Free Swimming Workouts, Sets, Ideas, and Dryland Exercises from Professional Coaches Around the World
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This was a brief underwater kicking set that we did in a SCM pool as a pre-set before yesterday’s post. The instructions were to kick fast underwater to 12.5m every time (this was cut off in the picture below). For the first 6, the swimmers held one paddle out in front of them with the broad surface perpendicular to the oncoming water (to create drag).
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Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We used stretch cordz for this set. We don’t have power towers, so swimmers partnered up and one person supplied the resistance while the other swam. The real challenge of the set was to hold the stroke together at speed after the resisted sprint cycles.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Here is a underwater kicking and sprint combo that we did recently. The part in red was done with stretch cord resistance.
After the kicking pre-set, we did the 60 x 25 set adapted from this article about Gregg Troy’s favorite sprint sets. Turned out to be an awesome day!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We used these two stations to measure our underwater kicking ability, keeping half of the group busy with some freestyle technique work in the meantime.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set at the end of a long practice that included dryland that was heavy on the legs and a long kick set. The goal was to work some underwater power and then get some “lightning speed” underwater kicks at the end of each round. It worked well, with a few of our swimmers setting personal bests & team records at the 25m underwater kicking distance.
For the part written in green, one athlete wore the belt/cord and a partner stood on the deck and held the cord to provide the resistance.
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
We only have enough powerbags for about 1/3 of our group to wear at a time. Thus, we split the set up as indicated.
Brad Herndon
Head Coach
GCY Makos
GCY Makos National Team 1/3/2018
Warm-Up (24 min, 1500):
500-400- 300-200- 100
Swim – Kick w/ Fins – FR Pull – IM – Drill w/ snorkel
Pre-Set (22 min, 1200):
8 x 50 Free Kick Only @:55 (Board)
:40 sec transition
8 x 50 FR Pull Only @:50 (Buoy, paddles, snorkel)
:20 sec transition
8 x 50 FR Swim Only @:45 (Continuous Boil Kick)
Main Set 1 (44 min, 2400):
Underwater focus, pop up “between the 15m marks” every length!
4x
3 x 50’s Kick @ 1:00 (no board, max out underwaters)
First – Fly/Back on back, Second – Back/Breast on back, Third- Breast/free
on stomach (MAX underwaters on fly, back, and free kicks)
3 x 50’s Swim @ :55
First – Fly/Back, Second – Back/Breast, Third – Breast/Free
Execute turns efficiently , max underwaters
3 x 100 IM’s @ 1:45
All 3 = Max Underwaters Descend, 3 rd is all out still with max underwaters!
Main Set 2 (18 min, 1200):
8 x 150’s @ 2:15 with fins
1-4 Freestyle w/ paddles and short fins, DESCEND!
5-8 Back, long fins, no paddles, focus is on underwaters popping up between
the yellow, still descend time! ALWAYS max out last 25 underwater effort!
Cool Down (2 min, 100):
EZ choice 100 minimum
TOTAL = 6500
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
Our club doesn’t have the luxury of having power towers to use (yet), so we substitute by having swimmers hold a stretch cord for the their teammates, giving them resistance for short sets such as the one below. One swimmer is tethered in the water and performs this set, and then they switch roles. No rest except where indicated.
1 x 8 all out UW kicks and then get pulled back to wall
1 x 8 all out UW kicks + 1 sprint cycle and then get pulled back to wall
1 x 8 all out UW kicks +2 sprint cycles and then get pulled back to wall
1 x 8 all out UW kicks +3 sprint cycles and then get pulled back to wall
:10-:15 rest, unhook from tether, leave on coach’s “go”:
1 x 25 all out sprint for time
1 x 25 ez swim and trade places with partner
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
We did a version of the following kick set to challenge our dolphin kicking ability and to probe the limits of our ability to kick fast underwater. We used Finis Tempo Trainers and did the first round with the beeping tempo set at .60, second round at .50, third round at .45, fourth round at .40. Some swimmers were able to maintain an effective dolphin kick down to .40. Others lost “hold” on the water and became inefficient. This is potentially useful information for our training.
4 Rounds of:
8 x 25 @ :35
10 underwater kicks at TT tempo, then swim ez the rest of the way
1 x 50 ez free B3
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
For simplicity, we used 25 = 1 length, even though it was actually only about 15m
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set in SCM, and the intervals got :05 faster for the 2nd round
Coach Brad Herndon
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
We split the group into 3 stations for this one. Why 13 cycles 13 times? Because it was Friday the 13th, of course!
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
The 8 x 8 underwater kicks are done with no rest in between other than being towed back to the wall by a partner. Everything is on the “coach’s go.”
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
4x through
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
We did the following set tethered to the starting block with StretchCordz. The cords were wrapped around the block so that the athlete experienced the resistance after 3-4 kicks off the wall. The 15m kick for time was done after unhooking from the cords.
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
This kick set helped us get some aerobic descending kick accomplished and also allowed us to work on our underwater kicking on the 8 x 25 set. The cumulative fatigue from the kick set and the shifting interval on the 25s made it progressively more challenging.
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
It was challenging but well-executed. Swimmers increase their distance over the five rounds of 4:00. 4 X 25 were done with #1 from a dive and 2-4 from push. We set our standards at 15m underwater on #1 and 4, 10m underwater on 2 & 3.
