Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
We did the vertical kick in the deep end with hands held out of the water. The 10 high-knee jumps happened in a 4-foot shallow end. The 10 squats were done on the deck.
Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
We did the vertical kick in the deep end with hands held out of the water. The 10 high-knee jumps happened in a 4-foot shallow end. The 10 squats were done on the deck.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This is a full workout for a first long course course practice of the season focused on butterfly. This is after a 15-20min warmup:
Pre-Set
9 x 100 @:20 rest
#1 Dolphin kick on side
#2 8 Dolphin kicks on side, 1 cycle fly
#3 6 diolphin kicks on side, 2 cycles fly
Main Set
2x:
4 x 150 @ :15 rest, 10 cycles strong fly then steady free each 50
6 x 100 @ :10 rest 14 cycles strong fly then steady free each 50
8 x 50 @ :50
Round 1: All fly Descend 1-4 and 5-8
Round 2: #1,3,5,7,8 are FPA fly, #2,4,6 are free B5
Kick Set with Freestyle
6 x (75 fast kick try to best best 100 LCM time + 25 EZ kick ) @2:20
1 x 200 freestyle descend cycle count by 50
4 x (75 faster + 25) same as above
1 x 200 freestyle descend cycle count by 50
2 x (75 faster + 25) same as above
1 x 200 freestyle descend cycle count by 50
Warm down
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The blue 25m is underwater kick off the blocks for time.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Golf = cycle count + time (in seconds). Aim for a lower overall score
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. This one worked great for our group. “UWK” equals “underwater kick”. Be sure to only do this type of set with mature swimmers who understand how to safely work on this skill. No hyperventilation permitted – ever!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We love using vertical kicking to work the legs and practice alignment of the body. The :30 vertical kick is done with the hands out of the water. The :20 is with head on hands (a little more difficult), and the :10 is done in a streamline position (most difficult). There are endless variations and permutations one could make to this structure.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We have had many posts on this blog using the “Golf” concept (adding seconds swum and cycles taken over a distance and aiming for a lower score). Here is a twist to that concept focusing on underwater dolphin kicking
6x (1x 100 back, fly, or free + 1 x 50 EZ) @ 3:00
On the 100s, get your time and then SUBTRACT the total number of dolphin kicks that you took in the 100. Calculate your score during the EZ 50. Give a high level of effort on the 100 and aim for a lower score each time.
Example:
Swimmer goes 1:08 in the 100 back and took 7 dolphin kicks off each wall (28 total), the golf score would be 40.
68 seconds – 28 dolphin kicks = 40
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY. JMI = just make it (easy). Swimmers can choose their kick, but it must be consistent on all the even 100s.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
3:00 kick is just steady pace, choice of kick. All 25s are maximum CONSISTENT underwater kicks.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This one has a little bit of everything.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Coach Blake Proffitt, SwimRVA
SCY
A few terms to define:
HVO = race pace (or faster) dive 25
RIMO = Reverse IM order (Fr-Br-Bk-Fly)
KOB = Kick on Back
UDK = Underwater dolphin kick
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
For this set, we had a diverse group of athlete abilities and speeds. This format allowed swimmers to choose their level of challenge.
The distances under each set represent the options, with the base pace written under each distance.
SCY
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We have done something very similar in the past. This was modified from other versions to include a certain number of kicks rather than a specific underwater distance. UWK = Underwater Kick. SCM.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This set was done a day after a very intense quality set of 50s. The aim was to be a bit less intense while covering some distance, then hitting a leg-heavy backstroke set. SCY.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Blastoffs were done in about 10 feet of depth, pushing off the bottom and dolphin kicking in a streamline position through the surface.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Coming off a 3.5-day championship meet that was pretty successful for us, the main part of our top group took a day off and then did this set on the first day back. Lots of kicking and freestyle to swim the meet out and get our legs behind us again.
We did this in a SCM pool.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Each round of this set, we swapped in a mystery set that the swimmers did not know ahead of time as the “unique challenge” in brackets.
The last challenge was “Save your partner”. Each swimmer had to swim a 100 off the blocks under a certain coach-determined time. Fail to make the time and your partner has to do it too. It was a somewhat clumsy attempt to get some peer-pressure motivation going.
The rest of the set worked well, with some of the unique challenges being a bit off-the-wall.
FPA = Fastest Possible Average
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
I thought I had this one planned out pretty well… turns out we had to insert a 25 EZ with the :40 rest t I get back to same end as our fins.
All in all, it was a good set.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The ? for the fly swims off the blocks were a 50, 100, 150, and on the 4th round swimmers had the option to do a 200 or to do a 100 with the goal to beat the time from round 1 (or face a second 100 from a dive). This set went very well for us.
Coach Emily Wylam, University of Rochester
NB = No breath
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA