Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Mike Cook, Mason Makos
For senior prep 11-15 year olds. We notice a lack of effort with our flip turns. Knees in a ball and feet not accelerating over the top. We worked on Monday with them and put them through this set today. The whole time reminding them the focus feet over the top and accelerate into the wall.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Swimmers had the option of doing fly, back, or free on this one.
Explanation of terms:
Deep practice = whole stroke swimming with specific technical emphasis. Dr=Drill P.T.=perfect technique. P200 = Race pace for a 200.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. This set really brought on the burn. FPA = Fastest Possible Average. JMI = Just make it. Initially, the 7 x 50 were not written on the board and then were added during the 2nd 200 scull/swim by 25. This added a surprise challenge that they excelled at.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. This set was designed to push to the brink of failure. A few of our swimmers passed that point – all were challenged. Instructions on the first 9 were to make the interval by at least 3-5 sec. The 1×100 @ 2:00 was easy.
Last set of 3 was “just make it”.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. The aim of this free set was to gradually accelerate into some high effort swims.
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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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Jake Lichter, Assistant Men’s Swim Coach, Cornell University
This was a great workout because our guys attacked the first 200 like it was the only one. We had a hand full of swimmers go sub 2:00 with the fastest guy going 1:55.8. It was a challenge for them to maintain the effort as they Ascended because we limited by how much they could slow down. By the time they got to #8 & #9 they were able to recover enough to be able to give a best effort on the final 200 free with most guys under 1:50 and a 1:43.4 as the fastest. OTB = Off the blocks
15:00 Dynamic Dryland
Warmup:
400 Fr-IM
4 x 100 IMO Drill on 1:30
8 x 50 on :50
fly/back
back/breast
breast/free
free/back
16 x 25 IMO Dec 1-4 on :30
20 x 50 kick on 1:00
4 hard 4 ez
3 harder 3 ez
2 harder 2 ez
1 hardest 1 ez
6 x 75 on 1:10
fly/back/breast
back/breast/free
free
10 x 200 on 3:00
Odd: IM Ascend 1-5
#1: OTB For Time #2: No more than 10 seconds Slower #3: No more than 5 seconds slower
Even: Free Descend 1-5
#10: OTB for Time
200 loosen
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Derek Young, Seattle Metropolitan Aquatic Club
Senior Performance –Friday January 10, 2020 (500 freestyle)
1 x 200 (315) w/ snorkel + 12 x 50 (45) FR/BK x 25 (max UWKs) + 3 x 100 (150) kick, descend 1-3
1 x 200 (315) w/ paddle head + 4 x 100 (145) R/L/6 kick switch/swim x 25 + 6 x 50 (130) kick, fast
9 x 50 (115) deadstart sprint FR/stroke x 25 w/ fins
3 x 50 (1) drill + 1 x 50 (55) 500 pace + 2
3 x 50 (55) drill + 1 x 50 (45) 500 pace + 1
3 x 50 (50) drill + 1 x 50 (35) 500 pace
1 x 200 2ABD
6 rounds:
1 x 125 (215) red
1 x 50 (50) 500 pace
1 x 25 (45) easy (+1 x 25 each round)
3 x 150 (3) FR, FR/BK x 75, BK x 150
Broken “500” as
100 + 50 + 100 + 50 + 100 w/ personalized rest
1 x 200 social kick w/ friends
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set in a SCM pool, but it would work just as well in a SCY pool. Overall, our distance crew had a good day with this one.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did four rounds of this set with the same basic structure, changing the intervals and instructions a bit each round. FPA = Fastest Possible Average. SCY.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Challenging set for our milers.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Morgan Cordle, 757 Swim
Jonathan Kaplan, Chris Bushelman, Jessica Laird, and Steve Medei, SwimRVA
This past Saturday, we brought our three teams together in Richmond, VA for a combined long course practice. We had three groups (Sprint, IM/Stroke, and Distance).
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Chris Bushelman led the warmup, which allowed everyone to make a new friend and get to know each other:
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Coach Morgan Cordle led the IM/Stroke Group:
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Coach Jonathan Kaplan led the Sprint Group:
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Initial Speed for 50 free
4 x HVOs
4 x Dive 30m sprint w specific breath placement
*count breaths to come on bottom
*150 easy after each and rest 1:30-2:00
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Sustained Speed for 50 free
(Cone at approx 20m)
With fins, Swim medium tempo no breath to the cone, take a breath, and then sprint 10 cycles no breath, take a breath then finish to the wall. 150 easy after each and rest 1:30-2:00
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100 Finish Speed and Tempo
3 rounds of Countdown Sprints w/Fins
followed by 4 x 25 breath restrictions (breath count goes lower each round)
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Coach Ryan Woodruff led the distance group:
After the workout, we had breakfast together at the pool and had some time for socializing.
Thank you SwimRVA for hosting us all! This was a great idea.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. The interval pattern on this makes for a good challenge. First you have to descend and then hang tough as the interval gets faster!
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This sort of “go until you fail” set is tough, and it seems to get the best out of a motivated athlete.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We played the guessing game the other day at practice. One of my favorite conclusions to practice. On this particular day, had three athletes training long after others who were tapering were out. We did 5 x 100 before achieving the necessary 6 points for the group. One athlete guessed her time exactly to the tenth of a second. Original idea from Gregg Troy.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set in SCM
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Hit 30 cycles of breaststroke on the cord. The 75s focus on dropping the sum of time and cycles (GOLF). 100s free totally focused on technique.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Coach Chris Brookover, YBCC Phoenix
2x through:
4 x 75 @ 1:00
4 x 50 @ :35 – [Target :29 or Under]
Rest :40
4 x 75 @ :55
4 x 50 @ :40 – [Target :28 or Under]
Rest :40
4 x 75 @ :50
4 x 50 @ :45 – [Target :27 or Under]
1 x 100 @ 2:40 EZ
See more sets from Coach Brookover here.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This practice was devoted entirely to long axis strokes – back and free.
The blue set in the middle was a technical progression. The 25 was scull, the 50 was 25 scull/25 kick and rotate, and keep adding a skill or drill up to 150. On the way back down to 25, subtract the skill/Drill from the front end to finish with a 25 Swim.
“People paddle” = free with underwater recovery, like advanced doggie paddle
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this one recently to get some swimming done and hit a little of each stroke before doing some quality swims off the block.
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!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
500 Free Race Pace Challenge Set. Intervals were for SCM for swimmers whose best times are sub-5:00. 50s were do-able, 100s were challenging, and the 150 turned out to be a very tough swim at this point in the season.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This distance set was designed for a medium intensity day — I wanted the swimmers to descend the 600s without going all out. It was also an opportunity to get a better individual sense of how effort relates to heart rate.
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