The Middle IM Solution

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
This set is designed to work on the weaker of a swimmer’s two strokes that make up the middle of the IM.  For 2:00, weaker backstrokers perform scull-scull-stroke (two sculls on the right side + a right-hand stroke and switch to the other side) while weaker breaststrokers do 3 kicks-1 pull drill. A wrench bang on the side of the pool signals swimmers to switch to the second set of instructions for 1:30.  A second wrench bang signals the start of the :30 rest and swimmers proceed to the nearest wall.  The fast 75 works on transition turns and we specifically are trying to improve our back-breast crossover turn.

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Distance Free and Stroke HR Set with Specific Technical Focus

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

“Individual Technique” refers to specific stroke corrections that were highlighted in individual meetings with swimmers.  We were asking swimmers to have their 10-second HR at 20-24 beats after each 500.  The green portion was for the A, B, and C interval groups to ensure that all completed the set at around the same time.

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Race Pace 50s the Hard Way

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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!

Recently, I have become concerned that our race pace work was too “sterilized” (meaning it doesn’t mimic the conditions of a race), so the idea here was to keep their heart rate up in between the groups of 50s by setting an interval that didn’t allow them to swim slowly or recover completely.  For some athletes, this set was a great success while others (typically the more sprinter types) really struggled.  Our swimmers all have pace cards so they can quickly know exactly what pace+1 etc is. All 50s were choice but swimmers were strongly encourage to do each round of 50s of a single stroke.

Swimming Wizard Week in Review

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IM and Freestyle Pre-Set

Working on 500 Race Pace with the Twin Rivers YMCA

Breaststroke Technique Set with the Piranhas

Taper Speed Set with Nicholas Wooters

Stretch Cord Set for Power and Speed

Challenge Set from Shawn Santo, Mid Michigan Aquatics

Breaststroke Tempo Set with Parker Ramsdell, York Swim Club

And one for the road: 19.5 Ways to Get Better Even When Practice Gets Cancelled

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 Tempo Set with York Swim Club Coach Parker Ramsdell

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Parker Ramsdell
York Swim Club

I did this set (SCM) with my breaststrokers yesterday morning and really enjoyed it.

The 200s provided a solid aerobic touch to the training, and we’ve been really struggling with pullout discipline later in races, thus the no touch walls to put some extra pressure on the lungs on those underwaters.

The 100s w/ tempo trainer set at 04:00 (25-1 stroke/beep; 50-2 strokes/beep; 25-3 strokes/beep) helped them work body line and glide for the first 75, then pick up the tempo on the last 25 helping prime them for the fast 50s to follow.

Total – 3500m

Round 1 – 4x each distance
Round 2 – 3x each distance
Round 3 – 2x each distance
Round 4 – 1x each distance

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Age Group Challenge Set from Coach Shawn Santo of Mid Michigan Aquatics

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Shawn Santo
Assistant Coach
Mid Michigan Aquatics

This is a set I created for our advanced age group kids.  Putting the rest between each section really allowed the kids to focus on one part at a time. We had a great effort.  For some it was touch and go for the 100s and 50s, but everyone made the intervals.

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Stretch Cord Set for Power and Speed

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Ryan Woodruff
 
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We did this set as part of a three-station rotation at practice.  This station had swimmers in pairs. One person out of the water (pulling the cord in on the assisted parts) and one swimmer in the water performing the set. Cords were tied to the blocks for the resisted parts.  The first 12-cycle sprint is from a push off the wall and then the swimmer pauses where they finish the 12th cycle.  The 50s start from there.  Thus, when we did a “50” it was actually more like 30m total, 15m in to a fast turn and 15m back out.  The finishing sprint was thus also about 15m.

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Age Group Taper Speed Set with Coach Nicholas Wooters

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Nicholas Wooters
Head Coach, Director of Competitive Swimming at The Bay Club

PSRP Panthers
Bay Club Redwood Shores
Redwood City, CA

We have a championship meet for our age groupers this weekend. We are going to go through a small (VERY SMALL because they are age groupers) quick taper (3 days) leading into this weekend. Here is what we did today to focus on race specifics/race details in short speed burst situations.

