The Deck of Cards Practice

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

Try this one for a little variety. Instead of writing specific sets, have swimmers draw playing cards from a deck to determine what stroke, distance (with instructions), and number of repeats to do. One swimmers draws the three cards, then the group does the set.  Repeat as long as you wish.

The first picture below is the layout for the conditions of the card picking.  The second picture explains the sets that we ended up doing in about an 80 minute practice.

The likelihood of getting 3 aces is about .018%, or 1 in 5,555.  But there is still a chance.

Bottle Flippin’ Relays

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

My swimmers have recently been obsessed with flipping water bottles.  They toss them up in the air, trying to get them to land on the base.  We have spent countless hours at meets and even time at practice in between sets trying to successfully flip bottles.  Maybe you have seen the video sensation on youtube. 

So we decided to make it part of a workout.  We did a relay.  Before each swimmer dove in, someone on his or her team had to successfully execute the water bottle flip.  It made for a fun event.

A video posted by Lynchburg Y Swimming (@lynchburg_y_swimming) on Aug 1, 2016 at 8:35am PDT

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Kick, Fartlek, and Descend

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

Kick Set (last 25 of every repeat is MAX UW- at least 12.5 yards)
Slower kickers should drill or swim the first part of each repeat to keep up
No kicking with board, no br kick
Options: face down fly, face down flutter, side fly, side flutter. Snorkel is o.k.
4 x 25 @ :30
3 x 50 @:55
2 x 75 @1:20
1 x 100 @1:45
100 smooth swim @1:30
4 x 100 intervals same as above
3 x 75
2 x 50
1 x 25 all out all UW kick
100 smooth swim @1:30

Wrench Bang Fartlek Set
6 rounds (4:30 per round)
    2 x {Round 1 – free, Round 2- No free, Round 3- weakest stroke}
:30 scull
WRENCH BANG
1:00 drill (athlete’s choice of stroke)
WRENCH BANG
1:30  smooth swim with CRAZY FAST turns & underwaters
WRENCH BANG
Sprint between 25 and 50 yards (do one great turn and one great finish)
Start next round all together
Main Set
20 x 150 free
(paddles and/or buoy optional on all descending parts)
1 @1:35/1:40/1:45
5 descend @ 1:45/1:50/1:55
1 @1:35/1:40/1:45
4 descend @ 1:45/1:50/1:55
1 @1:35/1:40/1:45
3 descend @ 1:45/1:50/1:55
1 @1:35/1:40/1:45
2 descend @ 1:45/1:50/1:55
1 @1:35/1:40/1:45
1  @ 1:45/1:50/1:55

Race Pace Saturday

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

Standard Warmup

Pre-Set 4 x 100 choice @ :20 rest.  Fast turns and 4+ dolphin kicks
   
Main Set (go to a hand touch on everything and keep an eye on the clock):
 
4 x 75 at P200+6 seconds @ 1:20
200 ez @ 3:00
3 x 75 at P200+4 seconds @ 1:20
200 ez

2 x 75 at P200+2 seconds @ 1:20
200 ez
1 x 75 at P200 @ 1:20
 
300 kick/scull/swim by 25

4 x 50 at P200+2 seconds @ 1:00
150 ez @ 2:20
3 x 50 at P200+1 seconds @ 1:00
150 ez @ 2:20
2 x 50 at P200  @ 1:00
150 ez @ 2:20
1 x 50 at P200-1 @ 1:00
 

300 kick/scull/swim by 25

1 x 25 at P100  @ :40
100 ez @ 1:40
2 x 25 at P100  @ :40
100 ez @ 1:40
3 x 25 at P100  @ :40
100 ez @ 1:40
4 x 25 at P100  @ :40
 

500 ez warm down, your choice of equipment

Snake-Style Fly Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We have three narrow lanes for our group, so swimming fly with 20 swimmers sometimes gets hairy.  We swam this set “snake-style” to avoid collisions and 1-arm strokes. We went one direction in the first lane, came back in the second lane, and so on…

Have you checked out Bob Bowman’s new book?
The Golden Rules: 10 Steps to World-Class Excellence in Your Life and Work

Challenging Set from Coach Chris Flamion, B.R. Ryall YMCA

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Chris Flamion
B.R. Ryall YMCA Swim Team

Wanted to share a set that my assistant coach has been using for nearly a decade.   The whole set started when one of his athletes was a a meet, swam the 100 Free, hopped out and right up onto the blocks for a 500 Free.  The set is named after the athlete and he still gets asked about the set from time to time.  The athlete recently finished 14th at Trials.

We use this about 5-6 Weeks out from Championships as a bit of a gut check, and to really show the athletes where they are.  We record all the times from the set and compare them year to year.

Most of the 100s are within 3-4 seconds of lifetime, and the 500 varies heavily but normally within 20 seconds.  We do occasionally get some lifetime best in the 500s
6 Rounds:

100 Free All Out From a Dive @ 3:00
500 Best effort @ 7:00

IM Variant: We started doing variants as some of our Senior Group don’t swim the 500, or any free.  We wanted the IMers to force to sprint their worst stroke as they will rarely do it on their own.  100s were really good, most within 1 or 2 seconds, and the 400IMs were universally within 15 seconds
6 Rounds:

100 Worst Stroke @ 3:00
400 IM Best Effort @ 7:00

Sprint Variant: This was also all new this year and put the sprinters in some of the highest lactate levels I have ever seen.  50s started within a seconds of Lifetime and dropped off dramatically.  200s started within 10s and a handful held it, most faded pretty badly.
9 Rounds:
50 Free All out Dive @ 2:00
200 Best Effort @ 4:00

Parallel Sprint and Distance Sets

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We did the following parallel sets this morning.  The structure allowed me to focus on the sprinters for a few minutes, and then shift my focus to the distance swimmers, making me able to time everyone’s race pace swimming. LCM.

Distance Group
5 rounds of:
1 x 500 free B3, paddles, snorkel, buoy optional @ 7:30
3 x 100 @ 1:30
   Round 1 – descend to P1500
   Round 2 – at P1500
   Round 3 – descend to P1500 -1
   Round 4 – descend from P1500
   Round 5 – Fastest possible average

Sprint Group
5 rounds of:
3 x 35m sprints timed to the head, swim 15m easy @ 2:20
1 x 300 free B5, paddles, snorkel, buoy optional @ 5:00

We used these pace cards for determining race pace.