Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We are currently able to practice with three swimmers per lane, and this kick set allowed us to get some excellent leg work in while keeping our distance.
The “black line” mentioned is about 15m from one end in our SCY pool. “Blast offs” consist of repeated streamlined vertical jumping off the bottom of the pool.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This was our finish to practice today. We have done 25s underwater pretty consistently, so every swimmer knows his or her best time. The lifetime bests were written down on a dry erase board and this challenge was thrown. If you can beat your best twice, you get to go home. Amazingly, more than half of our swimmers were able to accomplish this feat. The mind is an amazing thing!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This practice was for our group of 10-12 year-olds. We focused on long-axis efficiency and finished with an emphasis on underwater kicking. The “bang bang” refers to a coach tapping a wrench in the side of the pool to indicate when to take a stroke.
Do you sometimes need an idea for practice? Would you like to receive a free email to help spark your creativity? Then sign up for my e-newsletter to get a dose of information, inspiration, and innovation delivered every once in a while.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. We did this kick set recently and our swimmers were very engaged. We timed the underwater 25s (we keep team records on this) and asked for an elite effort on the green parts. We ended up with several lifetime best 25s underwater and an excellent overall group effort.
The intervals on the ez Swim were deliberately large so that the last person would finish before we had to dive on the next 25.
#swimmingwizard
.
.
.
.
.
#swimming #swim #swimmer #swimming🏊♂️ #swimmingtraining #swimwod #swimworkout #swimworkouts #swimtraining #swimcoach #schwimmen #swimminglife #swimmingfun #swimminglaps #swimmingislife #poolworkout #hardwork #workworks #natación #swimmingcoach #swimlife #swimclub #swimteam #swimmingislife #instaswim #mastersswimming #iloveswimming
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Swimmers are divided into an even number of lanes with each lane serving as a team.. Lane 1 competes with Lane 2, lane 3 competes with Lane 4, etc. On the coach’s “go,” one swimmer in each lane pushes off to begin an underwater dolphin kicking length. As they push off, a coach throws one of our orange hockey pucks (we frequently use as bottom markers, but you can use anything that rapidly sinks) into the pool between each pair of lanes. The swimmers in each pair of lanes race dolphin kick to the puck and try to grab it off the bottom first. If you have the swimmers evenly matched by dolphin kicking ability you will get some excellent races!
Another issue of “the wake-up swim” is coming soon. Check out the archives here to see what you’ve missed or you can sign up here.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Make sure you have signed up for my once-in-a-while e-mail to keep up with the best and most interesting workouts and much, much more from the Swimming Wizard blog, delivered straight to your inbox.
Elaina Moy Jacobs, Mason Makos
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Little bit of speed, underwater kicking, and fly. Dirty 20 = 10m no breath free sprint, flip, and dolphin kick back to the wall. B3 = breathe every 3 strokes.
Make sure you are following the Swimming Wizard on Instagram and Twitter for hundreds more ideas, sets, and swim workouts from coaches all over the world.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
In this set, we used orange hockey pucks on the bottom of the pool to mark the 10m mark we wanted them to kick past.
Make sure you have signed up for my once-in-a-while e-mail to keep up with the best and most interesting workouts and much, much more from the Swimming Wizard blog, delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday morning.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We use our old broken stretch cords tied together to form a longer cord that stretches across all of our SCM lanes at the 12.5m point. We tie it off to the lifeguard stand and use it encourage disciplined underwater kicking.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This was challenging for some. Always good to challenge us underwater. Will probably use this set to build off of for later in the season.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set on the first day of a new season. On the 300s, the focus was on doing effective underwater kicks, making them progressively faster on the 200s and 100s.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did the fartlek set followed by 4 rotations of the stations below. The diving well underwater kicks were done hooked to a stretch cord anchored to a nearby fence for resistance.
Make sure you have signed up for our weekly e-mail to keep up with the best and most interesting workouts and much, much more from the Swimming Wizard blog, delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday morning.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCY. 10x through @3:30
The next issue of “the wake-up swim” is coming soon. Sign up here.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We ended up doing them @ 2:30. Second set is in our 12m diving well. We treat one width as a 25 for ease of explanation.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set in a 25 m pool with a stretch cord stretched across the lanes at the halfway mark. We used hockey pucks on the bottom so the swimmers could tell where the stretch cord was located.
Make sure you have signed up for our weekly e-mail to keep up with the best and most interesting workouts and much, much more from the Swimming Wizard blog, delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday morning.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The first 25 underwater kick will suck the oxygen out of you..then you gotta hit a FAST 50. 75 easy to recover, then do it again. SCM.
