The Alpe d’Huez Set

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Coach Doug Allen

800-600-400-200 drop the interval by:02 each base hundred
200-400-600-800 hold the prior 200 interval each base hundred

Editor’s note: Our goal for this year is to provide coaches around the world with a free new idea or set EVERY DAY this year! Can you help us reach that goal? Please send submissions to swimmingwizard@gmail.com.

 

Sprint/Power Workout with Coach Josh Udermann

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Josh Udermann
Head Site Coach
Woodburn Mid-Valley Aquatics

This is our workout from recently—the focus was sprint/power.  Our senior group enjoyed the main set.  We had two groups going, one on parachutes and the other with fins and then they switched.

Editor’s note: Our goal for this year is to provide coaches around the world with a free new idea or set EVERY DAY this year! Can you help us reach that goal? Please send submissions to swimmingwizard@gmail.com.

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Back and Breaststroke Set

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

Our swimmers seemed to really like this set.  One thing sets it apart from many of the sets we do — the interval.  Typically, I write a highly structured practice with everything tightly interval-controlled.  This set had every swim @ ~:20 rest.  This allowed the swimmers to feel less interval pressure and the freedom to just do a good job, pay attention to the clock, and challenge themselves rather than feeling dragged along by the set.

1st round backstroke, 2nd round breaststroke with changes to the drills so they were suitable for br.

Editor’s note: Our goal for this year is to provide coaches around the world with a free new idea or set EVERY DAY this year! Can you help us reach that goal? Please send submissions to swimmingwizard@gmail.com.

Floating and Sculling During Warmup with NRG

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Raymond Keown
NRG Swimming Inc.

Floating is such an underrated skill.  Most do not spend enough time on it, or forget about it as the athletes get older.  Improving our ability to float our bodies is critical to developing speed.

Sculling is also a skill that really helps develop our ability to hold the water and move it more effectively.  This can also get lost in the the training cycle as the season moves on.

We have committed to finding time for both in the middle of warm-up each day.

After some basic warm-up right now we are going …

8×25 Float Scull w/ snorkel @1:00

The basics are simple…
You start by floating over the T for :10 in as streamline a position as possible with as little movement as possible.
At the whistle, you start sculling your arms.
There is no push off the wall, you are not allowed to use your legs at all & must maintain the body position throughout the length.
We will vary the type of scull we use each day, but this is the basic set.

Afterwards, we will finish warm-up with some sprints & underwater work.

Editor’s note: Our goal for this year is to provide coaches around the world with a free new idea or set EVERY DAY this year! Can you help us reach that goal? Please send submissions to swimmingwizard@gmail.com.

Using cycle count…

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This set was a follow-up to yesterday’s set where we determined what our cycle count was.  Now, we put it into action trying to hold one cycle less than the determined cycle count.

Editor’s note: Our goal for this year is to provide coaches around the world with a free new idea or set EVERY DAY this year! Can you help us reach that goal? Please send submissions to swimmingwizard@gmail.com.

Learning to find our cycle count…

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

Editor’s note: Our goal for this year is to provide coaches around the world with a free new idea or set EVERY DAY this year! Can you help us reach that goal? Please send submissions to swimmingwizard@gmail.com.

Knowing your stroke or cycle count is a  simple yet effective way to consistently monitor your technique and efficiency.  We used the following set to determine our true cycle counts.

Hittin’ P500

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
 
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300s are steady swim on an interval that elicits only mild fatigue.  Then HIT the P500!!!

Editor’s note: Our goal for this year is to provide coaches around the world with a free new idea or set EVERY DAY this year! Can you help us reach that goal? Please send submissions to swimmingwizard@gmail.com.

 

Throw a wet tennis ball at the board and…

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Delano Ducheck
Orcas Swim Club

3-5 swimmers/lane

When you want to make a variety set interesting.

Throw a wet tennis ball at the board to determine set for entire lane.

Workout written for 11-13 year-olds.

Editor’s note: Our goal for this year is to provide coaches around the world with a free new idea or set EVERY DAY this year! Can you help us reach that goal? Please send submissions to swimmingwizard@gmail.com.

