Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Wooodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
I have posted several “Hour of Power” 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). Today’s version is one that I was particularly happy with for our squad for this year.
We used AquaVolo’s 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 “25.”
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
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We got some great results with this one this morning. SCY.
Matt Suits, Tampa Y Stingrays
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This is a tough one.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this one recently. The group had a very positive, motivated vibe and we threw down some very good swims. We did not time the 25s, just asked for effort and concentration.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY. This turned out to be one of our better recent practices, with several swimmers finding new levels of effort within themselves.
Chris Brookover, Mt. Laurel YMCA Phoenix
We are stuck at an hour per workout now, and wanted something fast on a Sunday morning. The anaeroic worked well. Everything in brackets is the “B” interval.
Warm-Up:
1 x 300 @ 6:00
12 x 25 @ :35 – Underwater 3 ea. R-Side,L-Side,Back,Front
Pull:
3 x 100 @ 1:30 [2@1:40]
Anaerobic Swim:
2 X
Rest 1:15 [:45]
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
After two weeks back in the water, we did this one to push the pace and enjoy racing our teammates. To properly social distance, we had swimmers going from both ends of the pool, thus the opposite instructions that allowed me to time both groups. SCY.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This is a two part SCY workout. The first set was freestyle and had two options — long swims for the distance group, 75s for the middle distance kids. We did a 200 ez before the second part, which proved to be quite a challenge.
Part 1
Part 2
This set was first published here in May 2018.
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 timed 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.
This set was originally published to this blog in May 2018.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. Our group responded really well to this set.
This set was originally published here in May 2018
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This pre-set led us to some pretty good performances on the “long quality” 6 x 300s.
This post was originally published to this blog in April 2018
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This was in a 25m pool. The goal on the 85s was to beat your best 100y time.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. We did this IM Set recently. At the conclusion of the set I asked each swimmer two give me two scores on a scale of 1-10. The first score was for how challenging the set was (lowest score was an 8), the second was for how well they thought they did (lowest score was a 7).
Note the stroke instructions on the right were different for each of the four parts on each round. On the 16×25 of the fly round, the EZ 25 was permitted to be freestyle, but on all other rounds all 25s were of the specific stroke.
Total distance: 4,000m
Total time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Q: Why is it called the “I.M. Merry-Go-Round”?
A: Because it looks fun, but after an hour you can’t wait for it to stop!
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This set builds toward a fast finish.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM pool. The goal was to really push ourselves to hold some aggressive times in practice. The main group did the top set while the distance crew did the bottom set.
If done in a SCY pool, I would probably change the goal on the 150 to “beat your best 200 time by :20”
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
For this set we split the group up into distance and mid/sprint to do these sets in parallel. This allowed me to time both groups by myself on a single watch. Both groups commented that they thought the race pace set was tough but they liked it.
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Remember when everything used to be $1 at the dollar store? Simple and easy to figure out like today’s workout intervals.
Done in 6 sets of 10. Everything is @ 1:00. Every set finishes with 1:00 vertical kick with hands out of the water. This allows time to see the next set of 10. FPA = Fastest Possible Average. JMI = Just Make It
Set #1 — 3 x ( 25 no breath free + 50 choice FPA + 75 JMI) + 1:00 vertical kick
Set #2 — 4.5 x (50 choice FPA + 75 JMI) + 1:00 vertical kick
Set #3 — 3 x (75 choice FPA + 50 ez choice) + 100 Free FPA + 50 ez + 100 Free FPA + 1:00 vertical kick
Set #4 — 3 x ( 25 no breath free + 50 build w fast turn + 75 choice FPA) + 1:00 vertical kick
Set #5 — 25 all out + 50 ez + 50 all out + 50 ez + 75 all out + 50 ez + 50 all out + 25 ez + 25 all out + 1:00 vertical kick
Set #6 – 4.5 x (100 free FPA + 50 ez) + 1:00 vertical kick
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Coach Mike Cook, Mason Makos
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