Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA


Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
JMI = just make it. FPA = fastest possible average. Choose the interval that will be challenging but makeable for the FPA 50s.

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
3K1P = Breaststroke drill where swimmer does 3 kicks for every 1 pull. 2 x pullouts = do 2 pullouts off every wall.

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Our breaststroke group had a solid day with this one.


Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
The structure of this set allowed us to have maximum flexibility within our lanes without interval pressure causing poor technique. And we got some great results on the SURPRISE 100!!!

Alex Muni, NOVA of Virginia

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
This set is swimmer’s choice of stroke, though I mostly encouraged back or breast.
Golf = add swimmer’s time and cycle count for the 50, aim for a lower score.

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Our breaststroke group did this set using the green long belt slider from Strechcordz. The double pullout ensures that they feel resistance on all cycles 1-10. We got some excellent results on the descending 100s after the cords.
SCM

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Many breaststrokers struggle on quality sets if they haven’t had a significant amount of breaststroke-specific warmup. This one was a bit of a pre-set specifically aimed at getting the br crew going.

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Wanted to get our breaststrokers a decent volume set and included some drill. They did a nice job with this one.

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
3K1P = 3kicks, 1 pull
2 up/2 Down = 2 normal strokes, 2 underwater strokes

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set the other day with a few of our 13-14 year-olds in SCY. It proved to be a motivating and challenging set.
In each 8:00 part, the goal was to do as many repeats of the given distance and stroke as possible. We recorded the total distance covered, which allowed us to calculate average pace and set goals for possible future sets.

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
3K1P = 3 kicks, 1 pull
2K1P = 2 kicks, 1 pull
2 x P.O. = Double pullouts
SCM

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This set was for a day when we needed some aerobic swimming and some variety. SCM.

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Our breaststroke group did this set recently as preparation for our main race pace set. This set seemed to flow well and then we really had some great results on the race pace set (which I will post tomorrow).
SCY
Explanation of terms:
3K1P = 3 kicks 1 pull drill
2K1P = 2 kicks 1 pull drill
2 up/2 down= 2 strokes underwater, 2 normal strokes
2 x P.O. = double pullouts off each wall

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
In this one, we spent some time working on fly and breast together. It turned out to be a little more challenging than I expected. We did this SCM.
The 50s breast started out with 2 pullouts and swim the rest of the 1st 25. On the 2nd 25, do 2 cycles with a 3-second glide, and then 1 cycle with a 2 second glide, 1 cycle with a 1-second glide, and then hit “speed drill” br (narrow pull, narrow kick, fast hips a la Dave Salo) for the remainder of the 25.
Fly 25s we were looking for a consistently high effort and no breath on the last 7m into the finish.
The 8 x 25 fly is only done once before you head back up the set.

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This little breaststroke split was our last chunk of practice. We only had time to do 2 rounds, but our breaststroke group liked the combination of drill/swim and br/fr.

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
2x through

Brad Herndon, Greensboro Community YMCA
This set worked real well for some fast 200 free and 100 Stroke times this weekend, takes 44 minutes, 11 mins a round, they did this 2 weeks out and were right on their 200 FR and 100 stroke goal times:
4x
3 x 175 FR @ 2:20 (hold goal 200 Fr time)
1 x 75 Stroke Fast @ 1:00
1 x 50 Stroke Fast @ 1:00
1 x 25 Stroke Fast @ 1:00
1 x 25 EZ @ 1:00 (start early after the 25 stroke fast)
Stroke = Swimmer chooses OR some did IMO by Round, but 4th Round = Fly-Back-Breast on the 75, then drop down by choice to finish with 25 of your best stroke (other than fr)
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did the following set to test our fitness and establish some training paces in freestyle and either backstroke or breaststroke. We had swimmers pair up to have one observer for each swimmer. This ensured we got accurate distances and also allowed us to count cycles. We will use this information in future practices.

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this one just as a post-set toward the end of practice.

Head Coach Luis Vidana, Desert Sharks Swim Club, El Paso, Texas

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We were working on the back half of the IM with this one.
FPA = Fastest Possible Average

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY. Every good IMer needs to be a breaststroker. This set worked a little of both. We started from the shallow end of our SCY pool, so the 200 breast included 20 eggbeater kicks in a vertical streamlined position in the middle of each 50 where we would have deep water.

This set was first published to this blog in May 2020.