Tag: Holidays

Awesomely Fun Halloween Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

We did this set last year on Halloween with our top group. The sets each have a slight Halloween theme. “Candy Clash” was a race where the group was divided up into three teams and each team had to put up at least one team member for a race, and each team member had to participate in one Candy Clash. Candy Clash swims were handicapped to best times and Candy was awarded to the group with a system similar to point scoring at a meet… 9 pieces of candy for first, 5 for second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth, and 1 for fifth. At the end of the night, each team split up the candy as they saw fit.

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Halloween Workout with Coach Trip Breen

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Coach Trip Breen, Wilmington College (OH)

10/30/18 AM HAPPY HALLOW WORKOUT SCM

1 X 500 FULL MOON (KEEP YOUR SHORTS ON) BIG FREE – EXIT THE WATER AFTER EACH 50 – HOWL AND MAKE A CLEAN ENTRY DIVE….

1 X 300 – TRICK OR TREAT…SMELL MY FEET – PARTNER SWIM – SWITCH AT EVERY 25 – PULL THE DEAD WEIGHT BEHIND YOU! – MAKE A CONNECTION

9 X FRANKEN 50’S – DR. Frankenstein made sure his monster stood tall and was incredibly powerful.  With a little electricity he came to life.  SHOCK your coaches and swim with great posture and power!

2 x 50 @ 200 RQ 1:00

1 PERFECT

X 3

1250

9 X EGYPTION 75’S – DON’T LET ANYTHING BLOW OUT YOUR SPHINX-STER, AFTER THIS IS OVER YOU WILL WANT YOUR MUMMY – MAKE SICKLE!!!!

3 1:03/1:06/1:10/1:12

3 :58  /1:01/1:07/1:09

3 :54 /:58  /1:04/1:06

675/1925

PSYCHO STARTS….They will Horrify the Competition!

4 x Psycho Starts – Brutal Breakouts-Killer Finishes!!!!

100/2025

TREAT (JUST KIDDING) NESTLE “CRUNCHES” – 75 V-UPS + 75 TWISTED TWIZZLERS

NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET KICK SET!

1 X 400 – 25 LURKING LUNGES – 25 FREDDIE KRUEGER KICK…TEAR YOUR LEGS TO SHREDS!!!!

400/2425

TRANSYLVANIA 200’S – WILL SEND THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON LOOKING FOR DRY LAND! MAKES THE WOLFMAN WISH THERE WAS NO FULL MOON! MAKES A WARLOCKS WAND GO LIMP, ZOMBIES WANT TO GO BACK TO JUST BEING DEAD…EVEN DRACULA THINKS THESE SUCK!!

1 BROKEN @ 100 :20

1 BROKEN @ 50’S :10

1 BROKEN @ 25’S :05

600/3025

1 X 300 EASY – SWIM IT, THEN BOOGIE..MAN

300/3325

STUDY!  I KNOW THAT IS SCARY, BUT GOOD SPIRITS WILL SUROUND YOU WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED!

Thanksgiving with Coach Tony Carroll of the Lakeside Seahawks

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Tony Carroll
Lakeside Seahawks

Editor’s note: After we posted this workout, it was brought to our attention that Coach Don Heidary is the likely inspiration for this workout.  You can see Coach Heidary’s workout here.  Thank you to Coach Carroll for putting his spin on it.

See Coach Carroll’s other contributed workouts:
Workout Combo with Coach Tony Carroll
Pi Day Practice

Not the 12 Days of Christmas!

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Keith Haynes
Head Coach
Caradon Swimming Club
 
Here is a session for any coaches looking for something different to the 12 days of Christmas!
 

