Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. We needed some steady swimming at a moderate pace after a few days of intensity and racing at meets. Also wanted to get some fly in but wanted to make sure they didn’t have to “dodge” or take one-arm strokes thus the 25 swim/25 KOB (kick on back).
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Four intervals here. The ‘D’ did 250/175 on the B interval and went 6 x 100 instead of 7.
Coach Jorge Fernandez, Falfins Swim Team
Here is a set the mid. dist./dist. freestylers did Tuesday 12/18. We train at Wolf Ranch Rec. Center in Colorado Springs at 6400 feet so I have to give them more rest on certain sets and repeats. The focus on the 200’s was to get out strong and steady, the 50’s focus was the middle part of the race where you have to be more aggressive getting out of your comfort zone, and the 25’s focus was to bring it home with a great tempo and legs. Also on the 25’s I had a few kids do their specialty stroke like fly, breast, or backstroke focusing on their 100 goal pace.
5×200@2:40 pink +5×50@50 red +4×25 beat the beep with a tempo trainer.
Regroup after beat the beep. Individuals have different times to beat. So 1 to 1.5 minutes rest before the 200’s.
4×200@2:40 pink +4×50@50 red +4×25 beat the beep with a tempo trainer.
Regroup.
3×200@2:40 pink +3×50@50 red +4×25 beat the beep.
Regroup.
2×200@2:40 pink +2×50@50 red +4×25 beat the beep.
Regroup.
1×200@2:40 pink +1×50@50 red +4×25 beat the beep.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Chris Brookover, YBCC Phoenix
Warm Up
1 x 400 @ 6:00 Loosen\
4 x 50 @ :45 Drill w/ Forearm Fulcrums
4 x 100 @ 1:30 Descend 1 4
Anaerobic – In Groups off the Blocks:
6 x 75 @ 4:30 – [Two in a Row The Same IM is Two Fly/Btk/BR, Two BK/BR/FR]
Aerobic
3 x 300 @ 4:00 Free
3 x 300 @ 4:30 IM [100 Back / 100 Breast / 100 Free]
3 x 150 @ 2:00 Free
3 x 150 @ 2:15 IM [50 Back / 50 Breast / 50 Free]
3 x 150 @ 2:45 Kick – Choice – Same per 150 [ :55 Base]
3 x 75 @ 1:00 Free
3 x 75 @ 1:05 IM [ 25 BK / 25 BR/ 25 _tatfFR]6t593r8dws
3 x 75 @ 1:20 Kick Choice [ :53.5 Base]
Kicking:
4 X
6 x 25 @ :25
Rest :40
Swim Down
4 x 75 @ 1:30
3 x 50 @ 1:00
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This set starts with partner slingshots:
Archer 1 involves a 6-Count pause during freestyle in position just after the hand exits the water. Archer 2 is a similar pause later in the stroke, with the elbow at its highest point even with the shoulder.
Paddlehead drill involves putting a hand paddle on top of the head and using the resistance of oncoming water during balanced swimming to hold it there.
B3 = breathing every 3 atrokes
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
How good can your habits be on this set?
SCM
JMI = Just make it
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The next issue of “the wake-up swim” is coming soon. Sign up here to get this instant swimming goodness in your inbox every Tuesday.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The next issue of “the wake-up swim” is coming soon. Sign up here to get this instant swimming goodness in your inbox every Tuesday.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Have you seen our free e-book “The Quotable Swimming Coach”? Preview and download it for FREE here.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY. This one was “milers only”.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Black parts are freestyle breathing every 3 strokes (B3) and doing 4 underwater kicks (4DR).
Green parts were either IM or Back/free depending on swimmers’ specialty.
Intervals were pretty tight for our kids (this set was done in short course yards). We had some pretty good performances toward the end.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This set went really well for our middle-distance and distance freestylers. Those who have legitimate best mile and 1,000 times used those respective paces. Others who have only a legit 500 time used the alternative +2 and +1 paces for the first two parts.
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Alex Morris, Kansas City Blazers
Start with good form/quality, then build tempo and effort throughout the set, aiming to finish around 1000 pace/tempo. Use 150’s as active rest
150 bk/br/fr @ 2:15
100 free @ 1:15/1:20
150 bk/br/fr
200 free @ 2:25/2:35
150 bk/br/fr
300 free @ 3:35/3:50
150 bk/br/fr
400 free @ 4:45/5:05
150 bk/br/fr
500 free @ 5:55/6:20
150 bk/br/fr
600 free @ 7:05/7:35
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This was a simple swim and kick set that got us some good kicking effort. Getting going on the freestyle 200s after the kick also set us up well for a sprint set after this.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set in SCM. This made the challenge at the end a pretty tough one.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
LCM. Our distance group enjoyed this challenging set. The aim on the broken 800s was to go pretty fast, and the set-up allows them to descend their total time.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY. We use the term “fartlek” to mean a continuous swim where we are changing speeds or instructions. In this set, we alternated a fartlek with a brief freestyle set. Swimmers were on either the more “distance-y” left side (milers) or the more middle distance-oriented right side. We came together for the 150s FPA (fastest possible average) at the end.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The purpose of this set was to work the kick in the middle 1/3 of each distance while still maintaining a consistent kick in the first and last thirds.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This was a pretty strong workout for us in week 3 of the season.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
LCM. The intervals for the longer swims were pretty loose on this set, and we got some good results out of the dive 100s, particularly for early in the season. On the black sets, swimmers could pick the freestyle or FRIM (IM with free instead of fly) track. On the purple 100s, the instructions were to pick one stroke and stick with it or go in IM order.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY This one is just a little fly mixed into some freestyle.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
