Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. For the 400s and 200s, swimmers were instructed to do an open turn before the “strong” part to check the clock and get their split. The emphasis is always on being fast at the end of each repeat and the end of the set.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. This one worked great for our group. “UWK” equals “underwater kick”. Be sure to only do this type of set with mature swimmers who understand how to safely work on this skill. No hyperventilation permitted – ever!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We love using vertical kicking to work the legs and practice alignment of the body. The :30 vertical kick is done with the hands out of the water. The :20 is with head on hands (a little more difficult), and the :10 is done in a streamline position (most difficult). There are endless variations and permutations one could make to this structure.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA.
We did this set on a day where we had less pool space than ideal and needed to get a good solid set for the various different specialties in our group.
This set was in a 25m pool. Intervals were the same for everyone.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This is the sort of workout that could work well in the context of many high school practices. We had 5 lanes (lanes 2 through 6 in our pool). Swimmers dive off the blocks in lanes 3,4, and 5 for an all out 25. Their next instruction was depends on what lane they were in – either a 15m underwater kick, 5 push-ups/10 squats, or a 15m sprint. Get back behind the blocks and do it again!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
How a coach presents a set can have large implications in how it lands for the swimmer. In this particular case, the way the set is revealed is key. This set was given to the team in parts. At first, I told them just about the 10×100 and 1 x 150. Then, after we calculate their paces, I gave them the second part and challenge them to go faster. We did the second part, then we calculated their paces and revealed the 3rd part and challenged them AGAIN to go even faster. We could keep going, but the slow reveal effect starts to go away after the 3rd part. In total, this was an excellent set for our crew in terms of pushing themselves to go faster than they thought they could.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We have had many posts on this blog using the “Golf” concept (adding seconds swum and cycles taken over a distance and aiming for a lower score). Here is a twist to that concept focusing on underwater dolphin kicking
6x (1x 100 back, fly, or free + 1 x 50 EZ) @ 3:00
On the 100s, get your time and then SUBTRACT the total number of dolphin kicks that you took in the 100. Calculate your score during the EZ 50. Give a high level of effort on the 100 and aim for a lower score each time.
Example:
Swimmer goes 1:08 in the 100 back and took 7 dolphin kicks off each wall (28 total), the golf score would be 40.
68 seconds – 28 dolphin kicks = 40
Coach Blake Proffitt, SwimRVA, Richmond, VA
SCY
Standard Warmup w/ a 600
(600+ 2×150 + 4 x 50)
6 x 50 descend 1-3 to P1000, 4-6 at P1000 @:50
Athletes swim entire championship lineup (minus 1650 free) consecutively, all timed finals
1,000 free (done as 10 x 100 free @:10 rest)
200 free @9:00
100 breast @6:00
100 fly @6:00
400 IM + break ➡️ day change @14:00
200 Fly @ 9:00
50 Free @ 6:00
200 Breast @9:00
100 Back @ 6:00
500 Free + break ➡️ day change @14:00
200 Back @9:00
100 Free @ 6:00
200 IM – Done!
Add up all times to determine your score!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Some old-fashioned distance work today. This was for two of our distance swimmers who are about 30 seconds apart in their best times. One went 500s and the other went 450s. Worked out pretty well for both on this set. Base paces for each distance are in parentheses.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. We aimed to hit a range of speeds and improve our self-awareness of our pacing.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this one in a 25m pool. Interval gave :15-:30 rest.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
25 OTB Fast = off the blocks, line up the first turn correctly
50 GOLF = count cycles, get time and add the two together. Aim for a low score.
75 = low cycle count on first and last 25, kick with good body position on middle 25
100 = first 50 at 200 pace, 2nd 50 EZ or drill
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
A few coaching-related reflections at the end of the year that I thought might be helpful to share.
Wishing you success and well-being in 2024!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We finished out the year with a little partner work and some broken and not broken (straight) 200s off the blocks. We had some excellent results. Excited about what we can do in 2024!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Progress through the sets 1 through 6 in order with the extra :30 rest after each set. The interval pattern in this set is suitable for an athlete with a threshold pace around 1:00.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set in a 25m pool. Swimmers on this interval had best times range from 1:51-2:00 in the 200 yard IM. They got 3-5 seconds rest on the 150s and were getting :50-1:00 rest on the 200 IM in each round.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set in a 25m pool with an eye toward our 200 free best times in SCY.
