Tag: Woodruff

Booming Buckets and Underwater Kicking

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

For this set we used our 2-gallon buckets pulled behind via a rope attached to a stretch-cord belt.  We increased the sprint distances on the red 25s and then tried to really hammer the purple 25s.

For the 50s kick, we used a Finis Tempo Trainer to set a fairly aggressive tempo for the 8 underwater kicks off every wall.

All in all, the set worked pretty well.

Broken Butterfly

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This was one of our recent most popular fly sets among the swimmers.  We had 5 lanes and 22 swimmers, so the broken 200s happened in 4 lanes with half of the group while the 5 x 50 happened in the 5th lane (against the wall) with the other half.  We had only two or three swimmers in lane, allowing for good fly technique.

Snake Circuit with a Full Pool

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

The challenge: How to make the best use of 30 minutes of pool time with 50 teenage swimmers in 5 SCM lanes.  Here is what we did.

Each swimmer performed a 50 drill in lane 2, then moved into lane 3 and did a 50 swim with a fast turn, and so on.  We have an underwater camera hooked to a TiVo in Lane 6, so after the swimmer sprinted past the camera, he climbed out and watched his technique with a coach.  Get back in lane 2 and repeat. 

This one was a hit with swimmers and coaches alike.

400 IM Race Pace Set

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This SCY set working on 400 IM race pace was pretty successful. We spent about 40 minutes prior to this warming up and doing some technical work.

7x:
     200 FRIM (50 Free/Back/Breast/Free) @ 3:00
     100 at P400IM @ 2:00
       #1 – All Fly
       #2 – 50 Fly/50 Back
       #3 – All Back
       #4 – 50 Back/50 Breast
       #5 – All Breast
       #6 – 50 Breast/50 Free
       #7 – All Free

The Best Thing I Read, Watched, and Listened to in 2017

Race Pace Set for a Well-Oiled (Team) Machine

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This set is a really simple one, variations of which have appeared on this blog multiple times.  I am sharing/re-sharing it today to further explain how we execute this set.

Recently, we moved several swimmers up into our top group, so I have taken that as an opportunity to re-emphasize our procedures.  I like to run a very clean, efficient practice, one where every swimmer knows what he or she should be doing and what the expectations are.

For this set, we had 4 or 5 swimmers per lane across 5 lanes.  The aim of the set is to swim at 200 race pace on EVERY 50, but I instructed them to be mindful of  taking it one-at-a-time.  The early interval gives them good rest to be able to achieve that pace (and build some confidence for later), and then we tighten it up and get a REAL test on #5 and #6.

I typically solo coach 15-25 athletes in a given practice, so in order for things to function efficiently on this set, we do the following:

  • Swimmers push off 10 seconds apart.  This means I don’t have to do any subtracting of times — if I read “Matt…three-two,” he knows that his time was 33.2, not 23.2 or 43.2.
  • Swimmers are timed “to the feet,” meaning they complete a turn at the conclusion of the 50. This corresponds how we would time a mid-race 50 back or free (feet-to-feet) or breast/fly (hand-to-hand).
  • Every swimmer on our squad knows his or her pace for best times and goal times.  Each swimmers always has this info handy using our laminated Pace Cards.
  • I time every swimmer, but with this many swimmers in the pool, I can’t possibly keep track of who is making their pace and who is not, so we have set up a signalling system. If a swimmer achieves her “best time” pace (but slower than goal pace), she gives her self an open-handed tap-tap on the head. If she achieves her “goal time” pace, it is a closed-fist knock-knock on the head.  If the swimmer failed to make goal or best time pace, no signal is performed. This gives me excellent instant visual feedback on how we are doing.

 That’s just one coach’s example of how we keep practice humming right along… what strategies do you use?