Friday 23rd December 2016 – Performance
Keith’s Christmas Carol Session
IM – 1 x 800 Reverse IM – fly as 3 Left, 3 Right, 3 Full
Not F/S – 1 x 200 Choice (Not F/S)
Tumbles – 6 x 20m Max Speed Tumbles from and too 10m
Hard – 4 x 100 Choice All Out Max Effort on 2.00
Easy Swim – 1 x 200 Easy as 50 BK – 50 F/S – 50 Kick – 50 F/S
BK and BR/S – 4 x 75 as 1. 75 BK, 2. 50 BK – 25 BR/S, 3. 25 BK – 50 BR/S, 4. 75 BR/S on 1.30
Long Distance – 1 x 800 F/S + Paddles
Easy Swim – 1 x 150 Easy as 50 BK – 50 F/S – 50 Kick
Arms Only – 4 x 50 F/S Pull breathing 1. 3/3, 2. 3/5, 3. 3/7, 4. 3/ No Breathing on 60
Kick – 8 x 25 Fast Kick + Fins on 40
Medley Relay – (1 x) 4 x 50 Medley Relay
IM – 2 x Suicide IM’s as 25 Fly on 28, 25 BK on 26, 25 BR/S on 24, 25 F/S on 22
Decsend – 4 x 75 F/S Descend 1 – 4 on 1.30
Winning – N x 25 Races, once you win a race you get to rest!
IM – 1 x 300 IM
No. 1 – 1 x 200 No. 1 (Not F/S) distance per stroke
Two Handed Turns – (2 x) 4 x 20m as 1. Fly, 2. Fly – BK, 3. BR/S, 4. BR/S – F/S from and too 10m
Easy Swim – 1 x 100 Choice Easy
Recovery – 1 x 250 as 50 BK – 50 F/S – 50 DA BK – 50 F/S – 50 BK
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

The Cookie Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We did this set yesterday.  Our goal today was to get in some quality fast swims of all strokes. We train primarily in a SCM pool, so it is sometimes a challenge to relate training times to SCY race times.  Today’s set was an attempt to do that and it worked very well.

7 x 85m from a start @ 7:00
– timed to head crossing the line.

– first four swims had to be of athlete’s best 100 yard event
– last three were choice
– we left one lane open for warm-down between swims
– Goal: Beat your best 100 yard time. In order to meet this goal, athletes had to swim at around 93% of race pace, as 85m is about 93 yards.  I estimated that this would be a difficult challenge for seven consecutive swims that began after we had already been practicing for an hour.

We had 19 people at practice, which meant there were 133 total swims.  As a group incentive, I promised the swimmers that if they beat their best times in at least 80 of the 133 swims, my wife would bake them cookies for after our Christmas Eve morning practice this Saturday.

They started out a bit behind pace to make the 80 mark on the first round, but came on strong in rounds 2 through 4 to achieve the group incentive with 1 round to go.

Fire up the oven, honey!

The M & M Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This is a fun concept for practice you can do any time, but I like to save it for a special occasion.  In this case, we did it on New Year’s Eve.  I buy a bag of M & Ms, and write a set on the board that corresponds with each color in the bag.  I pick a swimmer to pull an M&M out of the bag (without looking) and then we do that set.  Then, I replace the set with another one in case the same color gets pulled by the next swimmer.  The sets can be anything you want, but I like them to be creative, different, or at least something that we don’t do very frequently.  Use it as an opportunity to be creative.

11-11-11 Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Parkland Aquatic Club

Can you have a once-in-a-lifetime set to celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime day?

11 x 100 free @ 1:11
Possible instructions:
– Kick out 11m off every wall
– Breathe every 11
– Get 11 seconds of rest each time
– Take 11 strokes or fewer each length
– Use 11 dolphin kicks off every wall
– Take 11 breaths total in each 100
– Descend by 11 seconds from #1 to #11
– Be within 11 seconds of your best time on every swim
– Come up with 11 different technical things to work on and focus on one for each 100
– 11 strokes – 11 kicks – 11 strokes drill
– Start the set at the 11:11 on your pace clock
– Perform the set with 11 people in your lane
– Tell your coach 11 reasons why you liked the set!!!