Our main set was 3,450yards with intervals that kept things moving along but were not very challenging.
3x
200 smooth
8×50
#1-#2 = blast the breakout (to 12 1/2)
#3-#4 = blast the finish (final 12 1/2)
#5-#6 = blast both  (1st and last 12 1/2)
#7-#8 = whole 50 fast

1×50 smooth
1×100 FAST from the blocks

3x
    100 smooth
    8×25
        #1-#2 = blast the breakout (to 10)
        #3-#4 = blast the finish (final 10)
        #5-#6 = blast both  (1st and last 10)
        #7-#8 = whole 25 fast
    1×50 smooth
    1×50 FAST from the blocks

 

Working On Breaststroke Technique with the Piranhas

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Ryan Woodruff
 
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Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

Our breaststrokers liked this set.  Technical focus early with some descending 200s (150s) for slower swimmers/non-breaststrokers.

Drill explanations:
R arm and L arm Br = single arm breaststroke done with the other arm straight in front of the swimmer.
3K-1P = 3 kicks-1 pull.  Swimmer does two additional kicks in every cycle, while the swimmer is in the glide position.
Fast Heels = This is just a “deep practice” focus point where we swim breaststroke emphasizing rapidly drawing the heels toward the butt.

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Working 500 Pace with Twin River YMCA

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RJ Wojtylak
Head Swim Coach/Associate Aquatic Director
TWIN RIVER YMCA
New Bern, NC

We had a pretty good practice that I wanted to share.  We wanted to work on pacing for the 500.
800 Swim — Focus on 12 strokes per length or less
8×75 @ 1:30 with Fins and Snorkels — 50 Inline Kick/25 Build
8×100 Pull @ 1:25 Descend 1-4:5-8
Main Set
400 Free  @5:00, 5:20
1 x 100 Pace for 500 @ 1:30
300 Free @ 3:45, 4;00
2 x 100 Pace for 500 @ 1:30
100 Recovery
200 Free@ 2:30; 2:40
3×100 Pace for 500 @ 1:30
100 Free @ 1:15,1:20
4 x 100 Pace for 500 @ 1:30
100 Recovery
1x Broken 500
25 from a dive rest :15
50, 75, 100 rest :15 after each
100, 75, 50, rest :20 after each
25

Subtract 2:00 from their time and most wound up well under PB 500 Free.

5 minute swim cool down mixing swim, kick, and scull

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Long IM Set with Nittany Lion Aquatic Club’s Ryan Sprang

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Ryan Sprang
Nittany Lion Aquatic Club

Also: check out Sprang’s Mid IM Set from yesterday

Long IM: (done straight through but providing the spaces below to make the pattern more recognizable)
4 x 100 @ 1:15 50 fly 50 free strong
1 x 100 fly @ 1:20 fast
1 x 300 free @ 3:30 go under 3:00
4 x 25 @ :25 12 UW dolphin kicks blast then swim smooth
1 x 100 @ 1:30 free cruise
4 x 100 @ 1:15 back strong
1 x 200 @ 2:40 100 fly 100 back fast
1 x 200 @ 2:20 free go under 2:00
4 x 25 @ :25 12 UW dolphin kicks then swim smooth
1 x 100 @ 1:30 free cruise
4 x 100 @ 1:25 breast strong
1 x 300 @ 4:00 100 fly 100 back 100 breast fast
1 x 100 @ 1:10 free go under 1:00
4 x 25 @ :25 12 UW dolphin kicks then swim smooth
1 x 100 @ 1:30 free cruise
4 x 100 @ 1:10 free strong
1 x 400 @ 5:20 IM race for time
4 x 25 @ :25 12 UW dolphin kicks then swim smooth
1 x 100 @ 1:30 free cruise

