Tag: Speed

Speed Checkpoints

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Josh Sinclair

I did this set with my age 9-13 boys on Saturday.  There season is effectively finished, with their major champs swum, so I was looking for ways to keep them motivated and keep them in the water till our squad break over Easter…
This set worked really well..
Warm Up
DPS = distance per stroke
Base drill = any freestyle drill that targets streamline eg catch-up
MPT+6 = mid pool turn + 6 dolphin kicks
Stroke drill = any freestyle drill that targets length and catch eg 2La 2 Ra
20×25 designed to get their heart rate up.  Fly HVO (15m fast no breath) was to focus on fast starts, also believe that fly is great way for young swimmers to feel and find their anchor and not slip on the 1st strokes out of their breakout.  Cat n Mouse is a game we play where the swimmers scull in one line across the pool, at some point before the 15m mark into the wall, the nominated “mouse” must sprint to the wall and try and beat the “cats”.  They must go before the 15m mark so the closer they get to the mark the more the cats are ready.  This obviously focuses on finishing, and it is also interesting to see the different tactics of the mouse on when to take off for the wall
Main Set 

target was PB+1, and worked off about a 4min cycle.

The 15m was 1/4 PB +0.5 or better to progress…
The 25m was 1/2 PB +0.5 or better to progress…
The 35m was 3/4 PB + 0.5 or better to progress…
The 50m was PB+1 to progress to warm down.
sinclair190411
Conclusion
Set really had the boys motivated and excited from the moment I explained it.  1st 15m checkpoint on average took about 3 attempts, which gave me the opportunity to teach and correct dive and breakout techniques and boys were a lot more receptive.. because of the incentive.  The 25m and 35m check points were all achieved on average in 2 attempts, and the 50m on average 4 attempts, which allowed me to talk about the value of holding their length and rating up into the wall..
Information overload maybe, so apologies if that’s the case, figure the more information provided, the greater opportunity for specific feedback..
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Fun Relay Speed Work

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Recently at practice about half of our group was missing for a high school meet. We had a block of about 45 minutes that I wanted to get in some good speed work. How to get them excited for it and get some good results? Wacky relays.

We had 12 swimmers split into 4 teams of 3, which allowed us to swim at a roughly 1:2 work-rest ratio. We did 5 relays followed by some active recovery swimming.

Relay 1: 450m each person swims 6×25 free (keeping it simple to get us started)

Relay 2: 450m, each swims 6 x 25 no free

Relay 3: 450m, each swims 25 no free, 75 free, 25 no free, and 75 free

Relay 4: 450m, each swims 25 free, 75 no free, 25 free, 75 no free

By this time, each relay team had won a single race thanks to my expert dividing of teams. The final race would decide who had to do the longest warm down:

Relay 5: 300m each person swims 2 x 50m free dragging a partner holding on to their ankle.

Result: all teams disqualified for various forms of cheating.

The 4-way tie mandated an immediate 50 fly swim-off by a single swimmer from each team.

I got way more energy and effort out of them with this strategy than I would have with a traditional set!

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Off the Blocks with Columbia Swim Club

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Coach Todd Kramer, Columbia Swim Club

Here is our main set from last Friday 11/23. We were six days out from our mid season rest meet. We wanted to do some quality swimming after hitting them with some high intensity/short rest sets the previous couple of days. We did the OTB (off the blocks) in three heats, so swimmers ended up having about a 1:3 work to rest ratio on those. The kick intervals gave them a bit more than a 1:1 work to rest ratio. The drill/swim was recovery with a strong focus on the little details. The goal of the set was to do some high quality fast swimming followed by working the legs with the idea of helping to develop good kicking late in their races. In hindsight I would have given the kids more specific time targets on the OTB (which was choice based on their best events). A couple of kids had to be given time targets to refocus, but once we got into the workout I think it went very well.

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Full Workout with Stations and Quality Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

Most of the time on this blog, I publish single sets that we do within a larger workout. Today, I am publishing the entire workout how I have it written out for my group. You may need to zoom in a bit to see it well.

I usually start with a quote — sometimes we discuss it, sometimes we just get right in. Today we did our “Standard Warmup,” which we probably do for 80% of our practices. Our standard warmup is:

400 smooth swim choice @:20 rest

4 x 150 choice kick/drill/build by 50 @:20 rest

4 x 50 choice sprint any 20 of the 50 @:20 rest

Total: 1200m, ~18-20 min

For this workout, we combined 3 power stations with a set of 6 x 50 off the blocks. We did it three times through, meaning each swimmer did each station once and the 6x 50s set three times. It was a good day for us — team energy and spirits were high, performances were good, and we spent time during our subsequent dryland discussing the previous weekend’s meet.

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Breaststroke Deep-Water Speed and Power Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA

We recently did this set in our approximately 10m-wide diving well. Our breaststroke group was nearly unanimous in their enthusiasm for this set, despite the dog-tired looks on their faces when they finished it.

3 rounds:

10 x 10m widths @:10 1 pullout and 1 cycle breast to make it to the other side.

:20 rest

1:00 vertical eggbeater kick, hands and elbows out of the water.

1:00 rest, hook up to stretch cordz

6 x 4 cycles cord-resisted sprint (no pullouts) and float back to the wall @ ~1:00

1:00 rest

For the cord-resisted sprints, we had a cord anchored to a chain link fence about 10 feet from the edge of the pool. This wasn’t quite enough resistance, so a coach held the cord to get enough tension so that the swimmers were only barely moving forward on the 3rd and 4th cycles sprint.

Power, Speed, Hypox…just FUN

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Coach Ryan Lee
Shawnee Mission Northwest High School

2 Rounds of 7×25
*1st round w/ dragsoxs and fins (:50) 
*2nd round w/ fins (:40) 
25 (12 ½ fly, 12 ½ free) – max speed
25 (underwater dolphin)
25 (fly) – max speed
25 (underwater dolphin)
25 (12 ½ free, 12 ½ fly) – max speed
25 (underwater dolphin)
25 (free) – max speed

60secs in-between rounds