Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
Their legs were on fire after this one.
Breaststroke Leg Burner
Butterfly Bonanza
Ryan Woodruff
I love our weekly Friday Fly Day sets. Every week, the swimmers know to expect something that is going to make them better at everyone’s “favorite” stroke.
On the 200s, swimmers perform a set number of high-quality butterfly cycles and then swim freestyle to the next turn. The # of cycles progresses each 25 – i.e. our best flyers would do 5,6,7,8,5,6,7,8 cycles of fly on the successive 25s of the 200.
On the 25s, the focus is squarely on “finishing habits,” especially not breathing in the final 10m and hitting the wall on a full stroke.
The 100 serves as kicking practice with body awareness and giving the shoulders a rest from swimming fly.
Perfecting Our Underwater Kicks
Resistance Training with Buckets
Aerobic IM Set to Focus on Back and Breast
"Fat IM" = add an extra 50 of a coach-designated stroke
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
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!
Freestyle and IM Work with Coach Skirboll
Jim Skirboll
Assistant Coach, Franklin Area Swim Team
Head Swim Coach, Team USA, European Maccabi Games
I like this workout we did with our 13 & Unders. The main set 2,600 yards is a broken 500 and 8×25 strokes is getting the negative split for the 400 IM.
Back to Breast Transition and Race Pace Set
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.
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
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!
Specific Endurance Training with Coach Keown of NRG Aquatics
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
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
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
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.
The Swim Your Name Set
Richard Heselton
UK
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Meat and Potatoes Freestyle Set
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
Just a meat-and-potatoes set for our distance freestylers. SCM
Faster than Race Pace Sprint Set
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
We did this little set the other day as a bit of speed work at the end of practice. Putting fins on, swimmers were expected to go faster than their 100 yard race pace. Seemed to work pretty well – the minus 2.0 25s were pretty tough for some. They had their choice of Fly, Bk, or Fr.
Freestyle Technique and Drill Set
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
For paddlehead drill, athlete puts hand paddle in front of the crown of the head, pushing it along as he swims. The goal is to lose it as few times as possible on the 200. The better the breathing technique, the less it will fall off.
Kick Set from the UK
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
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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Freestyle power zone
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
Drew this for an athlete the other day, trying to help her understand where she should (green) and shouldn’t (red) direct her arm pull.
Short Sprint Work with Trojan Swim Club
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
1. Boom Boom 75s
2. UGA 25s
3. The Shoulberg 500
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Variety Set with Coach Ahrens of Schwimmverein Mannheim
Wibke Ahrens
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
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
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
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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Just a Glorious Little Distance Set
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
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!
Backstroke Set #1,652
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
P.T. = Perfect Technique
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!
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
Ryan Woodruff
Follow @WoodruffRyan
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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