Trainer: A Tool With Many Uses

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

One of my favorite training tools is the Tempo Trainer from Finis.  It is essentially a swimming metronome, giving an audible beep that can been heard underwater.  Just tuck the tempo trainer under your cap near your ear, and you are good to go.  You can get one at aquagear.com, who provided us a Tempo Trainer to use.

There are many creative ways you can use the Tempo Trainer:

1. In the conventional way, to help a swimmer hit a certain tempo at practice.  Here is an example.

2. For breaststroke, you can use it to help your swimmers hold their glide.  Check out this workout from Coach Parker Ramsdell. Here is another good workout for breaststroke.

3. You can use it as a sort of audible pace clock to help swimmers know when to start and stop an exercise like in this workout.

4. Try this: “The Beat the Beep Set“. Set the tempo trainer to beep on the swimmers time for a race pace 25.  Then, the goal is to get to the wall before the beep!

5. You can use a Tempo Trainer in dryland — try doing some stretch cord work at race tempos.

6. For swimmers who have difficulty hitting fast tempos (most often distance types, in my experience) it may be helpful to have a Tempo Trainer set to race tempo and listen to it behind the blocks or in the ready room.

Here are a few more of our best Tempo Trainer workouts:

Breaststroke Magic for Age Groupers


Beat It – The Michael Jackson Set

E.T.’s Backstroke Set

500 Tempo Trainer Pace Set with Chris Plumb

Check out aquagear.com to get a Tempo Trainer and get this awesome tool!

Blackjack Drill with Coach Raymond Keown, NRG Swimming

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Raymond Keown
NRG Swimming
Levittown, PA

 Blackjack Drill:
-100/125/150s (or appropriate distance for ability) on a moderate to tight interval (make it harder over time).
-Swim 21 cycles then streamline kick the remaining distance.
-If you make the distance 3x in 21 cycles or less= BLACKJACK- your done with the set.

This encourages kids to lengthen their strokes so that they kick less and get more rest at the end of the repeat.  The tight interval keeps them from exaggerating their stroke too much and maintain some moderate tempo.

*we do allow the kids to “cheat” by doing more underwater dolphins off the walls (kills two birds with on stone).

Once someone gets Blackjack, they move up in distance x25.

Strong Quality Set with Sarpy County Swim Club and Coach Nick Baker

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Nick Baker
Sarpy County Swim Club

This workout is from our second week back from a 3 week break. The 4 minutes on the first 100 was a little too much rest but being the first week back it worked out ok. The main set (5x) was for 200 pace work, all free. The 2×25 sprint were to simulate the 3rd 50, where swimmers need to really hit it hard. The final 150 had a 50 sprint kick to bring a 200 home with a hard kick, then 100 recovery for in between sets.