Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set using a few 50m lanes and a 12m diving well. The diving well has a chain link fence about 12 feet from the dive of the pool that is perfect for anchoring stretch cords. For the buckets/Sox station, we used hockey pucks on the bottom to indicate the distances.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
LCM
We needed an all-purpose practice with a little bit of everything. This set was done in a 50m pool. (Olympic course).
3 rounds:
1 x 400 Free @ 5:20 Paddles & snorkel, steady pace but sprint 2 strokes into every turn
2 x 200 IM @ 3:10 Descend 1-2
3 x 100 No Free
Rd 1 – Descend 1-3 @ 2:00
Rd 2 – 50 fast/50ez @ 2:30
Rd 3 – FPA (Fastest Possible Average) @ 3:00
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Here is a simple set we did mixing up some speed with some intentional smooth swimming, followed by a little low-key technique work.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We have days where the whole group does one workout. Other times, we split by strokes. On this day, we split along distance lines. Part of the group worked around their distance race pace, while the other group did a small number of intense 50s from a dive. The sprinters also watched their 50s back on video and did some active recovery during the 6:00 interval. This workout was in LCM.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This was the second time we set up a series of sprint stations in our long course pool utilizing a 10m diving well and the regular lanes. We got some great times overall.
We rotated through the stations 3x. The buckets we use are like parachutes, but are just 1-gallon buckets from Home Depot.
The run & dive ā50sā in the diving we are really just 20m (10m across the diving well and return), so they got lots of rest there.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This was our full practice from Monday, June 27.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set in SCM. FPA = Fastest Possible Average
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Swimmers could do these whatever stroke they chose.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Most often, we feature single sets here. This one includes the entire workout as we laid it out for our swimmers at practice. LCM.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
OTB = off the blocks. PUSH = from a push (not from a dive). Pick a stroke and stick with it for a round.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
In the pre-set, we used an approximately 10-foot long rope (with a loop in each end) to have a swimmer stand on deck and pull a teammate into a fast turn (imagine a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier accelerating from zero to takeoff) and then sprinting through the breakout and one cycle. P100 = 100m race pace. OTB = off the blocks, FAST!!! EZ = Easy speed. We did this set in a 25m pool.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
OTB = Off the blocks
FPA = Fastest possible average
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This set was a pretty good one for us tonight. Swimmers who were diligent with their efforts got some very good results, particularly at the end. All of the 50s were swimmerās choice of stroke, but the instructions were to stick with the same stroke for three 50s in a row. We did this set in a 25m pool. The 50s on :40 definitely made them feel the squeeze of fatigue, but they were able to give it a little extra juice when the interval opened up at the end.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA, Virginia
We did all of the 50s from a push until the last round when we went from a dive. Great performance by our team on this one.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Yesterday I posted about a set our breaststroke group did leading up to a main set.
Here is the main set that came next:
P200 = 200 yard race pace
FPA = fastest possible average
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set this week and got some tremendous results. Swimmers got to choose their strokes by round. The 2 x 25s with the bucket seemed to help awaken their speed for the following 100. We did this in a SCM pool.
3x:
1 x 25 fast from start @:40
2 x 25 fast resisted with a bucket @:40
1 x 25 fast (no bucket) from a push @:40
1 x 100 easy swim any stroke 2:30
1 x 100 all out from dive
1 x 400 25 kick/25 swim with paddles and snorkels
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We started this set with about 40 minutes left in practice:
We started doing 50s fast from a dive. I wasnāt sure how many we would do. Just when I thought their enthusiasm (and speed) was starting to wane, I challenged an individual to hit a faster time to end the round for the group and start the 200 easy.
It worked better than I could have hoped. On each round, we had at least one swimmer expand their perception of their capability and get to be the hero for their teammates.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This race pace set is similar to many we have done, but with a twist: on the 5th 50, we drop the interval by :10 to put a little fatigue squeeze on them. It definitely added a difficulty component.
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 āunique challengeā in brackets.
The last challenge was āSave your partnerā. 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
Challenged our group with this one recently. Loved the results. Putting out a high level of effort that many times requires a high degree of focus and desire, but most got it done very well.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did these sets in a SCM pool. The cords provided some resisted power and assisted speed. The bucket set (we use 1-gallon buckets) was a fun competitive challenge and got the juices flowing for the group before we went into the broken 100s.
35m from dive + 65m from push = 100m
Ryan Wooodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
I have posted several āHour of Powerā type workouts on this blog over the years. Each one has been slightly different to work for the swimmers in my group that year, where we are in the season, and what course we were swimming (we train in SCM and SCY). Todayās version is one that I was particularly happy with for our squad for this year.
We used AquaVoloās DragSox and simple 1-gallon buckets to pull behind us.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
LCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
LCM. This set makes use of the 12m diving well that sits alongside the 50m lanes we use. In order to maximize our space with our entire team practicing at once, we occasionally use it this way. For ease of communication, we call one width of the diving well a ā25.ā
We used 1-gallon buckets tied to waist belts for the set of 8 x50, timing each 25 and emphasizing racing a teammate.
For the diving well set, we used the aquavolo drag sox. The contrast between resisted kicking and non-resisted (when we take the Sox off) leads to some excellent speedy UW kicking.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set recently to work on our top-end speed. We used our pace cards to determine our goal times for the 35m sprints. Resisted sprints and dryland exercises helped get all motor units activated for the 35s.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Here is a recent practice of ours in its entirety (except the dryland, which was included in the 3 hours)
LCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
B3 = breathe every 3
FPA = Fastest Possible Average
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The Swimming Wizard 