Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
David Laudati, Head Age Group Coach YMCA Westside Silver Fins Goodyear, AZ
Here is a great set that I did with my advanced 11-14yr olds the other night. Challenged all the swimmers. I let them choose a name and they came up with a good one.
Coach Mike Cook, Mason Makos
This was meet tune up for our 9-12 year olds. Some JO qualifiers. We had an 8pm finish with meet warmups at 7am the next morning. Four swimmers per lane (8 lanes)
Coach Mike Cook, Mason Makos
Yesterday’s practice with our 9-12 year olds, 25 yard pool.
Coach Mike Cook, Mason Makos
We did this workout today (July 3) with 9-12 year olds. Good relaxed swimming getting ready for a July 4 th race sprint workout on Saturday.
Greg Johnson, Greater Pensacola Aquatic Club
Editor’s note: This post was originally published on this blog in November 2012.
Mike Cook, Mason Makos
12 & Under Age Group workout trying to get them to understand how to race the IM.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This practice was for our group of 10-12 year-olds. We focused on long-axis efficiency and finished with an emphasis on underwater kicking. The “bang bang” refers to a coach tapping a wrench in the side of the pool to indicate when to take a stroke.
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Mike Anzano, Assistant Head Coach, COM Swim Team
Great workout from our 11-14 year-olds!
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Mike Cook, Mason Makos
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Coach Mike Cook, Mason Makos
Practice for age group 9-12 year olds.
Focus on fast feet to turn with tight streamlines and fast dolphins.
Fast kick set to finish.
Coach Gordon Brown, Head Age Group Coach, Regional YMCA of Western Connecticut
This is another one for my 10-13 year-old swimmers that go 6-days a week for 1-hour & 45-minutes. I included a description of what we talked about prior to each set.
See the FULL WORKOUT IN PDF FORM HERE.
See the FULL WORKOUT IN PDF FORM HERE.
Big focus on the first IM & UW FL kick set is replicating the feeling of a 200 IM with 25’s of race plan swims mixed with 25’s UW FL K. We talked about some of the key transitions in the IM before we began the set.
For example, we begin with a 25 UW simulating what they will do off their start and how they should focus on holding their rhythm in butterfly to finish the 50. When they get into backstroke, they need to establish their tempo and make sure they have a great wall leading into breaststroke. This is why we started with BK swim into UW kick. We talked about breaststroke being the make or break part of an IM. Having a strong build to the BR leg of the race really sets up a big finish in free. Starting with UW kick into BR sprint w/flutter kick allows them to really turn on the hand speed. Lastly, we finish with Free sprint establishing tempo right off the wall and finish with UW kick to ensure we have a great last wall. We did this all with fins.
They looked great and were putting down some good speed with the swims and improved their UW 25’s as the set went on.
We finished up the day with a Max VO2 set they will do about every 3 weeks. This was their first attempt at this set this season so they knew they were establishing their baseline times. Since we have a distance meet on Friday and a Long Axis Pentathlon on Saturday we wanted to focus on FR and BK. Everything in the set is all out effort and we mix in a kick distance that rotates by round. To keep it entertaining, I gave them some goal times that allowed them to earn “medals”. As the distance gets longer it is more difficult to earn Gold.
They really enjoyed the “medal” aspect of the set and were definitely going after it!
Elaina Jacobs, Mason Makos
This is for our Junior Gold long course swimmers. Combination of very young 9 year olds up to older 12 year olds so different intervals for them. 50 m long course.
Tennis balls is free swim, one in each hand, to work the catch and pull.
“Isolate” set on kick portion is on a board. Leg not being used flutters lightly next to working leg. Let’s them see which is their dominant side.
