Tag: Freestyle

I Like 200s

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This is a total of thirty 200s.  That can be repetitive, but by mixing up the paces and expectations, a swimmer can get in a real groove on a set like this.  This set is from last winter.  We had a Sunday practice that almost nobody was able to get to due to bad weather.  The one swimmer who ended up doing this set had a phenomenal spring, dropping major time in his freestyle events from 100 to 1650.

SCY

Pacing the 1500 Like a Pro

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

I gave this set (in short course meters) to my distance swimmers recently.  The idea is predicated around Russell Mark’s observations on pacing the 1500 free at the elite level.  He has observed that the very best milers have tremendous front and back end speed but swim at a very consistent pace in the middle.  This set rehearses that concept.

We start off with a 50 pretty fast (near 200 pace) and then follow up with a 100 strong (2-3 seconds slower than 400 pace) and then repeat three consecutive 400s at the same exact speed.  Then repeat the 100 and the 50 to finish a total of 1500m.  Athletes take 20 seconds rest between each swim, meaning their total built-in rest is 2:00 (this makes it easy for determining their swimming time after the fact).  We did a little backstroke for recovery and repeated the broken 1500 twice, trying to descend these repetitions mostly by making our 400 times faster.

Finally, we finished with a straight 1500.  This was icing on an already tough set, but we saw some really good times and I was very pleased with the effort.
Total distance: 6,600m

Freestyle Hidden Challenge Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff
Keith Haynes
Head Coach
Caradon Swimming Club

Ask the swimmers to complete the 200 F/S best effort without indicating what comes next or they will swim deliberately slower than they are capable of. After that record the times achieved on the subsequent distances, 150, 100 and 50m

Set 1

1 x 200 F/S Best Effort for Time

1 x 150 F/S faster than 3/4 of 200m Time on 3.00

1 x 100 F/S faster than 1/2 of 200m Time on 2.00

1 x 50 F/S faster than 1/4 of 200m Time on 60

1 x 200 Recovery

Set 2

1 x 50 F/S faster than time achieved in set 1 on 60

1 x 100 F/S faster than time achieved in set 1 on 2.00

1 x 150 F/S faster than time achieved in set 1 on 3.00

1 x 200 F/S faster than time achieved in set 1 on 4.00

1 x 200 Recovery

Set 3

1 x 200 F/S faster than time achieved in set 2 on 4.00

1 x 150 F/S faster than time achieved in set 2 on 3.00

1 x 100 F/S faster than time achieved in set 2 on 2.00

1 x 50 F/S faster than time achieved in set 2 on 1.00

1 x 200 Recovery

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The ? Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
 
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SCY

? x 50 @ :50
Using a dry-erase board, give the swimmers a different set of instructions for every 50, erasing the old instructions and writing the new one while they swim. Mix it up, changing speeds, strokes, drills, breathing patterns, etc. Don’t let the swimmers know what is coming beyond the next 50. All swims are choice unless the stroke is specified. Here’s an example:
#1- P200+5
#2- P200+3
#3- P200+1
#4- P200-1
#5- EZ free B3
#6- Free B5
#7- Free B7
#8- At count
#9- Race!
#10- At cycle count -1
#11- 25 underwater dolphin kick/ 25 sprint
#12- 25 sprint/25 underwater dolphin kick
#13- 25 race/25 ez kick
#14- Fly B 1 up/1 down
#15- Fly B 1 up/2 down
#16- Fly B 1 up/3 down
#17- Fast fly
#18- EZ breaststroke
#19- Race!
#20- At cycle count -2
#21- 12.5 fast/12.5 ez of same stroke as #20
#22- At cycle count
#23- Breast with dolphin kick
#24- Backstroke 12.5 spin drill/12.5 swim
#25- P1650
…
The set could go on for as long as you like. The changing up speeds and instructions every 50 keeps the swimmers alert and the set fresh and interesting. What other interesting instructions can you come up with?

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Midweek Mile Madness

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Ryan Woodruff
 
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33 x 50 @ :40
   odd at Pmile
   even smooth
400 w/snorkel @ 5:00
11 x 150 @2:00
   #1 at Pmile +8
   #2 at Pmile +4
   #3 at Pmile
   #4 smooth
400 w/snorkel @ 5:00
3 x 550 descend @ 6:30 (1.11 base)
400 w/snorkel @ 5:00

1 x 1650 all out for time

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"The Guessing Game"

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff,  Lynchburg YMCA

This set is useful for helping distance freestylers refine a sense of pace.

? x 100 freestyle @ coach’s send off

Continue until you achieve 3 points.

Earn 1 point by guessing your time correctly within .5 seconds
Earn 2 points by guessing your time exactly to the tenth of a second
Earn 3 points by guessing your time exactly to the hundredth of a second

Swimmers may swim whatever speed they wish.

I like to use the Guessing Game during taper, typically at the end of practice. Once a swimmer achieves his three points, he warms down and is done with practice.