Do you sometimes need an idea for practice? Would you like a weekly email to help spark your creativity? Then sign up for our weekly e-newsletter to get a weekly dose of information, inspiration, and innovation delivered every Tuesday.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We had a small amount of time left after our main set today and we had to squeeze into three lanes. We got it a little good work in on our underwater dolphin kicks with this simple set.
12 x 50 @ 1:00
#1 – Kick 10m fast off each wall
#2 – Kick 10m fast off the 1st wall, 15m off the second wall
#3 – 25 swim, 25 max underwater kick for speed and distance
We wore fins for the first 9 and then no fins for the last 3.
The wake-up swim is coming out tomorrow! Make sure you have signed up for our weekly e-mail to keep up with the best and most interesting workouts and much, much more from the Swimming Wizard blog, delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This workout involved two stations – one working underwater kicks and one doing an IM set. We did each station 3 times — the cord set was the same each time, and the IM set progressed through the three versions listed. The 3rd round was essentially a broken 400 IM.
If you like this set, sign up to receive “the wake-up swim,” my weekly newsletter with updates from the blog plus tons of other interesting and helpful resources.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
The next issue of “the wake-up swim” is coming soon. Sign up here.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This is part of a practice I did recently with our top 11-12s. Our main focus was on underwater kicking. Our pool has a black line across the bottom approximately 9 yards from the wall.
For the 1:00 vertical kick and rotate, we were flutter kicking with our arms folded across our chest, performing a 90 degree rotation about every 5 seconds accompanied by my demonstration.
Texas 25 = push off and streamline underwater kick to the black line, flip, 4 underwater kicks, sprint back to the wall, turn, 4 underwater kicks and sprint to the opposite end. Texas 25 = 45 yards (everything is bigger in Texas).
Make sure you have signed up for our weekly e-mail to keep up with the best and most interesting workouts and much, much more from the Swimming Wizard blog, delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday morning.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The next issue of “the wake-up swim” is coming soon. Sign up here to get this instant swimming goodness in your inbox every Tuesday.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
It’s free, it’s useful, and can help with your coaching today: https://swimmingwizard.com/e-books/
Chris Brookover, YBCC Phoenix
This one is simple and could be changed around but it turned out really well. The fly 25’s turned out to be more of a kick set than swim.
A+ had 1:20 Base for the IM, A had 1:25 and B 1:30
6 x 25 @ :35 Fly – Minimum FIVE Kicks
4 x 100 @ 1:20 – 25 FR / 25 BK / 25 BR / 25 FR
Rest :40
6 x 25 @ :35 Fly – Minimum FIVE Kicks
Rest 1:00
8 x 25 @ :40 Fly – Minimum SIX Kicks
3 x 200 @ 2:40 50 FR / 50 BK / 50 BR / 50 FR
Rest :40
8 x 25 @ :40 Fly – Minimum SIX Kicks
Rest :40
10 x 25 Fly @ :45 Minimum EIGHT Kicks
2 x 300 IM @ 4:00 75 Free / 75 Back / 75 Breast / 75 Free
10 x 25 Fly @ :45 Minimum EIGHT Kicks
Rest :30
12 x 25 Fly @ :50 Minimum NINE Kicks
1 x 400 IM @ 5:15 100 FR / 100 BK / 100 BR / 100 FR
12 x 25 @ :35 EZ FREE
Do you sometimes need an idea for practice? Would you like a weekly email to help spark your creativity? Then sign up for our weekly e-newsletter to get a weekly dose of information, inspiration, and innovation delivered every Tuesday.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Make sure you have signed up for our weekly e-newsletter to keep up with the best and most interesting workouts and much, much more from the Swimming Wizard blog, delivered straight to your inbox every Tuesday morning.
Mike Cook, Mason Makos
4 rounds odd rounds fly even rounds back. Fast fish kicks underwater get up when you decelerate into fast stroke. Stay with the beep and feel the difference. Fly no breath first stroke. Can not past 15 meter with fins
4x8x25 @35 fins
1st round TT@0.7. 2nd round TT@0.6. 3rd round TT@0.5. 4th round TT @0.4
Now PICK A COMFORTABLE SETTING AND SET YOUR TRAINER 0.1 lower and do the next set
20×50 @50. Odds fly to back evens back with fins
————
Another issue of “the wake-up swim” was published this week. Check out the archives here to see what you’ve missed or you can sign up here.
