Tag: Underwater

Loved this kick set today.

Posted on by rdwoodruff

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.

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Backstroke Parachutes Set with Back/Breast Follow-up

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This workout goes back to 2009.  It was written for SCY for an athlete who was an Trials-caliber backstroker and IMer.  The focus was on underwater kicking and backstroke strength.  The “yellow” parachute was rather small and the “1st black buoy” refers to 15m mark from the opposite end of the pool.

Poor Man’s Power Tower Dolphin Kicks

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We do this set in a SC pool, but it could work in a LCM pool as well. Have swimmers partner up, with each partnership getting a stretch cord. One person wears the belt and is in the water.  The other person stands on deck and holds the cord, letting it out gradually to provide resistance.  It is sort of a “poor man’s Power Tower.” The person in the water does:

4 fast underwater dolphin kicks (then gets towed back to the wall) then immediately pushes off into:
6 fast underwater dolphin kicks (same)
8 fast underwater dolphin kicks (same)
10 fast underwater dolphin kicks (same)
12 fast underwater dolphin kicks (unhook the belt) and immediately push off into
1 x 25 all out sprint choice with max underwater kicking (at full speed, not necessarily max distance)
1 x 25 ez and trade places.

Repeat as many times as you wish.

Backstroke Challenge Set for Underwater Kicking Habits

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA
 

The purpose of this backstroke set is for athletes to challenge themselves to hold near race pace while performing an increasing number of dolphin kicks off each wall.  In this case, on the first round swimmers were aiming for a time within 3.0 seconds of their 200 race pace (as shown on their pace cards) while doing at least 6 kicks off each wall for each of the two 50s.  If they were successful at that, they tried to hit the same pace while doing 8 or more kicks.  Third round… 10 or more kicks. Continue until nobody in the group can hit that pace while doing that many kicks.  Swimmers who fail to hit the target pace with a specified number of kicks simply tried to hit that number of kicks again on the next round.  For a shorter more demanding set, lower the +3.0 time standard to something faster.
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Middle Distance IM Set from Nittany Lion Coach Ryan Sprang

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Sprang
Head Coach
Nittany Lion Aquatic Club

1 round of:
{4 x 75 @ 1:00/1:05 (A/B interval) 50 fly 25 free strong
{1 x 200 IM @ 2:45/2:55 (A/B interval) fast fly, smooth ba/br/fr with good technique
2 x 25 @ :25 12 UW dolphin kicks blast, then smooth free
2 rounds of:
{4 x 75 @ 1:00/1:05 back strong
{1 x 200 IM @ 2:40/2:50 fast fly/ba, smooth br/free w/ good technique
4 x 25 @ :25 12 UW dolphin kicks blast (done after the 2 rounds above)
3 rounds of:
{4 x 75 @ 1:05/1:10 breast strong
{1 x 200 IM @ 2:35/2:45 fast fly/ba/br, smooth fr
6 x 25 @ :25 12 UW dolphin kicks blast
4 rounds of:
{4 x 75 @ :55 free strong
{1 x 200 IM @ 2:30/2:40 all fast
8 x 25 @ :25 12 UW dolphin kicks blast

Editor’s Note: The Swimming Wizard’s goal is to publish at least one set, practice, or idea EVERY DAY for all of 2016! To keep it interesting, we need your help! Click here to help us achieve that goal by submitting one of your sets!
 

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Flying Pigs

Posted on by rdwoodruff
  Austin Trinity, Austin Texas   /  Coach Doug Russell

We got this base set for under-waters from the women’s program at the University of Arkansas several years ago and we use it often with variations. We call it Soo-E-Pig.
We almost always use it as a fin set. We train in a 25 meter pool. The basic set is 4 under – 1 recovery (we call it “over”) , 3 under – 1 recovery, 2 under – 1 over, 1 under – 1 over. We usually repeat it 4 times though. Today we went with a variation to work our butterfly and up tempo our Freestyle.

Soo-E-Pig
  1. 6 dolphins – 3 strokes Fly – if not at wall back under water and work finish.
  2. 5 dolphins – 4 strokes Fly – same
  3. 4 dolphins – 5 strokes Fly – also
  4. 3 dolphins – 6 strokes Fly – again

As they work through the set they drop a round in sequence.

Set:
Round 1 Soo-E-Pig > :40
Swim 6 x 50 Free > :40 (Descend 1 – 3, 4 Negative Split, 5 Build, 6 Faster than first three)

Round 2 Soo-E-Pig > :35
Swim 6 x 75 Free > 1:00 (Descend 1 – 3, 4 Ez-Ez-Fast, 5 Ez-Fast-Ez, 6 Fast-Ez-Ez)

Round 3 Soo-E-Pig > :30
Swim 6 x 100 Free > 1:20 (Descend 1 – 3, Descend 4 – 6)

Round 4 Soo-E-Pig > :25
Swim 1 x 200 Free > Goal Time for 200 Free LC minus 3 – 6) They have fins on!