Tip: Be sure to turn off your pace clock or have the swimmers turn away from the clock when you send them off. You don’t want them looking at it – there won’t be a pace clock at the meet!

This set was originally published here 12/3/2009.  Visit our archives for more excellent training sets and ideas.
 

Freestyle with the Northern Kentucky Clippers

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Jason Roberts

Head Coach, Northern Kentucky Clippers
The idea of this set was to start out with a decent pace on the 100’s and descend them down to pace for 1650, while starting off with a very fast 600. I have a young group of boy distance swimmers so these ceiling times were challenging. Our top boy was 6:01, 6:04, 6:01 and on last round of 100’s was :58.4 

6 x 100 on 1:10 Pace for 1650 +:02
1 x 600 on 7:00 AFAP (Boys=6:06)
1 x 100 on 2:00 Recovery
6 x 100 on 1:10 Pace for 1650 +:01
1 x 600 on 7:00 Fast (Boys=6:12)
1 x 100 on 2:00 Recovery
6 x 100 on 1:10 Pace for 1650 +:00
1 x 600 on 7:00 Fast (Boys=6:18)
1 x 100 on 1:30 Recovery

@CSCSwimcoach ‘s 150s Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Chris Plumb
Editor’s Note: This set was previously published here at The Swimming Wizard. It uses Streamline Sticks at a distance of about 5 yards.

2 x 7 x 150

The 150 is always on a total of 2:00

#1: 50 on :30 100 on 1:30
#2: 50 on :35 100 on 1:25
#3: 50 on :40 100 on 1:20
#4: 50 on :45 100 on 1:15
#5: 50 on :50 100 on 1:10
#6: 50 on :55 100 on 1:05
#7: 50 on :60 100 on 1:00
Rest :60
For the second round, go backwards through set, starting with 100 on 1:00 etc.

 

Distance Swimmers’ Delight: The Followup

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
 
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Last week I posted the Distance Swimmer’s Delight workout on this blog.  It was one of our most viewed workouts ever.  This past weekend, several of the swimmers who completed that set competed in a meet.  I thought it would be interesting to compare the results from the practice with results from the meet.

                           Broken Mile   Meet     Broken 1000       Meet      Broken 500    Meet
Swimmer 1            15:47            15:55             9:50                9:26             4:31           4:36
Swimmer 2            16:14            16:29            10:04               9:42             4:41           4:45

I should also mention that all of the times at the meet for these two swimmers were best times except Swimmer 2’s mile (missed best by .03)

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Distance Swimmer’s Delight

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff

We did the following set after about 3,000 yards of warmup, breathing pattern, and technique work.  The efforts were excellent, with swimmers totaling times that were 20-30 seconds faster than their best mile, 10-20 seconds faster than their best 1,000 and 5-10 seconds faster than their best 500.  Enjoy!

Part 1: Broken Mile (all swims finish with a turn or “foot-touch”)
25 @:10 rest
50 @:10 rest
75 @:10 rest
100 @:10 rest
125 @:20 rest
150 @:20 rest
175 @:20 rest
200 @:20 rest
175 @:20 rest
150 @:20 rest
125 @:20 rest
100 @:10 rest
75 @:10 rest
50 @:10 rest
25 @:30 rest
Dive 50 to a hand touch
Take overall time and subtract 4:00 to get total swimming time for the broken 1,650 free

500 easy swim @ 8:00

Broken 1,000 free (all swims finish with a turn or “foot-touch”)
50 @:10 rest
100 @:10 rest
150 @:10 rest
200 @:20 rest
200 @:20 rest
150 @:20 rest
100 @:30 rest
Dive 50 to a hand touch
Take overall time and subtract 2:00 to get total swimming time for the broken 1,000

500 easy swim @ 8:00

Broken 500 free
Dive 25 @:10 rest
50 @:10 rest
75 @:10 rest
100 @:10 rest
100 @:20 rest
75 @:20 rest
50 @:20 rest
25
Take overall time and subtract 1:30 to get total swimming time for the broken 500

500 easy swim @ 8:00

See the follow-up to this set here.

 

Sprint Freestyle Set with Kicking and Breath Control

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
 
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This set mixes kicking with some breath-control sprinting.  We are looking for the sprint 25s to be within about 1.0 seconds of 100 yard race pace.

4 rounds (Round 1 no equipment, round 2 paddles only, round 3 fins only, round 4 fins and paddles);


100 surfer kick (flutter kick, hands in front, head out of the water), sprint the turns @1:50 on rounds 1 and 2, 1:30 on rounds 3 and 4
4 x 25 sprint free 2 or fewer breaths @:20
100 surfer kick @1:50/1:30
3 x 25 sprint free 1 or fewer breaths @:25
100 surfer kick @1:50/1:30
2 x 25 sprint free NO BREATH @:30
300 archer drill (6-ct) #1,#2,#3 by 100 
(3300 yards~52 minutes)

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Cougar Aquatic Club Workout

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Pat Collins

Cougar Aquatic Team
www.cougaraquatic.com


Here’s a set I did with our Senior 1 (National) Group. I thought it went real well, kids loved it, but were dead tired.

