Mike Cook, Mason Makos

Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
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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Alex Morris, Kansas City Blazers
One round of each stroke, take the average of each round of 3×100 and add together for an estimated 400 IM time.
4 rounds, IM order by round:
4×25 desc 1-4 @ :30
3×100 stroke @ 1:45 best average/AFAP
2×50 kick/scull @ 1:00
1:00 rest between rounds
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Gary Galbreath, Head Coach of the Columbia Swim Club, formerly of the Dayton Raiders
This set was originally published to the blog in 2010.
Here’s a set we did Saturday morning. Just as a reminder it’s base building time! We did it SC meters. Everyone was on the same cycle. The Kick part was the chance to catch up if the were struggling with the Times. It’s just a good Aerobic set. Total 8800 meters
25 Kick@ 30
4 x 50 @ 45 Descend 1-4
Free
75 Kick@ 1:30
4 x 100 @ 1:30 Descend 1-4
25 Stroke/50 Free/25 Stroke
125 Kick @ 2:30
4 x 150 @ 2:05 Descend 1-4
Free
175 Kick@ 3:30
4 x 200 @ 3:00 Descend 1-4
BackStroke
225 Kick @ 4:30
4 x 250 @ 3:15 Descend 1-4
Free
275 kick@ 5:30
4 x 300 @ 4:30 Descend 1-4
100 IM/100No Free/100 Free
325 Kick @ 6:30
4 x 350 @ 4:25 Descend 1-4
Free
375 Kick@ 7:30
4 x 400 IM @ 6:30
#1 4 x 100 IM
#2 100IM/200 IM/100IM
#3 2 x 200 IM
#4 Reverse 400 IM
8800 meters
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
FRIM = FreeIM (free in place of fly)

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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
LCM

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Editor’s Note: This set was originally published to this blog August 39, 2017
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Editor’s Note: This set was originally published to this blog in December 2017.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
9 x 800 @ 13:00
#1 – straight 800 IM
#2 – done as 2 x 400 FRIM
#3 – done as 4 x 200 IM
#4 – done as 2 x 400 FRIM
#5 – straight 800 IM faster
#6 – done as 2 x 400 FRIM
#7 – done as 4 x 200 IM
#8 – done as 2 x 400 FRIM
#9 – straight 800 IM – all out effort
Descend 1 – 5 – 9
FRIM = Free IM (Free, Back, Breast, Free)
Editor’s note: This set was originally posted to this blog in July 2012
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Fat IM = add a 50 of a stroke
Skinny IM = one stroke is a 50 short of IM

Coach Jorrit Verhaar, Netherlands
As a variation on IM and to focus on endurance and speed, we did some IM stairs. With butterfly and free as the focus of the set and back and breast as a active recovery:
100 easy freestyle
2 x 250 IM Stairs, 20 sec rest interval.
1st stair
1 butterfly 80%
2 backstroke 50-60%
3 breaststroke 50-60%
4 freestyle 80-100 %
20 seconds interval
2nd stair
4 butterfly 60-80%
3 backstroke 50-60%
2 breaststroke 50-60%
1 freestyle 80-100 %
100 easy freestyle.
variation 2
2 sets of
100 easy freestyle
100 IM
100 IM with a * joker :
Keep IM order but replace 1 stroke for of 1 other the strokes.
( example : •worst for best, •slow for fast, •hated for loved)
100 IM
100 IM with a * joker.
100 easy freestyle.
50 the stroke you skipped 😉
We found that
Butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke were replaced in about a 40-40-20 ratio.
It gives sense of swimmer ownership.
And as a coach valuable info about the why a stroke is being skipped 😉
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

The purpose of this set was to promote Cycle Count awareness while doing some strenuous IM work. For the 150, on the first 50 swimmers did 5 cycles fast fly, then 5 cycles fast backstroke on the second 50 and so on…
For the 300, it became 10 cycles for two 50s. For the 450, it was 15 cycles for three 50s.
On the 200s IM, counting the cycles and seeing how they varied from round to round was a great learning experience — our swimmers improved their understanding of how the strokes affect each other within that event.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
The in-between swims are all with a focus on excellent technique.

Gwen Babcock, Dallastown Swim Club
I do a set called GI Joes. It’s like stations with dry land in between. Fun, quick yardage that is easy to get in, and it’s always changing so there is no reason to get bored. Warm up for that, could be 4×200 Swim/Drill or 3×300 Swim/drill/kick. You get the idea.

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
On the second part of this set, we actually cut the 200 down to a 150 and took a shot at our P400IM.

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
LCM

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
IMO = IM order. 1st time is fly, 2nd time is Bk…etc.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The 200 breast included 20 eggbeater kicks in a vertical streamlined position in the middle of each 50 (so we could use deep water. SCY.

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Mike Cook, Mason Makos