Total 2650 meters SC

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Killer Kick Set for a 20yd pool

Posted on by rdwoodruff
Ryan Woodruff

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One of our coaches came up with this kick set for use in our 20-yard diving well.
Green is underwater.
Blue is descend
Red is Fastest Possible Average

Good Stuff

Cone Kicks for Underwater Power

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
 
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I stole this idea from somewhere– I just can’t remember where. Cone kicks are performed by placing a medium-sized traffic cone over the front end of the swimmer’s streamline (make sure the cone is not big enough to come down over the swimmer’s face).   This serves two purposes:
1. Keeps the streamline intact
2. Provides extra resistance to the swimmer’s kicking effort.
4 rounds of:
4 x 25 Underwater “Cone Kicks” @ :40
1x 100 easy swim perfect technique, fast turns, and 4+ dolphin kicks @1:20
4 x 25 Underwater kicks without cones @ :30
1 x 100 same as above

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Dolphin Kicking and Race Pace Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff

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Lane 1 – no streamline sticks
Lane 2 – sticks at 5yd from each wall
Lane 3 – sticks at 6yd from each wall
Lane 4 – sticks at 8yd from each wall
Lane 5 – sticks at 10yd from each wall
Lane 6 – sticks at 12.5yd from each wall

We performed the following set:

60 x 50 @ 1:00 (2 sets of 30)
#1-6: Smooth swim
#7-12: descend 1-3 and 4-6
#13-18: 25 fast/25 ez
#19 – 24: 25 ez/25 fast
#25-30: at P200 (Goal 200 pace)

In each set of 6, each athlete will do #1, in lane 1, #2 in lane 2 and so on. By using the Streamline Sticks, you control the distance UW. Makes for a significant challenge on the 5th and 6th 50 of each set. Additionally, this set can be used as an experiment to test an athletes capability to swim at P200 while kicking increasing distances. Most athletes can make it while kicking further than they do habitually.

Double Underwater 50s for short course kicking power

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
 
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Use Streamline Sticks at 7yd distance from each wall. Put two at each location, effectively blocking off the entire lane. Swimmers have to kick out 7yd off the wall, swim 11yd, and then kick the final 7 yd underwater, do an open turn and do it again! Feel free to change up the underwater distance for a more or less challenging set.

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Streamline Sticks

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
 
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Streamline Sticks are easily among the best pieces of training equipment I have seen in my 13 years of club coaching.  We use them weekly to develop the habits and skills to produce consistent underwater dolphin kicking.  They force swimmers to kick a set distance off the wall and allow for circle swimming within the lane.  Send me an email at swimmingwizard@gmail.com or just leave your e-mail in the comments below if you are interested in getting your hands on a Streamline Stick and maybe I’ll make a few for Swimming Wizard readers.

UPDATE: The Swimming Wizard has been overwhelmed with responses about these streamline sticks.  I am planning to post a video soon that explains how they may be constructed.  Thanks! – Ryan

Cougar Aquatic Club Workout

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Pat Collins

Cougar Aquatic Team
www.cougaraquatic.com


Here’s a set I did with our Senior 1 (National) Group. I thought it went real well, kids loved it, but were dead tired.

The entire pre-set was done on simply 15 secs rest after the leader of each lane would touch. Distance per stroke / cruising speed was expected.
Main Set: Our fastest two lanes did the first two 250s on 3:00 and then the four on 2:50. We have a black line across the middle of our pool at the 12.5 where we expect each swimmer to kick to minimum. The five 250s with no fins were then also done on 3:00, expecting near race-pace on them.

WARM UP (1800)
600 free long/loose
400 Rev. IM d/k/s
16x25s kick on side on :30, :35, :40
6x50s descend w/fins on :40, :45
100 EZ
PRE-SET (1000) 15 secs rest in between each
Technique – DPS
150 – 100 fly/50 bk
150 – 100 bk/50 br
150 – 100 br/50 fr
150 – ALL FREE
400 IM – DPS – perf tech
MAIN SET (3300) varying intervals
2x250s fr/bk w/ fins working UWK
4x250s fr/bk w/ fins working UWK
5x250s free – no fins
50 EZ @ 1:30
500 free for time
COOL DOWN (300)
300 EZ
TOTAL: 6400

Friday Butterfly Workout

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
ryan.d.woodruff@gmail.com

SCY
This was a solid set for our sectional-level butterflyers.  Not too tough, but some good early season fly work that didn’t make them get sloppy with the technique.  We did it in three 15-minute stations and rotated through in groups

PART 1
We started with some underwater kicking in a 20-yard pool:
16 x 60yds @ :55
Done as 5 rounds of
#1 – 25 smooth free/25 underwater dolphin kick/25 smooth free
#2 – 25 underwater dolphin kick/25 smooth free/25 underwater dolphin kick
#3 – all smooth swim
And then #16 – All underwater dolphin kick, take 1 breath at each wall

PART 2
16 x 50
#1 – Fly, 3 strokes R/3 strokes L drill @ 1:00
#2 – Fly kick on back @ 1:00
#3 – Breaststroke with fly kick @ 1:00
#4 – Fly swim @ :50

PART 3
3 rounds of:
1 x 25 fly easy drill @ :30
1 x 75 fly swim @ 1:05
1 x 25 fly drill @ :30
1 x 75 fly swim @ 1:00
1 x 25 fly drill @ :30
1 x 75 fly swim @ :55