Tag: Quality

Big Burn Set

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

The goal was to all out on each 75, keeping the ones from a push within the margins listed in the box on the right. Swimmers could choose their stroke but had to do the same stroke for an entire round.

Sprint Set for Meters

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

This set can be done in a SCM or LCM pool. All 35, 65, and 95s are done from a start and times to the head crossing the line.

Athletes are instructed to go all out on the 35. The goal for the 65 equals 2 x 35m time. The goal for the 95 equals the 35m time + the 65m time.

4x

35m sprint, 100 ez @4:00

65m sprint, 100 ez @4:00

95m sprint, 100 ez @5:00

We did the set 4x through to allow our IMers to go 1x each stroke.

Extend the Sprint!

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

The idea behind this SCM set was to challenge our swimmers to maintain “top” speed over progressively longer distances. It turned out to be a very difficult set, but one that went well.

We used our pace cards to set objectives for the 15m sprints, and then the instructions from there were to go “all out” on the 35s.

From there, we set goals for the 55s and so on.

For example:

15m time = 6.6

35m time = 18.2 (difference = 11.6)

55m goal = 18.2 + 11.6 = 29.8

75m goal = 29.8 + 11.6 = 40.4

95m goal = 40.4 + 11.6 = 52.0

This gets difficult quickly! As an alternative to the math above, you can re-calculate the goal after the 55s and the 75s.

One thing I would change would be to give a little more active recovery between swims. We just didn’t have the lane space/time to make this happen.

Racing With Coach Mike Cook and the Mason Makos

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Mike Cook
Mason Makos

We had extra room today and so we decided to have the kids race a lot.  We wanted them to understand that even though they were tired they were still able to get up and race back to back.

WARM UP
24×25 free with snorkels@30 (focus on long stroke head steady)
24×25 back @30 (focus how far can you push the underwater, but you have to be up in 5 seconds)

Pre set
12×50 kick @1:00
12 x50 free pull@1:00 paddles
12×50 free to back @1:00 fast turns hold underwater for 5 seconds

Main set
1×50 free all out for time
10×50 free all out for time with fins ( must beat time fro first)
100 easy kick and get ready for one more 50
1×50 free for time with fins (fastest of day)

We had 24 8-12 year olds and all 8 lanes (3 heats of 8 with one heat swimming at a time. The next heat was responsible for getting the time and letting them know.  The kids had a good time and felt involved with each other.

Did you like this post? Check out Coach Cook’s IM Ready Set and his Broken Miles Set

Race Pace Set for a Well-Oiled (Team) Machine

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This set is a really simple one, variations of which have appeared on this blog multiple times.  I am sharing/re-sharing it today to further explain how we execute this set.

Recently, we moved several swimmers up into our top group, so I have taken that as an opportunity to re-emphasize our procedures.  I like to run a very clean, efficient practice, one where every swimmer knows what he or she should be doing and what the expectations are.

For this set, we had 4 or 5 swimmers per lane across 5 lanes.  The aim of the set is to swim at 200 race pace on EVERY 50, but I instructed them to be mindful of  taking it one-at-a-time.  The early interval gives them good rest to be able to achieve that pace (and build some confidence for later), and then we tighten it up and get a REAL test on #5 and #6.

I typically solo coach 15-25 athletes in a given practice, so in order for things to function efficiently on this set, we do the following:

  • Swimmers push off 10 seconds apart.  This means I don’t have to do any subtracting of times — if I read “Matt…three-two,” he knows that his time was 33.2, not 23.2 or 43.2.
  • Swimmers are timed “to the feet,” meaning they complete a turn at the conclusion of the 50. This corresponds how we would time a mid-race 50 back or free (feet-to-feet) or breast/fly (hand-to-hand).
  • Every swimmer on our squad knows his or her pace for best times and goal times.  Each swimmers always has this info handy using our laminated Pace Cards.
  • I time every swimmer, but with this many swimmers in the pool, I can’t possibly keep track of who is making their pace and who is not, so we have set up a signalling system. If a swimmer achieves her “best time” pace (but slower than goal pace), she gives her self an open-handed tap-tap on the head. If she achieves her “goal time” pace, it is a closed-fist knock-knock on the head.  If the swimmer failed to make goal or best time pace, no signal is performed. This gives me excellent instant visual feedback on how we are doing.

 That’s just one coach’s example of how we keep practice humming right along… what strategies do you use?

Fast Suit Friday

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

One of my favorite workouts of the short course season is “Fast Suit Friday” (we usually do it on Friday) when we have the swimmers bring in an old tech suit and do a timed set off the blocks.  Here is one of our quality sets from the past:

8 x 75 all from a dive
4@ 3:00
2 @ 2:30
2 @2:00

400 smooth swim focusing on good habits

8 x 50 all from a dive
4 @ 2:00
2 @1:30
2 @1:00

400 smooth swim focusing on good habits

8 x 25 odds from a dive, evens from a push
4 @1:00
2 @:40
2 @:20

400 smooth swim focusing on good habits

75s Quality Set

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

Had a little fun and did some good work with this one the other day.

4 x 75 FPA from push @ 1:30
200 ez
3 x 75 FPA dive/push/dive @1:30
200 ez
2 x 75 FPA dive/push @ 1:30
200 ez
1 x 75 all out from dive
200 ez

Strong Quality Set with Sarpy County Swim Club and Coach Nick Baker

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Nick Baker
Sarpy County Swim Club

This workout is from our second week back from a 3 week break. The 4 minutes on the first 100 was a little too much rest but being the first week back it worked out ok. The main set (5x) was for 200 pace work, all free. The 2×25 sprint were to simulate the 3rd 50, where swimmers need to really hit it hard. The final 150 had a 50 sprint kick to bring a 200 home with a hard kick, then 100 recovery for in between sets.

Broken 200s and 100s Quality Set

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This was a little quality set with some broken 200s and 100s that we did recently.  The first set was just a pre-set to get us ready.  “Sprint the blue” refers to the solid blue part of our lane lines that is between the backstroke flags and the wall.  Swimmers sprinted the 5 yards into and out of each wall.



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What’s Your Magic Number? Make It and You Are Done!

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

The Magic Number set will challenge your swimmers mentally and physically.  Here is how it works.

  • The set is 7 x 100 @ 7:00 all out from dive (or any other distance and interval that you choose). Make sure there is a sufficient enough recovery time for your athletes to really be ready to go for the next repeat.
  • Before the set write down goal times for each athlete.  Try to make them very challenging but do-able.  For our team, I set them a bit faster than lifetime best practice times, frequently within 2 seconds of actual lifetime best times.  These times are the “Magic Numbers” for each swimmer.  Achieving this time means the swimmer is done with the set.  

  • But here’s the kicker — don’t let the swimmers see their Magic Numbers before the set.  Let them wonder what it might be — this will help them race without putting a mental limit on how fast they can go!  Only after they have completed a few rounds should you show them the Magic Numbers.

  • When our team did this set, we had some athletes  make their Magic Number on #1.  They relished “just going for it” without knowing what the real goal was.  Others swam hard but weren’t able to dig REALLY deep to go fast until after they find out the goal.  Some swimmers completed the set without ever meeting their Magic Number, but nearly all of them had their best-ever sets of 100s from a dive.