The goal on all the 150s (in meters!) is to be faster than our best SCY 200 free times. That was not a major challenge on the 1 x 150 and 2 x 150, but it becomes a significant challenge by the time you get to 4 x 150 and 5 x 150.
We did three different intervals, with swimmers’ best time indicated at the top. Swimmers with best times under 1:45 went on 2:00. Swimmers with best times between 1:45 and 2:00 went on 2:10, and swimmers with bests slower than 2:00 went on 2:20.
In between, we did 3 x 100 the same way each time – #1 holding a tennis ball in each hand, #2 doing “Paddlehead” drill, and #3 using paddles, holding them against our forearms.
At the end of the set, we did an easy 100 and finished with a SURPRISE challenge – a fast 175m freestyle swim with fins and paddles with a goal of beating our best 200 yard times.
Overall, the set was highly successful. Most of our swimmers were making the 150s under their best, and a handful made the 175 goal. High levels of effort were pretty common across the group.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
We had a very full pool for this workout , with many of our collegiate swimmers home for the holidays. This set allowed us to get in some work that works for everyone. Intervals were spacious and allowed for some solid descending work. Saw some good speed on the final 100 off the block.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
I liked this set that combined some resisted sprints followed immediately by some speed-controlled low cycle count work.
On the 3rd 25 with the bucket (1-gallon bucket on a rope tied to a waist belt), the swimmers got only enough rest to take off the bucket before starting the 50s.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Did this one for a set that allowed swimmers of varying abilities flexibility to choose their level of difficulty. Kept everyone on the same interval. This works best with three or fewer swimmers in a lane.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
For this set, we divided the group into swimmers with more of a distance focus and other who are more sprint/stroke-focused. The set provided a good challenge and kept things simple with a consistent interval.
Coach Gwynn Harrison, Bridgewater College
25m pool
4 x 500 (broken into)
75 Fly…..25 Back (on 1:45)
75 Back…25 Breast (on 1:45)
75 Breast…25 Free (on 1:50)
***Work good turns, fast exchanges. The 75s are controlled, the 25s are FAST.
75 FAST Free on 1:15
50 FAST Free on 1:00 (Goal: under your 200 IM free split goal)
25 Sprint to FAST finish
50 Easy – Regroup, about :30 extra between sets
Coach Ila Nathanson, Arlington Muskies Swim Team, Arlington Heights, IL
Coach Gwynn Harrison, Bridgewater College
We did this set in a 25m pool, so note send-offs and goals.
5 x 500 (broken into):
175 – within 10 seconds of goal 200 time in yards…
25 Easy
75 – 3+ seconds under goal 100 time in yards…
25 Easy
Dive 100 – Goal: take out of your 500 free…
50 Easy REGROUP – about 1:00 between sets
Be sure to check out Coach Harrison’s Short But High Intensity Free Set that we posted yesterday.
Coach Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
You may have heard about the Golden Race that debuted at the World Cup meet in Budapest recently. The race pitted the winners of the individual 100s against each other in a time-handicapped prize race. It’s an interesting twist on racing that we modified a bit to use at practice.
We were 2 days post-meet, so we have some recent fresh meet results.
We put 1 swimmer up on each block for a choice 100. Coach starts counting backwards with a stopwatch… 1:20…1:19…1:18…1:17 and so on. Each swimmer dives off the block for the 100 when they hear the time that they swam at the meet this past weekend. The winner is the one who finishes the 100 first. Essentially, the 100 is handicapped to their recent race results.
Swimmers enjoyed it and swam faster than expected. They could choose their stroke for each 100, and swimmers formed themselves into heats irrespective of speed.
The stopwatch that I started with the countdown can also be used to time the swimmers. Since I started counting down at 1:20, if the stopwatch reads 1:27.2 when the swimmer touches, then he swam approximately 7.2 slower than his meet time. This information allows swimmers to be racing the clock AND each other.
Next time I might try assigning swimmers to teams and awarding points for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.
The Swimming Wizard 