Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Coach Ethan Coleman, Bridgewater College
This is a set we did recently (Sept 17). Since we’re early season we are focusing 200 for everyone in the group today. The set was supposed to be +2 on 200 pace but everyone exceeded expectations. It went so well I had to share it. It’s about 4500 short course meters.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This one hurts. A meat-and-potatoes kind of distance set. SCY.
P500 = 500 pace
Our crew that went on this interval has best 500 times ranging from ~4:40 to ~5:00. We didn’t make P500 the whole way, but several came close.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
Each part of the set is 1,650 yards
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The purpose of this set is to refine our sense of pace and swim at a range of race speeds. SCY.
Alex Muni, Assistant National Coach – NOVA of VA Aquatics
For this one, we were targeting 100 pace and 50 speed. For the 50s off the block, swimmers were instructed to treat the race portion as they would a 50 (rate, power, and breathing (if free or fly)). For the 50s with equipment, we wanted them to get full reach and grab as well as getting as high out of the water as possible with assistance. There was a lot of race pace efforts, so active recovery was built into each swim/rep.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
P200 = Race Pace for a 200 event
EZ = easy
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
After some time off and a few days back to training, we needed to do something fast(ish) not too repeatedly intense. Adding in some active recovery on a generous interval seemed to do the trick.
SCY
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
I like doing sets like this for our middle-distance races. Doing just a few 50s at 500 pace doesn’t do much, but when you add some real quantity and change up the interval with short rest, you start mimicking the burn of that 4th 100 of the race. Warning: this one hurts!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
For this set, our training group was organized into swimmers who specialize in 200 & down (shorter) events and those who specialize in 200 & up (longer) events. For the first two rounds, the instructions were the same. For the last two rounds, we performed the 50s slightly differently.
P200 = Race pace for a 200 yard event
P100 = Race pace for a 100 yard event
P500 = Race pace for a 500 yard event
PMile= Race pace for the 1650
EZ = Easy
The 500 served as active recovery/technique work and preparation for the following set of 50s.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. Split the group. Everyone was one or the other.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
On the 300s, the focus was on breathing every 3 strokes and executing good turns. On the 50s, the goal was simply to be at 1650 free pace (PMile).
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
We started off with a little swimming golf (add your time and cycles, bring the total lower) just to check in with efficiency before we really got going. Blue 50s at 200 race pace with fast 75s sandwiched in the middle. We got an excellent effort on the 75s kick, and that sometimes caused the 50s at pace to be a little off. After the 3rd sandwich, the 4 x 75s kick at the bottom were a surprise (they were not written on the set originally) and a challenge. Opening up the interval a bit and challenging them to rise to the occasion worked like magic.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY
A handful of our swimmers are preparing for an open water swim, so I included some “sighting” practice in the first part of this set. The race portion flowed well from that first part.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
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
Most often, we feature single sets here. This one includes the entire workout as we laid it out for our swimmers at practice. LCM.
Coach Gwynn Harrison, Bridgewater College
Start at 200 and see how many 200’s you can hit at MILE PACE :30 RI (keep doing until you miss pace. If you miss, go 50 easy, then see how many 175’s you can hit at Mile PACE :30RI. Continue all the way down (with the 50 easy after each ‘miss):
150: 25 RI
125: 20 RI
100: 15 RI
75: 15 RI
50: :10 RI
25: :5 RI
The first time I did this set in the fall, the swimmers enjoyed the concept, but it was chaotic. The second time this week it was fantastic, with a few tweaks. Kids need a printout of each goal time and they need to be prepared to honestly keep track of their own made yardage. It also helps to have no more than 3 swimmers to a lane if possible (or start at opposite ends). It forces swimmers who never lead to take ownership of their own set, so they need to start with that fact in mind. Swimmers will go different yardage amounts in this set. When swimmers have completed their 1650, they then must actively cheer for those still finishing. It was a good galvanizing set for our distance group – and a confidence builder!
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
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
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 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
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We used our 1-gallon buckets pulled behind us for the first set and then hit some race pace right afterwards. The interval for the 100s was 2:00. SCM.
Elliot Ptasnik, Head Coach, University of Hawaii
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The Swimming Wizard 