Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set in a 25 m pool with a stretch cord stretched across the lanes at the halfway mark. We used hockey pucks on the bottom so the swimmers could tell where the stretch cord was located.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The first 25 underwater kick will suck the oxygen out of you..then you gotta hit a FAST 50. 75 easy to recover, then do it again. SCM.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This workout involved two stations – one working underwater kicks and one doing an IM set. We did each station 3 times — the cord set was the same each time, and the IM set progressed through the three versions listed. The 3rd round was essentially a broken 400 IM.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We generally don’t do “recovery workouts.” Not because I don’t believe they have benefit, but rather because rarely do I have an entire group on the same page where that is what they all need at the same time.
Today was one of those rare times. Most of the group has just come off their high school state championships. We spent time at the beginning of practice going back over what we learned, how we swam, and what we can do better next time.
Here was the main block of the workout:
3 x 10:00 fartlek @11:00
#1 – 10 cycles kick against the wall at every wall then great underwaters on the push off
#2 – 25 drill/25 build done as 50 free/50 no free
#3 – all choice, sprint 1 cycle on first lap, 2 cycles on 2nd lap up to 4 cycles on fourth lap, continue that pattern.
3 x 500 kick @ coach’s go
25 fast -25 ez
50 fast- 50 ez
75 fast-75 ez
100 fast-100 ez
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
On the 25s, the goal was to hold the farthest possible average distance (with some pretty good speed) on each set.
The 225/200/175 was an A/B/C distance dependent on swimmer’s kicking speed. Swimmers chose the appropriate distance for themselves individually.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Mike Cook, Mason Makos
4 rounds odd rounds fly even rounds back. Fast fish kicks underwater get up when you decelerate into fast stroke. Stay with the beep and feel the difference. Fly no breath first stroke. Can not past 15 meter with fins
4x8x25 @35 fins
1st round TT@0.7. 2nd round TT@0.6. 3rd round TT@0.5. 4th round TT @0.4
Now PICK A COMFORTABLE SETTING AND SET YOUR TRAINER 0.1 lower and do the next set
20×50 @50. Odds fly to back evens back with fins
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
On this set, we used stretch cords with a teammate providing the resistance for the 4 x 8 underwater kicks (do all 4x within the 1:00 interval).
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This was a brief underwater kicking set that we did in a SCM pool as a pre-set before yesterday’s post. The instructions were to kick fast underwater to 12.5m every time (this was cut off in the picture below). For the first 6, the swimmers held one paddle out in front of them with the broad surface perpendicular to the oncoming water (to create drag).
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We used stretch cordz for this set. We don’t have power towers, so swimmers partnered up and one person supplied the resistance while the other swam. The real challenge of the set was to hold the stroke together at speed after the resisted sprint cycles.
Coach Doug Russell, Austin Trinity, Austin Texas
We got this base set for under-waters from the women’s program at the University of Arkansas several years ago and we use it often with variations. We call it Soo-E-Pig.
We almost always use it as a fin set. We train in a 25 meter pool. The basic set is 4 under – 1 recovery (we call it “over”) , 3 under – 1 recovery, 2 under – 1 over, 1 under – 1 over. We usually repeat it 4 times though. Today we went with a variation to work our butterfly and up tempo our Freestyle.
Soo-E-Pig
1 6 dolphins – 3 strokes Fly – if not at wall back under water and work finish.
2 5 dolphins – 4 strokes Fly – same
3 4 dolphins – 5 strokes Fly – also
4 3 dolphins – 6 strokes Fly – again
As they work through the set they drop a round in sequence.
Set:
Round 1 Soo-E-Pig > :40
Swim 6 x 50 Free > :40 (Descend 1 – 3, 4 Negative Split, 5 Build, 6 Faster than first three)
Round 2 Soo-E-Pig > :35
Swim 6 x 75 Free > 1:00 (Descend 1 – 3, 4 Ez-Ez-Fast, 5 Ez-Fast-Ez, 6 Fast-Ez-Ez)
Round 3 Soo-E-Pig > :30
Swim 6 x 100 Free > 1:20 (Descend 1 – 3, Descend 4 – 6)
Round 4 Soo-E-Pig > :25
Swim 1 x 200 Free > Goal Time for 200 Free LC minus 3 – 6) They have fins on!
Total 2650 meters SC
Editor’s note: This set was first posted to this blog in June 2014.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Want to have a killer underwater kick in your arsenal for the end of a race? You had better practice kicking hard and fast under fatigue! Try this one:
5x through:
4 x 100 free w/ fins 1 @ 1:10, 1 @ 1:05, 2 @ 1:00
This initial set of 100s is intended to put the athlete in a fatigued state. Then immediately go into:
6 x 25 @ :30 First 2 with fins, last 4 no fins: #1 All UW dolphin kick, #2-6 Max UW kick and then sprint
:30 extra rest to put fins back on.
Editor’s note: This set was originally published to this blog in 2010
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Here is a underwater kicking and sprint combo that we did recently. The part in red was done with stretch cord resistance.
After the kicking pre-set, we did the 60 x 25 set adapted from this article about Gregg Troy’s favorite sprint sets. Turned out to be an awesome day!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff Lynchburg YMCA
This set was a pretty aggressive combination of underwater and surface kicking. We did an extra time through the last part for good measure.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We used these two stations to measure our underwater kicking ability, keeping half of the group busy with some freestyle technique work in the meantime.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set at the end of a long practice that included dryland that was heavy on the legs and a long kick set. The goal was to work some underwater power and then get some “lightning speed” underwater kicks at the end of each round. It worked well, with a few of our swimmers setting personal bests & team records at the 25m underwater kicking distance.
For the part written in green, one athlete wore the belt/cord and a partner stood on the deck and held the cord to provide the resistance.
Ryan Woodruff
