Back to Breast Transition and Race Pace Set

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

The emphasis on this set was swimming at 400 IM race pace for breaststroke while under some fatigue from backstroke. 

https://swimmingwizard.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/0b1d9-12568271_1038230319572680_988406563_n.jpg

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!

We Love Buckets

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Ryan Woodruff

Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We did this set SCM, using small (approx 1 gallon volume) buckets towed behind swimmers on the blue parts of the set.

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!

https://swimmingwizard.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/c8ceb-12479160_553514624818620_27356219_n.jpg

Specific Endurance Training with Coach Keown of NRG Aquatics

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Raymond Keown
Head Coach
NRG Aquatics
Langhorne, Pennsylvania

Here is a nice set that we use to allow a variety of athletes to train together, and get some specific endurance training at the same time.  This set is LCM:

150 free @color paces (see note) @:10 rest + 50 RACE! (see note) } rd- A= 5x@3:00, B= 4x@3:20, C= 3x@3:40, D= 2x@4:00
100 free @color paces (see note) @:10 rest + 50 RACE! (see note) } rd- A= 5x@2:15, B= 5x@2:30, C= 5x@2:45, D=5x@3:00
 50 free @color paces (see note) @:10 rest + 50 RACE! (see note) } rd- A= 5x@1:30, B= @5x@1:40, C= 5x@1:50, D= 5x@2:00
5×50 RACE! A= @:45, B= @:50, C= @:55, D= @1:00

*Colors= Long Events- hold RED, Mid-range Events- hold pink, Short Events- hold white
*Race=   Long Events- free hold p800, Mid-range Events- Prime hold p400 (IM), Short Events- Prime hold p200

Swimmers are assigned the appropriate send-off, color & stroke.  Athletes are intermixed based on ability.
We had 2x lanes of each interval.
The A interval was mostly the Long Event swimmers.
Typical rest ranges were- Long Events- goal of :20 rest or less, Mid-range- goal of :15 to :30 rest, Short- :20 to :40 rest.

We did this tonight and it was fantastic & intense, with athletes hitting their paces.

This is how we tend to break sets up for specific training.

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Broken Swims with Individual Technical Focus

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Lukas Mundelsee
SG Schwimmen Muenster
Germany

Psychology tells us that people are more motivated if they have the chance to be involved in decision making processes. I think it is a good idea to apply this principle to a certain degree to our swim practices. In this set the swimmers could choose on which they focus in particular for a block of 3 broken 400s. They liked it and I felt they are more motivated to really concentrate on what they have chosen on their own compared to if I had chosen a focus for them. ([P400]+4” means they should swim 4 seconds slower per 100m than their 400m race pace).
 

 

Earn Your Trophies With This One

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Josh Sinclair
Head Coach
Results H2O
Queensland, Australia

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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!

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Power IM Splits

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This IM set emphasizes hitting race pace for one of the four strokes in each swim.  The swimmer simply had to make that pace and keep the total time under the specified limit, which was about 25 seconds slower than the swimmer’s best time.

https://swimmingwizard.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/8bf2f-12716764_1671429109781215_669784291_n.jpg

The Swim Your Name Set

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Richard Heselton
UK

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Kick Set from the UK

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Richard Heselton
UK

6×50 fr kick @ 1:00
200 fr rec
Repeat set 4x or 5x, decreasing the interval 5 seconds each time.  When an athlete can no longer make the interval, they put fins on to finish the set.

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Threshold Freestyle Set with Nittany Lion’s Max Byers

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Max Byers
Assistant Coach
Nittany Lion Aquatic Club

3x100s         tight descend to P1650 +3      @1:10

2x200s         1 strong, 1 long                       @2:40

500               swim                                        @6:00

3x100s        tight descend to P1650+2          @1:15

2x150s        1 strong, 1 long                         @2:00

500               Faster than the first                  @6:00

3x100s        tight descend to P1650+1         @1:20

2x100s        1 strong, 1 long                        @1:20

500        Faster than the first two                 @6:00

3x100s        Tight descend to P1650            @1:25

2x50s        1 strong, 1 long                          @  :40

500        Race, should be faster than P1650 @——-
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Short Sprint Work with Trojan Swim Club

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Wes Foltz
Assistant Coach Men’s & Women’s Swimming & Diving

University of Southern California
Some “short sprint” backend cord work set below

 
Trojan Swim Club – LCM
Warm Up: 2x [300 – 200 (dr/sw) – 100 k]
4x (pads optional) 
3x 50 (25 head up Br w flutter k/25 free 2rt:2lt)  :55
100 (50 free over k/50 choice build) D1-4  1:30
3x 100 (hold time from last 100 above)  2:00
100 stretch 
4x  w/fins 
2x 50 build k w/bd  
25 uw fish k (dolphin kicks on side)
25 max swim
-coaches interval (C.I)
Short Sprint (move to SCY POOL)
2x 
100 4/3/2/1 breath pattern x25  2:00
-#2 go 1/2/3/4 bre x25
3x 25 MAX swim  :30
25 max on cord (resisted)  1:00
100 ez kick 
2x 
75 3/2/1 breath pattern x25  1:15 
-#2 go 1/2/3 bre x25
50 max swim  1:00
25 max on cord (resisted)  :5rst
25 max w/cord (when tension gives; keep tempo up & get faster) 
8x 25 perfect straight arm  :40
 o- no air
 e- swing breath (keep head in line, breath every stroke)
2x 25 MAX resistance on cord (no breath)
WD 
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!