The Best Things I Read, Watched, and Listened to in 2017

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Here is my annual list of my favorites from the year that helped me improve as a coach or simply as a human being.  If you like what you see here, you may want to also check out my lists from 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016.
“We need to believe that hard work can triumph over circumstance.”  This slightly contrarian article described a mentality that I feel is omnipresent in our sport — one that as a coach I have been guilty of as well.
“Ever since I can remember, I’ve been told to strive for balance. Yet I’ve noticed something interesting: The times in my life during which I’ve felt happiest and most alive are also the times that I’ve been the most unbalanced.”  Stulberg is the author of Peak Performance with the aforementioned Steve Magness.  This article struck a chord with me.  Their book is on my must-read list for 2018.

Breaking 2 by National Geographic (Youtube documentary)

Nike’s pursuit to have a human run 26.2 miles in under 2 hours was both controversial and fascinating. As a runner and a general fan of exploring the boundaries of human performances, I was riveted watching this documentary.
This bite-sized bit of wisdom should be required reading for every American.
“About once a month I run across a person who radiates an inner light…They seem deeply good. They listen well. They make you feel funny and valued… They are not thinking about themselves at all.” This is a powerful article from 2015 that I read just recently
“Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake… We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources.”
Actually, there is a good chance you have heard of him if you are a swim coach.  Still, this is an excellent, inspiring read.
This podcast tells the story behind the Russian expulsion from the upcoming Winter Olympics and  the new documentary Icarus.  I haven’t yet watched the documentary on Netflix, but this conversation pulling the curtain back on the anti-doping world was extremely compelling.  Also check out Rich’s podcast with U.S. National Team Swimmer Conor Dwyer and his talk with  legendary triathlete Mark Allen
A fascinating look at ancient stoic philosophy in relateable bite-sized daily nuggets. I haven’t finished the book yet because I started it mid-year. I also enjoyed Ryan Holiday’s appearance on The Forward Podcast

My Favorite Tweets of the Year

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 A good one to show your athletes — what will you do when you “get a flat” and hit some adversity? — FIND A WAY!
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A few excellent pieces of writing that had nothing to do with coaching or swimming, but still made an impact on me:
An Awesome Quote That Is Both Timely and Timeless
From Martin Luther King’s Riverside Speech, 4 April 1967:
“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The “tide in the affairs of men” does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: “Too late.””

F.L.Y. = Fantastic Laps, Y’all!

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We did this fly set recently (SCY).  The  different instructions for A, B, and C groups were determined based on swimmers’ ability to maintain the integrity of their stroke technique over time.

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F.L.Y. = Fantastic Laps Y’all!

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Simple Fantastic Fly Workout

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know that our Friday Fly workouts are some of my favorites to post.  This particular workout was one of our best fly sets ever.

We train in a SCM pool primarily.  The lanes are a bit narrow and we have about 20 swimmers in 5 lanes (really not bad from a space standpoint, but still hard to train fly with doing 1-arm strokes).  This set allowed us to swim fast repeatedly with out sacrificing stroke quality for safety.  We had 16 swimmers at practice, so I split the group into two squads of 8.  The first squad of 8 swimmers used 4 lanes (2 per lane going :05 apart so that swimmer 1 would still be kicking underwater when he or she passed swimmer 2) for a fly set and then moved into a single lane for the “recovery set.”  Then squad 2 would move into the 4 lanes and do their fly set.  Thus they alternated doing the fly set and the recovery set.

The groups were split not based on speed/distance orientation but more based on how well each swimmer holds his or her fly technique under fatigue.  Those whose technique tends to suffer under duress were in group 2.  Both groups were well challenged and nobody could complain about being in the “harder” group because both swam the same total distance butterfly.

We had some excellent performances, particularly on the 75s and 100s at the end.

Free and Stroke Set for SCM

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Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We performed this set in a SCM pool, same as for most of the sets I post during the September-May time period. In this one, the time expectation of beating our best 500 SCY time during each 400 was key to the success of the set.

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Free and Stroke Set for SCM.

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