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Mike Cook, Mason Makos
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Mike Cook, Mason Makos
Coach Mike Cook, Mason Makos
11-14 year olds as they prepare for JO’s
Meet warm up (about 1500)
Pre set
4x
4×50 kick @1:00 (odds fast/easy)(evens easy fast)
4×25 Major @40 (focus streamline and underwater to 3 fast breakout strokes than easy)
Main set
4×200 free
#1 fast first 50
#2 fast middle 100
#3 fast last 50
#4 RACE
4×100 free with fins
#1 first 25 fast
#2 middle 50 fast
#3 last 50 fast
#4 RACE
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Max Cristofori, Head Age Group Coach, Swim Atlanta – Midway
10&U Set for [BB-AAAA 10&U’s]
WARM UP AND ENGAGEMENT
1 X 75 2:30
[25 DOLPHIN DIVES, 25 SCULL, 25 BK/FR COMBO DRILL]
1 X 25 FL SPRINT 1:00
[OTB AND FINISH TO THE FEET]
1 X 75 2:30
[25 ROTISSERIE DOLPHIN KICK, 25 SL JUMP, 25 BR/FL COMBO DRILL]
1 X 25 BK SPRINT 1:00
[GUTTER START + FINISH TO THE FEET]
KICK SET – TITANIC KICK SET
1 X 100 BK K IN SL 2:15
[SHIP IS IN ORDER AND ON A LONG JOURNEY]
2 X 50 BK K IN L POS 1:15
[1 ARM UP IN THE ARM, OTHER BY THEIR HEAD, SHIP IS RUNNING INTO SOME CHOPPY WATER – URGENCY IS NEEDED IN KICKING]
4 X 25 BK K IN SAILBOAT :50
[BOTH ARMS IN STREAMLINE IN THE AIR, SHIP IS SINKING, KICK AS HARD AS POSSIBLE]
2:00 PUT ON FINS – THE SHIP HAS SUNK
4 X 25 FL K W SNORK IN SL :35
[ON THE LIFEBOATS]
2 X 50 FL K ON RHL/LHL 1:05
[LOOKING FOR HELP IN BOTH DIRECTIONS]
1 X 100 FL K ON BK 2:00
[HELICOPTER SAVES THE DAY]
DRILL SET AND TEACHING POINTS
[TEACHING TO GET THE PINKY THROUGH THE WATER]
4 X 25 LONG ARM BK DRILL :45
4 X 25 SAR/SAL BK :45
4 X 25 3R3L BK :45
4 X 25 6K SWITCH BK :40
[PINKY CHOP!]
1:00 REST EXPLAIN FLY DRILLS
[TEACHING THE TIMING OF THE KICK WITH THE ARMS]
4 X 25 HL BD BEO FLY K :45
[HEAD LEAD, BODY DOLPHIN, BREATHE EVERY OTHER, 1-2-3-BREATHE ON THE UP KICK]
4 X 25 POS 11 FLY K :45
[ARMS IN AN 11 POSITION]
4 X 25 RA/LA FLY :45
[RIGHT ARM / LEFT ARM]
4 X 25 333 FLY :40
SWIM SET AND PUT IT ALL TOGETHER
2X
6 X 25 FLY/FR :35
[2+4+5 -> FR, 4 UW BDS THEN 5 CYCLES FLY INTO FREE, THINK OF THE TIMING OF THE KICK FOR THE 5 CYCLES OF FLY – PERFECT!]
2 X 75 BK 1:30
[50 STEADY KICK, THEN FOCUSING ON KICKING HARD IN THE LAST 25]
3 X 50 FR/FLY 1:10
[25/25 – 2ND 25 FLY TRYING TO WATCH KICKING MOTIONS AND HEAD POSITION]
1 X 150 BK 3:00
[NAIL EVERY FLIP TURN, 3-4 BD OFF EACH WALL!]
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This is part of a practice I did recently with our top 11-12s. Our main focus was on underwater kicking. Our pool has a black line across the bottom approximately 9 yards from the wall.
For the 1:00 vertical kick and rotate, we were flutter kicking with our arms folded across our chest, performing a 90 degree rotation about every 5 seconds accompanied by my demonstration.