Divide and Conquer

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Delano Ducheck
Orca Swim Club

Swimmers get to practice some math skills while they swim

 Divide and Conquer
1×800 @ :60 SR 
1×400 @ :60 SR Faster than 800 time /2
1×200 @ :60 SR Faster than 400 time /2
1×100 @ :60 SR Faster than 200 time /2
1×50 @ :60SR Faster than 100 time /2

SR = seconds rest

Editor’s note: Our goal for this year is to provide coaches around the world with a free new idea or set EVERY DAY this year! Can you help us reach that goal? Please send submissions to swimmingwizard@gmail.com.

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Backstroke, Free Pull, and Hypoxic Speed

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
 
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Editor’s note: Our goal for this year is to provide coaches around the world with a free new idea or set EVERY DAY this year! Can you help us reach that goal? Please send submissions to swimmingwizard@gmail.com.

Fly Fly Fly

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This set is for SCY and involves a fair amount of fly.  It has been our experience that making 200 fly pace for a 50 is not super difficult.  This set pushes swimmers to go beyond that pace.  In this case, swimmers on the A interval were sub 1:53 200 yard flyers.

Descending IM Ladder Set

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

 IMO = “IM Order”, meaning that the 1st one is fly, 2nd one is back, etc.  There are essentially eight 200 IMs in this set. Descend 1-8, all free is “cruise”.  With the first and second intervals finishing at different times, after a 1:00 rest, they go straight into a set of 50s breast where the focus is hitting the wall on a full turn.

The Burpee Avoidance Set

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

We did this set this week when most of our swimmers were done competing for the season. A handful of swimmers still have Y Nationals ahead, and I wanted to keep everyone focused on hitting their race paces.

8 x 50 at P200 (with incentive)
#1-4 @ 1:00
#5-6 @ :50
#7-8 @ :40

For every 50 made successfully at P200, we took one rep off a planned set of 100 burpees in the dryland session that would follow.  With 13 swimmers in the pool (thus 104 total 50s), it was possible that we would have zero burpees to do.  The :50 and :40 intervals proved to be quite tough and we ended up doing 42 burpees.

 

The "Add One" Breaststroke Set

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Delano Ducheck
Summerland Orca Swim Club
orcaswimclub.net
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For Age Groupers, 11-14 

5×200  add one Br  continuous Fly @ 
Swimmers start with Pullout + 1 Breaststroke cycle. Continue 25m length fly. 
 As the set implies “Add One” Breaststroke cycle  each length until swimmer completes entire length with breaststroke only.  ie. Length #2 = pullout + 2 Br cycles, Length #3 pullout +3 Br cycles  Length #4 = Pullout + 4 Br cycles etc.
They’ll learn to maximize pullouts and breaststroke cycles to avoid the fly

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Editor’s Note: The Swimming Wizard’s goal is to publish at least one set, practice, or idea EVERY DAY for all of 2016! To keep it interesting, we need your help! Click here to help us achieve that goal by submitting one of your sets!

Late Season Full Practice

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
 

This is a full practice.  Started of with some kicking and IM followed by some moderately challenging freestyle.  A small prep set leads into the main set which works around 200 race pace
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Kicking and IM Set
12 x 100
odds kick @ 2:00, 1:50, 1:40, 1:30, 1:30, 1:30
even swim IM @ 1:30, descend 1-3 and 4-6

Aerobic Freestyle Set
300 free @ 4:00 Goal: Beat 1/3 of your best 1,000 free time
5 x 100 free @ 1:20 descend to P500
600 free @ 8:00 Goal: Beat 2/3 of your best 1,000 free time
5 x 100 free @ 1:20 descend to P500
900 free @ 12:00 Goal: Beat your best 1,000 free time
5 x 100 free @ 1:20 descend to P500
300 EZ Backstroke swim

Prep Set for Pace 50s
12 x 25 @ :40
# 1 – sprint UW kicks and 1st 2 cycles
#2 – ”     ” and 1st 4 cycles
#3 –  ” ” and 1st 6 cycles
#4 – easy, minimum cycle count

Race Pace Set
30 x 50 @ 1:00
     1 at P200 +4
     1 at P200 +2
     1 at P200
     2 at P200 +4
     2 at P200 +2
     2 at P200
     3 at P200 +4
     3 at P200 +2
     3 at P200
     2 at P200 +4
     2 at P200 +2
     2 at P200
     1 at P200 +4
     1 at P200 +2
     1 at P200
     3 at P-1

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D-day

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
 

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Editor’s Note: The Swimming Wizard’s goal is to publish at least one set, practice, or idea EVERY DAY for all of 2016! To keep it interesting, we need your help! Click here to help us achieve that goal by submitting one of your sets!