Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
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
All IMs were 100IM repeats, with fly kicking on back in stead of fly swim. All free up to the 500 was with snorkel. All free after that with paddles breathing every 3 and 4 dolphin kicks off the wall. SCM
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. Swimmers did IM set plus either the breast or back set
Coach Ethan Leach
This set is called “Meat Grinders.” It says to do 2 rounds, but it was built to be stopped around halfway through the first round and started over, pushing the swimmers to their limit.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
The last part was essentially a broken 400 IM. Swimmers said they liked the set and did well on the last portion.
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Coach Mike Pestorius, Somerset Valley YMCA
Water! It’s easy for us as coaches to take it for granted. It only makes sense then, that we should try to ensure that every human being has access to clean water. We have started a campaign through charity:water to help end the water crisis in Africa. To find out more or donate, see Swim Coaches for Clean Water
Coach Mike Cook, Mason Makos
Putting all the IM work and wall work into a workout for IMX.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Water is what we as coaches and swimmers are all about. We have started a campaign to help end the clean water crisis in Africa. To find out more or donate, see Swim Coaches for Clean Water
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. These two sets were a pre-amble to our main set.
FrIM = FreeIM, which is IM with Freestyle in place of fly.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. We split the fly out into intervals that allowed us to not have to dodge swimmers coming the opposite direction. We got some pretty good efforts on the black parts, and some had the option to do bk-fr instead of bk-br-fr.
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Mike Cook, Mason Makos
We took advantage of having the whole pool today with our 12 and unders today. We got some really good results from this set leading into our first meet this weekend after the holidays
Mike Cook, Mason Makos
This was built off the last 3 weeks. Tuesday was a free day with 200s. No interval today. All on coaches go. Focus on the rules as you work through it
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
F.T. = fast turns
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Ryan Woodruff
This set was intended to focus on the middle part of our IM swims. Every swim has a 100 back/100 breast in the middle. That 200 is the focus of the set, and we aimed to descend that 200 across the 8 swims. Any distance before or after that 200 is freestyle. We did this in a SCM pool.
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Chris Brookover, YBCC Phoenix
This one is simple and could be changed around but it turned out really well. The fly 25’s turned out to be more of a kick set than swim.
A+ had 1:20 Base for the IM, A had 1:25 and B 1:30
6 x 25 @ :35 Fly – Minimum FIVE Kicks
4 x 100 @ 1:20 – 25 FR / 25 BK / 25 BR / 25 FR
Rest :40
6 x 25 @ :35 Fly – Minimum FIVE Kicks
Rest 1:00
8 x 25 @ :40 Fly – Minimum SIX Kicks
3 x 200 @ 2:40 50 FR / 50 BK / 50 BR / 50 FR
Rest :40
8 x 25 @ :40 Fly – Minimum SIX Kicks
Rest :40
10 x 25 Fly @ :45 Minimum EIGHT Kicks
2 x 300 IM @ 4:00 75 Free / 75 Back / 75 Breast / 75 Free
10 x 25 Fly @ :45 Minimum EIGHT Kicks
Rest :30
12 x 25 Fly @ :50 Minimum NINE Kicks
1 x 400 IM @ 5:15 100 FR / 100 BK / 100 BR / 100 FR
12 x 25 @ :35 EZ FREE
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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
Ken O’Reilly, Scarlet Aquatics
For this workout, there are about 24 athletes in 4 lanes. In order to facilitate competition during practice, we have 3 swimmers start from each end of the pool in each lane and put a cone on both sides at the middle of the pool. This allows kids starting from opposite ends to race — whomever passes the cone first as they go in opposite directions is winning.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
A fartlek is a continuous swim for a certain amount of time, where the instructions change during the swim.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Mike Cook, Mason Makos
Coach Mike Cook, Mason Makos
For the backstrokes and breast strokers with IM to finish the day off
Our warm up has included these 20 underwater dolphins for the last three weeks. With the goal being 12.5 on odds and 10 meters on evens. Last 4 are always to 15 meter mark. Kids really feel it is improving their turns
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. This was a pretty challenging IM set for us. Once you get past the 4 x 400, it sort of seems to roll downhill, gathering momentum. IMO = IM order. Thus, a 400 25 IMO/75 free would be done as 25 fly/75 free/25 Back/75 free/25 breast/75 free/25 free/75 free.
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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 Lee
Shawnee Mission Northwest High School
Here’s a set we threw down to get aggressive with their 200 speed. Added battle ropes to produce forearm fatigue as they travel down the rabbit hole of the 200.
1st Round
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This set was a challenging one for our crew… we had about 50% success with the 100s at P400IM. At the conclusion of this set, we took about 2:00 rest and then did a broken 200 IM. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
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