Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Did some fast swimming on this one. In each set, we performed some 50s at 200 pace and then followed it up with some “all-out” 50s, unleashing our performance from the mental constraints of “race pace.”
Tag: Woodruff
Speed at the Start, Speed at the Finish
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. We timed the first 15m from a dive with a target time from our pace cards. The next 70m was focused on good turns, breakouts, and underwaters. With 15m to go, swimmers paused and floated/sculled at the surface. When 1 swimmer in each lane was ready, a coach yelled “Go” and they commenced a sprint to the finish.
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Buckets and No Buckets
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
OTB = off the blocks
Anything but breaststroke!
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Swimmers had the option of doing fly, back, or free on this one.
Explanation of terms:
Deep practice = whole stroke swimming with specific technical emphasis. Dr=Drill P.T.=perfect technique. P200 = Race pace for a 200.
Resisted Underwater Kicking and Breaststroke Sets
The Freestyle Squeeze
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. This set really brought on the burn. FPA = Fastest Possible Average. JMI = Just make it. Initially, the 7 x 50 were not written on the board and then were added during the 2nd 200 scull/swim by 25. This added a surprise challenge that they excelled at.
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23 x 1
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. This set was designed to push to the brink of failure. A few of our swimmers passed that point – all were challenged. Instructions on the first 9 were to make the interval by at least 3-5 sec. The 1×100 @ 2:00 was easy.
Last set of 3 was “just make it”.
Free Get Faster Set
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. The aim of this free set was to gradually accelerate into some high effort swims.
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Breaststroke Broken & Drill
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM
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Fly Sprints and Wall Kick
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM. We started this set with 4 swimmers per lane (2 at each end).
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Backstroke Descending Set
Age Group Long Axis and Dolphin Kicking
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.
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Weak Stroke/Best Stroke IM Set
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Underwater Excellence
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.
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IM Descending Transitions
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The first 50 is always strong to simulate some IM fatigue… and descend the last 100s 1-3. Intervals were for our squad in SCM.
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Breaststroke Fartlek Set
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
These non-stop 6:00 swims repeated the instructions within the 6:00. At about 5:00, coach would yell “Go!” signifying a FAST 50 breast starting immediately.
The instructions on the second round are 5 cycles kick, 4 cycles Swim, 3 cycles speed drill (head up, narrow pull, narrow kick) and repeat.
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Speed Spectrum and Active Recovery
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
SCM pool. The goal was to really push ourselves to hold some aggressive times in practice. The main group did the top set while the distance crew did the bottom set.
If done in a SCY pool, I would probably change the goal on the 150 to “beat your best 200 time by :20”
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Steal the Underwater Bacon
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!
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The Set Before The Speed
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
This served as a “pre-set,” getting us ready to go FAST!
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200 and 100 Race Pace
Mile & 500 Pace
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did this set in a SCM pool, but it would work just as well in a SCY pool. Overall, our distance crew had a good day with this one.
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4-part Freestyle Set
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
We did four rounds of this set with the same basic structure, changing the intervals and instructions a bit each round. FPA = Fastest Possible Average. SCY.
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Getting Ready to Go Fast
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
LCM. The purpose of this set was to get us primed and ready for our main set. We did this in about 8 feet depth – the blastoffs involve sinking down to the bottom, pushing off, and exploding vertically through the surface while dolphin kicking. After the 5 sprint cycles, swimmers continued the rest of the 50 smooth.
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Broken Trip Eights
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Challenging set for our milers.
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Kickin’ In the New Year
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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Happy New Year (part 2)
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
Happy New Year 2020!
Short Axis with Partner Pulls
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
The 300 is done with a stretch cord with belts on both ends. Each swimmer wears a belt and hangs onto the cord about eight feet from the opposite belt end. Swimmers drag each other a 25 at a time. Follow up with the FPA (Fastest Possible Average) swims. SCM.
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Breaststroke Mini-Set
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
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10-minute Race Pace Rounds with a Quote
Ryan Woodruff, Lynchburg YMCA
For this set we split the group up into distance and mid/sprint to do these sets in parallel. This allowed me to time both groups by myself on a single watch. Both groups commented that they thought the race pace set was tough but they liked it.
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