Texas 25 = push off and streamline underwater kick to the black line, flip, 4 underwater kicks, sprint back to the wall, turn, 4 underwater kicks and sprint to the opposite end. Texas 25 = 45 yards (everything is bigger in Texas).
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Mike Cook, Mason Makos
Gordon Brown, YMCA of Western Connecticut
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Mike Cook, Mason Makos
We took advantage of having the whole pool today with our 12 and unders today. We got some really good results from this set leading into our first meet this weekend after the holidays
Mike Cook, Mason Makos
This was built off the last 3 weeks. Tuesday was a free day with 200s. No interval today. All on coaches go. Focus on the rules as you work through it
1 of our favorite ways to start practice is w/ a good quote. Here’s a bunch to try, conveniently divided by the occasion in which you might want to use them: https://swimmingwizard.com/e-books/
Mike Cook, Mason Makos
Josh Sinclair, Australia
Editor’s Note: This set was first published to this blog in 2016
Keith Haynes
Head Coach
Caradon Swim Club
Below is a Breaststroke set I ran this evening with my age group swimmers – although I think age group is different in the US, so 11 – 14 year olds. They said they really liked it and that it was easy! Outrageous.
I love doing descending work with this age group, as when it comes to a race situation they really understand the concept of applying more effort throughout a race to maintain speed even though they are getting tired. Just like when we do descending work in training!
Clearly I was too generous with the turnaround times, but I will get them back on Tuesday and Friday. So adjust turnaround times to suit your swimmers capabilities or where they are in their training programme…
1 x 100 as 50 F/S – 50 BK on 2.00
4 x 25 BR/S Descend 1 – 4 to sprint speed on 45
2 x 100 as 50 F/S – 50 BK on 2.00
4 x 50 BR/S Descend 1 – 4 to sprint speed on 1.30
3 x 100 as 50 F/S – 50 BK on 2.00
4 x 75 BR/S Descend 1 – 4 to sprint speed on 2.15
3 x 100 as 50 F/S – 50 BK on 2.00
4 x 50 BR/S Descend 1 – 4 to sprint speed on 1.30
2 x 100 as 50 F/S – 50 BK on 2.00
4 x 25 BR/S Descend 1 – 4 to sprint speed on 45
1 x 100 as 50 F/S – 50 BK on 2.00
Editor’s Note: This set was first published to the blog in June 2014.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This a good set for a group of 14 & unders who have improved a bunch over the course of a season. The main idea: have them swim repeat 100s with the goal being to beat their best time from the before the start of the season. The purpose is to show them how far they have come and to build their confidence heading into the championship season.
? X 100 @ 2 minutes rest (at least)
Print out a list of your group’s best 100 times prior to the start of the season or after the first meet and post it to the wall. Each swim performed under that time counts as a point for the group. Give them a point total to shoot for as group (maybe a clever incentive too) and then watch them destroy it!
Important: Do this with a group that has already seen great improvements, or have them do only 100s of the strokes in which they have improved.
Coach Mike Cook, Mason Makos
Mike Cook, Makos Swimming
Warm up
200 mixer x25
200 kick
4x
3×50 free all out
Round 1@50 rest 30
Round 2 @45 rest 45
Round 3 @40 rest 60
Round 4@35
Pre set technique
12 x75 back 25 kick 25 shotgun 25 fast swim @1:15
REPEAT THE 50 set from above but with backstroke and fins fast tempo
200 easy kick
Main set
8×25 breast stroke (get stroke count) @35
5×50 breast with fins @50 stroke count -1
4×25 free all out coach send off 2 second apart
5×100 breast with fins @2:00 stroke count -2
6×25 free all out same as above
NO GLIDE IS ALLOWED IN BREAST STROKE TEMPO
WARM DOWN
Greg Johnson, Head Age Group Coach, Greater Pensacola Aquatic Club
