Sneaky Hard IM Set with Coach Westerberg

Coach Gordy Westerberg, Clovis Swim Club

NB = No Breath (8 minimum strokes, otherwise they kick the whole way UW).

Sailboat ⛵️ is catchup drill straight above the shoulders in the air.

Tap is Double arm backstroke where they tap the back of the hands together above the water (straight over the face).

Dbl K is 1 pull then 2 kicks

F/Kn/SW is Fist-Knuckle-SW; so it’s actually fist-fist-knuckle-knuckle-SW-SW by stroke (so that is 6 strokes)

“Make the Grade” Set with Coach Gordy Westerberg

Gordy Westerberg, Clovis Swim Club

Yesterday I gave this set: 4 rounds

50 chute for feel

50 FR dive on ~50 to 55

75 stroke on ~1:30

100 FR

E175

Each swimmer had a goal time for the 50-75-100. Make the 50 goal = 2 points, 75 = 3 pts, and 100 = 4 pts. So 36 total points. 33-36 = A

29-32 = B

26-28 = C

22-25 = D

7 kids were 36/36

1 was 34/36

1 was 33/36

1 was 31/36

1 was 30/36

Then the wheels fell off and had

1 was 22/36

1 was 20/36

1 was 18/36

1 was 17/36

1 was 14/36

What I find interesting is that they were at both ends of the spectrum and NO ONE was in the middle!!!

I posted the goal times and posted the grading chart. They were looking between each round!!!

It was extremely hard for them to switch FR-STROKE-FR! An observation, the best we performed on were the 100s! The kids in the bottom group got most of their points from the 100s!

We did this in 3 heats.

400 Free Race Prep Set with Coach Westerberg

Gordy Westerberg, Clovis Swim Club

3 Rounds

50 chute for feel

50 from dive on :50

3×100 at 400 pace on interval ~25 seconds rest

50 push all out

E200

Goal of this set was to work on the middle 300 of a 400. I wanted them to go fast on the dive, not reckless, so they start the 3x100s with an elevated HR. Then apply pressure on all 3 100s. Once they are really tired, then sprint that last 50.

Results? They were way too conservative on round 1 in the dive and first 2 100s. Round 2 was better and then round 3 is where they should’ve been.

Breaststroke Thoughts from Coach Gordy Westerberg

Gordy Westerberg
Vipers of Albuquerque

One thing I did this year was 100s (only 3-5 at a time) on an easy interval where they do 25 all out horizontal egg beater kick on a board and then 75 DPK on like 2:30. Totally trashes their legs! Did this 2-3x per week at the end of practice. Brst had MAJOR drops this season. Really improved their IM as well. I’m going to have my entire team do it this season.

One boy went from 1:14 to 1:04.0
One boy went from 1:19 to 1:03.8
One boy went from 1:04.0 to 1:00.3
One girl went from 1:04.9 to 1:02.3!


Gordy’s Fly Set

Gordy Westerberg

I gave this set to my Junior National level girl flyer on Wednesday

3 Rounds
200 Fly on 3:30 (dsend by rounds)
2 x 100 Fly on 1:50 (#1 faster than 1/2 of 200, #2 faster than #1)
4 x 50 on 1:00 (Best Average)
E50 Free

So what we looked for was on:
Round 1 – average faster than 2nd 50 of 200 (30.75 was goal and she averaged 31.1)
Round 2 – faster than 3rd 50 of 200 (31.75 and she averaged 31.54)
Round 3 – faster than last 50 of 200 (32.6 and she averaged 31.1)