A Great Halloween Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

We found this one on the USMS website from Coach Mike Collins at NOVA Masters.

Special “Evil” Practice – Come if you dare!

Warm-up:
ae – 200 Free + 100 Back + 100 Breast
i – 150 Free + 75 Back + 75 Breast
r – 100 Free + 50 Back + 50 Breast

1 x 400/300 Evil Free Swim
No wall turns. Turn at the “T” WITHOUT touching the bottom.
Every 4th length Fly w/ Breast kick.

7 x 50’s of Progressive Pain (w/ Fins)
25 FAST Fly + 25 Free
Do pullouts at the turn as follows:
#1- 2 pullouts #2 – 4 pullouts
#3 – 6 pullouts #4 – 8 pullouts
Then back down 6-4-2 to make 7 50’s
Interval increases by 5 with more pullouts and decreases by 5 as they are
taken out

Zombies in the Grave Kicking – 6/4 x 50’s @ :20 RI (w/ Fins)
25 kick on back with arms straight up in the air shoulder width
apart – Kick like HELL!
2nd 25 of each 50 is Backstroke Swim

Swim – 6 x 100 Insane IM’s & Sanity Free @ :20 RI
Odd 100’s – Insane IM’s. Use different kick for each stroke
Fly w/ Flutter kick
Back w/ dolphin kick
Breast w/ flutter kick
Free w/ Breast kick
Even 100’s – Normal swim to return sanity

Suffocating Pull of Death – 3 x (3 x 50’s Pulling)
1st round: 5-4-3 breaths per 50. Beginners start at 6-5-4
2nd round: 4-3-2 breaths per 50
3rd round: 3-2-1 breaths per 50
Intervals :50-1:00-1:10, 1:00-1:10-1:20, 1:10-1:20-1:30

4/3 x Screamer 50’s @ 1:30 or 2:00
25 easy+25 fast
Let out a blood curdling Scream or witch’s cackle at the turn
Leave after the person in front of you screams

A Halloween Set during Adaptation Week (for age groupers)

Posted on by rdwoodruff
Clare Labowitch
Head Coach Darwin Swimming Club
Northern Territory, Australia
5k Pre-Halloween Excursion to the Dark Side (10-15 sec RI throughout)
Warm Up
4 x 100 two headed monsters (a variation of top and tail, this has two swimmers stroking with a kicker hanging on to each of their feet)
8 x 50 ghost slider + stealth free (max uw s/l on side, keep upper body very still, lead with one arm other by side,smooth breakout into no splash free with high elbow recovery)
6 x 50 scare tactics (with fins – 25 uw dolphin 25 max sprint)
Pre-Set
600 vampire chase 2 swimmers begin 20m in front of three other swimmers with fins who work as a pursuit team to catch them – once caught roles are rotated. The third swimmer in the line is the catcher which forces the swimmers to work together)
6 x 50 scramble home relay(swimmers s/l under floating mat then swim to and climb over, best they can, a fitness ball to get to the end).
Main
2[6 x 200 medley mashups (change around medley order/distances and even leave out a stroke for each repeat)
    4 x 50 carrying the weight (dolphin kick on back holding up medicine ball)
Cool down
4 x 50 zombie crawl (25 on back swimming feet forwards; 25 swim freestyle backwards)

Time to Cinco or Swimo

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Ryan.d.woodruff@gmail.com

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo

How many 5’s can we squeeze into one set?

500 free @ 5:55
5 x 200 prime stroke @ 2:45 Descend 1-4, hold 5
500 free @ 5:55
5 x 150 prime stroke @ 2:05 Descend 1-3, hold 4,5
500 free @ 5:55
5 x 100 prime stroke @ 1:25 Descend 1-2, hold 3,4,5
500 free @ 5:55
5 x 50 prime stroke @ :45 fastest possible average
500 free @ 5:55

Descend 500s 1-5. Kick 5 yards underwater off every wall.

Total distance = 5,000 yards