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Middle Distance IM Set from Nittany Lion Coach Ryan Sprang

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Ryan Sprang
Head Coach
Nittany Lion Aquatic Club

1 round of:
{4 x 75 @ 1:00/1:05 (A/B interval) 50 fly 25 free strong
{1 x 200 IM @ 2:45/2:55 (A/B interval) fast fly, smooth ba/br/fr with good technique
2 x 25 @ :25 12 UW dolphin kicks blast, then smooth free
2 rounds of:
{4 x 75 @ 1:00/1:05 back strong
{1 x 200 IM @ 2:40/2:50 fast fly/ba, smooth br/free w/ good technique
4 x 25 @ :25 12 UW dolphin kicks blast (done after the 2 rounds above)
3 rounds of:
{4 x 75 @ 1:05/1:10 breast strong
{1 x 200 IM @ 2:35/2:45 fast fly/ba/br, smooth fr
6 x 25 @ :25 12 UW dolphin kicks blast
4 rounds of:
{4 x 75 @ :55 free strong
{1 x 200 IM @ 2:30/2:40 all fast
8 x 25 @ :25 12 UW dolphin kicks blast

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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The 25, 25-50 Set

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Brian Clark
Chico Aquajets legacy and Durham Dolphins

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25 fly
25-50 (where the 25 is fly, 50 is fly)
25-50-75 (25 fly, 50 fly, 75 is 50 fly/25 back)
25-50-75-100 (25 fly, 50 fly, 75 is 50 fly/25 back, 100 is 50 fly/50 back)
25-50-75-100-125
25-50-75-100-125-150
25-50-75-100-125-150-175
25-50-75-100-125-150-175-200
where you build to the 200 IM (I think you get the pattern)
interval is 30+25, or 25 per 25, or 30+20 per 25.  Take an extra 30 between lines.
Very good set.  A variation of a set that Ray Looze gave his swimmers as an assistant at Harvard.
lots and lots of fly.  Swim it long and easy to get through it well.

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Fly or Die

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Wibke Ahrens
Head Coach
Schwimmverein Mannheim
Germany
 
I often explain our intensities with car shifts from 1-6 (recovery> all out)
 
4x 50m Fly @50”  PB+ 5”  (200P)
200m Kick  w/fins (2nd shift)
4x 50m Fly @55”  PB+ 4”
200m Kick  w/fins (2nd shift)
4x 50m Fly @1′  PB+ 3”
200 Kick  w/fins (2nd shift)
4x 50m Fly @1’10  all out 
200 Kick  w/fins (2nd shift)
 

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Aerobic Free with Deep Focus

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

I like our distance sets to also include some technical focus.  This set seemed to do the trick.  The “Deep Practice” points of emphasis correspond to the 1st, 3rd, and 5th 50s of the 300.  The swims written in black are meant to be descending effort (getting faster) on an increasingly tighter interval.  At the end of the set, we recorded 10-sec heart rate values for swimmers immediately upon finishing 30 seconds after finishing, and 60 seconds after finishing. B3 = breathing every 3 strokes.  This set was performed in a SCM pool. 39-43 minutes, 3,000m.

Wetland Challenge Set

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Ryan Woodruff
 
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We did this set last week to include a little dryland in a swimming set (wetland as we call it).  We got excellent efforts and all reported it to be a challenging set. SCM. Interval ended up being 8:00.  Swimmers could choose what order they wanted to do the dryland exercises.  For instance, they could do the 20 x squats w/ high kick after the 1st 100, the 5 burpees after the 2nd 100, the 15 frog jumps after the 3rd 100, etc.  They just had to complete all 4 dryland sets each time.  This led to some interesting strategy among our best swimmers, selecting their exercises to best compete with their teammates.