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Our 3 Most Popular Workouts of the Week

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1. Boom Boom 75s
2. UGA 25s
3. The Shoulberg 500

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Variety Set with Coach Ahrens of Schwimmverein Mannheim

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Wibke Ahrens
Head Coach
Schwimmverein Mannheim, Germany
www.svm-schwimmen.de
Below you will find a nice little morning set I did yesterday with my swimmers.
The day before we had a hard 2×1500 fast so I focused on a large diversity of strokes and distances without too much intensity.
Editor’s Note: Here is the set translated, below is a picture of the set in its original form.  We thought you might be interested in seeing the German abbreviations.
Warm up: 600 Free/Back, Kick/Pull, Drill/ build  200 each
6x 100 Side Kick/ Kick on back/ Side Kick/ Breast Kick on back 25 each @2’15
100 ez
12x 75  50 IMO – 10 wall kicks + turn + uw – 25 fly fast  @1’30
100 ez
2x 400  #1: Free w/pad. 2/3 breathing pattern, #2: IM 25 dril/ 25 build   1′ break
30x 25  2x Free reducing strokes, 1x Main stroke fast @ ’35
100 ez
4x 200 Stroke kicks  Goal: < 3'20  @ 4'
Warm down: 200 ez
—————–
4950m (SCM)

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UGA 25s with Coach Ian Goss

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Ian Goss
Head Coach
Stingrays Swimming

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Have you read these books that can help you be a better swim coach?

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!

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Set to Perfect Your Finishes

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Chris Brookover
Director – Competitive Swimming

YBCC Phoenix Swimming – Head Swim Coach

This is really short, and I am sure somebody has done it, I was just very surprised at the huge effort my kids gave yesterday at the end of practice. Best way I have found to work finishes yet.
10 x 50 @ 1:00

Broken: 37 ½ Build on :30 , 12 ½ Fastest finish possible at :30

 

The Shoulberg 500

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Brian Clark
Chico Aquajets & Durham Dolphins

Here is the Shoulberg 500.  It can be done any which way, but fast.  The particular one below swimmers have to do each distance a different stroke, their choice.  But of course, fast.

2×25/40
50/1:00

25/40
75/1:20

2×50/1:00
75/1:20
25/40
50/1:00

2×25/40

Good hard, fun set.  Great for a kick set also.

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!

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Sprint Ropes With Josh Sinclair

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Josh Sinclair
Head Coach
Results H2O
Queensland, Australia
 

Details:
4×25 sprint rope – 60 
Odds = B.T.M – (B.T.M = build to max, we used a medium rope)
Evens = MAX F.S 1st 12.5m (F.S = float start, basically swimmer goes deep and pushes off wall and is pulled/towed back, goal is to work their streamline and breakout at the 12.5m mark)

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Boom Boom 75s

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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!

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Breaststroke Set #2,174

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Ryan Woodruff
 
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Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

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How often do we ask for feedback?

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Ryan Woodruff

Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

How often do we ask our athletes for feedback? As the ones actually performing the workout, an intelligent athlete is the best judge as to whether a workout was effective.  Recently I had my team perform the following set:

The group did an excellent job on the set.  When we concluded, I asked them to consider ways in which the set could have been improved.  Here are the suggestions that I got:

The first suggestion was most popular — they would have preferred to have been able to choose the drill they got to do rather than the ones I prescribed (at the bottom of the first picture).  Overall, I was pleased with the level of thought they put into this and the fact that the suggestions didn’t all make the workout “easier.”

Overall, it was a good moment of trust and communication between athletes and coach.  I highly recommend you give it a try sometime.

7 Motivational Tips for Swim Coaches

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Ryan Woodruff

Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

1. Write down your “why,” the reason that you coach.  Not just a phrase, but in actual paragraph form, written by hand. “I coach because…” Keep it somewhere where you can go back and look at it every once in a while.

2. Have an email folder or a place where you can store what I call “rainy day reads.” Put positive e-mails, notes of thanks and other feel-good words of encouragement in there.  When you are having a day where you are feeling less than motivated, open this folder and read its contents.

3. Exercise. Stay fit.  It can be tough to keep an exercise habit through long weekend meets, crappy hospitality food, and hours upon hours of standing on deck.  I am willing to bet your hotel has a treadmill and I can tell you from experience that it is not being used at 10pm.  Read this article.

4. Seek out other ideas.  Reading our blog, ProSwimWorkouts, or these resources helps keep your practices interesting for you AND your swimmers.

5. Have a plan. Not having to go through the “what are we doing today” process makes it easier to stay the course over the length of the season.

6. If you had your swimmers fill out goal sheets at the beginning of the season, go back and read through them again. Seeing the dreams and goals of the swimmers in your care will help re-charge your batteries.

7. Thank your mentor.  All of us have someone who helped us get started in the sport. Visit them or call them up and express your thanks.  Gratitude is the best attitude.

Stay Motivated, Stay Positive, Stay Successful.

Happy Coaching!

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