The entire pre-set was done on simply 15 secs rest after the leader of each lane would touch. Distance per stroke / cruising speed was expected.
Main Set: Our fastest two lanes did the first two 250s on 3:00 and then the four on 2:50. We have a black line across the middle of our pool at the 12.5 where we expect each swimmer to kick to minimum. The five 250s with no fins were then also done on 3:00, expecting near race-pace on them.

WARM UP (1800)
600 free long/loose
400 Rev. IM d/k/s
16x25s kick on side on :30, :35, :40
6x50s descend w/fins on :40, :45
100 EZ
PRE-SET (1000) 15 secs rest in between each
Technique – DPS
150 – 100 fly/50 bk
150 – 100 bk/50 br
150 – 100 br/50 fr
150 – ALL FREE
400 IM – DPS – perf tech
MAIN SET (3300) varying intervals
2x250s fr/bk w/ fins working UWK
4x250s fr/bk w/ fins working UWK
5x250s free – no fins
50 EZ @ 1:30
500 free for time
COOL DOWN (300)
300 EZ
TOTAL: 6400

"Sneaky "400IMs

Posted on by rdwoodruff
Greg Johnson
Head Age Group Coach
Here’s a great way to make your 10-13 year old age groupers conquer some solid 400 IM work (without groaning and whining…until the end):
6 x
    2 x 50 fly @ 50
    1 x 100 Bk @ 1:30
    2 x 50 Br @ 50
    1 x 100 Fr @ 120
Odd rounds swim order as listed above.  Even rounds flip flop the 100s and 50s 
    1 x 100 fly @ 1:40
    2 x 50 Bk @ 45
    1 x 100 Br  @ 1:40
    2 x 50 Fr  @ 40

Chloe Sutton Freestyle Workout

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Chloe Sutton!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,”script”,”twitter-wjs”);
Mission Viejo Nadadores

@csutswim 10/24/12 17:26

Here’s my workout today! Total: 10,200 yards. http://pic.twitter.com/RaEtzC26

Distance Freestyle Delight

Posted on by rdwoodruff
Ryan Woodruff
ryan.d.woodruff@gmail.com

LCM

Warmup – 400 swim, 4 x150 d-s-b, 4 x 50 20m sprint/30 m easy all @:20 rest

2 x 800 @ 10:15/10:30 (1:16 and 1:19 base)
#1 negative split, #2 broken, fast with :30 rest at 400 mark
2 x 100 at Pmile+2 @ 1:30
2 x 600 @ 7:45/8:00 (1:17 and 1:20 base)
# 1 negative split, # 2 broken, fast with :20 rest at 300 mark
4 x 100 at Pmile+1 @ 1:30
2 x 400 @ 5:15/5:30 (1:18 and 1:22 base)
#1 negative split, # 2 broken, fast with :10 rest at 200 mark
6 x 100 at Pmile @ 1:30

2 x 200 @ 2:45/3:00 (1:22 and 1:30 base)

#1 negative split, # 2 fast with no rest
8 x 100 at Pmile -2 @ 1:30

(Pmile=”at mile pace”)

6 x 150 free with snorkels @ 2:40 50 fists drill/50 swim/50 catchup
5 x 300 @ :20 rest Fastest Possible Average.
This is a broken 1500 with 1:20 total rest.
400 easy swim

Pool Open Water Workout

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
ryan.d.woodruff@gmail.com

Today our Open Water Nationals group did a version of the following set in the pool (SCY) in preparation for the 5k in 1.5 weeks. The aims of the set are to 1) Acclimate the swimmers to tight pack swimming with frequent limb collisions, 2) practice drafting at high speeds, 3) rehearse front end and back end speed that are needed to compete in elite OW races, and 4) simply get in a good distance set. Here is the set:

4 x 50 @ :40 Fastest possible average, swimming 4 swimmers wide in an 9-foot lane.
3 x 100 @ 1:20 fastest possible average, swimming 4 wide
3 x 200 @ 2:20 ascend, swimming in a drafting line, front swimmer rotating to the back after each repeat
6 x 500 @ 6:10 hold steady and strong pace, swimming in normal practice formation, 5 seconds apart, with front swimmer rotating to the back after each repeat.
3 x 200 @ 2:20 descend, essentially the reverse of what was done on the first 3, same draft line and swimmer rotation
3 x 100 @ 1:20 fastest possible average, swimming 4 wide, try to beat times from early in the set
4 x 50 @ :40 fastest possible average, swimming 4 wide, try to beat times from beginning of the set

Easy 200

Follow-up Open Water Skills set:
3x through:
3 x 200 @ 2:20 sight once in every lap
3 x 100 @ 1:20 practice feeding from poolside water bottle on 2nd 25 each time

400 smooth warm down