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Try This Set to Crush the Middle of Your IMs

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
  

The purpose of this set is to improve the middle of our IM races

First, a set to test backstroke speed/endurance

8 x 100 Backstroke –Fastest Possible Average (essentially a broken 800 with active recovery)
After #1 and #2: 75 ez free @ 1:30
After #3 and #4: 50 ez free @ 1:00
After #5 and #6: 25 ez free @ :30
After #7 :10 rest

Record average 100 time

300 easy recovery

Repeat the 8 x 100s breaststroke, record times, go 300 easy.

Follow-up Challenge:
Timed 200 (100 back/100 breast) with the goal being to match the total of the backstroke pace and the breaststroke pace times. We got some excellent efforts and some really outstanding performances.

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Race Pace Workout #57 with Cardinal and Gold Aquatics

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Patrick Marshall
Head Swim Coach
Cardinal and Gold Aquatics
 
We did this today after a 30 minute dryland circuit and about 2000 yards of warmup, drill work, and speed work. I like to do sets like this where we can have our sprinters and distance groups do similar workouts; makes them feel good to be all together!
Stroke:                                                          Distance
2x:
8x25s @ 100P           :40                              12x25s @ 200P    :25
100 active recovery   1:50                             100 AR
4x50s @ 200P           1:05                             5x50s @ 500P     :55
100 AR                                                           100 AR
2x75s @ 200P +2      1:30                             2x75s @ 200P+2  1:30
100 AR                                                           100 AR
100 FTB Round 1                                           100 FTB round 1
50 FTB Round 2                                              50 FTBN round 2
 ———

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Freestyle and "Deep Practice" Stroke Set

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
 

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This was a little technique/focus set we worked on the other day.  “Deep” practice refers to our intent to be totally engaged in our stroke and focused on improving one particular part of the stroke while swimming (not drilling or isolating).

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The Mindbender

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
 

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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This set is a variation on our 200 Pace 50s set, and gives the athletes an extra challenge — not only do they have to swim fast, but they can’t look to far into the future because they don’t know what is coming next.  This definitely threw an element of mental difficulty on top of the already difficult physical expectations. 

Swimmers were told we were doing 40 x 50.  A coach wrote the pace expectation and the interval on a dry erase board, changing it each 50.  This meant that the swimmers had no idea if the next 50 would be easy, at 200 pace minus 1 second, at 200 pace, or at 200 pace +1.  Swimmers could choose any stroke for any 50. Here is some of the feedback afterwards…

“I liked the set… It challenged me but the way we did it prevented me from thinking too far ahead.”
“It helped me how I had to focus on just one 50 at a time instead of worrying about the whole set.”
“That was definitely hard, but it was a good kind of hard.”

Below is the sequence of paces and intervals (SCM) we used.  No magic to it, just mixing up the challenges and keeping them on their toes.

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IM Pacing Power

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
 

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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We had great success with the set below.  Red portions are all based around goal 400 IM pace based on our current actual splits.  We used our pace cards to determine these splits.

Also see: our other IM sets and workouts including this one from Greater Philadelphia’s Matt Sprang

 

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Mile Pacing Power

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
 

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!

SCY.  All RED  portions are at goal 1650 Free pace.  Black parts are steady swim following specific instructions.
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Quality Set from Coach Kevin Harrod

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Kevin Harrod
Solon Stars Swim Team

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!

Good quality set to end winter break training.

See other Swimming Wizard posts with the tag QUALITY

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Freestyle Balance and Pull Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

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!

This is a small technique set we did combining paddlehead drill with some one-arm pulling for balance and strength.  I liked how our strokes looked after this set.

The M & M Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This is a fun concept for practice you can do any time, but I like to save it for a special occasion.  In this case, we did it on New Year’s Eve.  I buy a bag of M & Ms, and write a set on the board that corresponds with each color in the bag.  I pick a swimmer to pull an M&M out of the bag (without looking) and then we do that set.  Then, I replace the set with another one in case the same color gets pulled by the next swimmer.  The sets can be anything you want, but I like them to be creative, different, or at least something that we don’t do very frequently.  Use it as an opportunity to be creative.