Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Brad Herndon, Greensboro Community YMCA
This set worked real well for some fast 200 free and 100 Stroke times this weekend, takes 44 minutes, 11 mins a round, they did this 2 weeks out and were right on their 200 FR and 100 stroke goal times:
4x
3 x 175 FR @ 2:20 (hold goal 200 Fr time)
1 x 75 Stroke Fast @ 1:00
1 x 50 Stroke Fast @ 1:00
1 x 25 Stroke Fast @ 1:00
1 x 25 EZ @ 1:00 (start early after the 25 stroke fast)
Stroke = Swimmer chooses OR some did IMO by Round, but 4th Round = Fly-Back-Breast on the 75, then drop down by choice to finish with 25 of your best stroke (other than fr)
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This was our SCY workout this morning. The race pace set at the end came from Mike Anzano of COM Aquatics

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The swimmer who this set was written for has a best time under 2:00.

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY

Editor’s note: This set was originally published to this blog in January 2015
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
…but put a bunch of ’em in a set and soon you’ll be feelin’ pretty groovy.

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Did some fast swimming on this one. In each set, we performed some 50s at 200 pace and then followed it up with some “all-out” 50s, unleashing our performance from the mental constraints of “race pace.”

Coach Luis Vidana, Desert Sharks Swim Club, El Paso, TX

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Jake Lichter, Assistant Men’s Swim Coach, Cornell University
This afternoon workout (following this morning workout) was all about giving them some speed and opportunities to go fast. Our guys are crazy competitive so the flag races were a blast and got them working hard without realizing it. This set them up well going into the 30 x 50.
10 x 50 fr/bk on :50
8 x 75 k/d/s on 1:10
6 x 150 on 2:00 Paddles
O: hyp 3-5-7
E: hyp 5-7-9
4x
4 x 25 from mid pool Dec 1-4 on :30
1&2: no propulsive movement, get back to middle on jump alone
3: Identify when you start to slow down then kick and break out
4: Put it all together
1 x 50 of that stroke on 1:00 Put it all together with the two turns
10:00 Flag Races
Start with both hands on the wall, whistle jump out to the flags, flip at the flags and sprint back to the wall
Tempo work
30 x 50 on :50
Distance
2x
6 @ [1000p] + 1 EZ
4 @ [500p] + 1 EZ
2 @ [200p] + 1 EZ
Mid Distance 1
1: Fast (100-200p)
1: EZ
Mid Distance 2
1: Fast (100-200p)
2: EZ
See Coach Lichter’s previous post IM/Free Ascend Descend set here.
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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
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
This sort of “go until you fail” set is tough, and it seems to get the best out of a motivated athlete.

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Andy Copley, Malibu Canyon Aquatics
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
500 Free Race Pace Challenge Set. Intervals were for SCM for swimmers whose best times are sub-5:00. 50s were do-able, 100s were challenging, and the 150 turned out to be a very tough swim at this point in the season.

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This gave them a little extra motivation for making 200 race pace.

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This set allowed us to hit race over a range of distances from 100 to 500 pace. It seemed a good challenge — doable and not super-hard.
SCY

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
FPA = Fastest Possible Average

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
P200 = at 200 Race pace
P100= at 100 Race pace

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Coach Heiko Fikenzer, SV Neptun Recklinghausen, Germany
This plan we did on SCM. We always have 3 lanes and today 5 swimmers per lane.
Pre and Quality – Set we did 2 times – 1 in Stroke (not Free) and 1 in Second Stroke/Free or IM.
bel = choice
TÜ = drill
Be = kick (with speed variation)
The Main Set are Broken 200 – each with 20seconds Rest – only the last starts at A:0:30
Rü = Back ez
Kr = Free ez
Flo means Fins
I love the progression of speed during the set – ok – not only me – the swimmers too 😊

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
P200 = Race pace for a 200 yard event

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this SCM to get in the groove of mile pace.

Josh Sinclair
Working at an all boys school with some talented boys aged 10-14. This is a 200 LC pace set I did with them that had them blowing… but they loved it. Had a good teaching element to it as well in how to attack their 200. I jokingly nicknamed this the ride the unicorn set as I challenged the squad to try and get 50’s 2-4 to be as close in time as possible to the 1st 50.
Decoding the set
TS = team swim
MPT = mid pool turn
DK = dolphin kicks
DS = dive start
FS = float start
PS = push start
DPS = distance per stroke
F.A.T = for a time
PBB = pull buoy + band

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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

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