Tag: Woodruff

Friday Fly Day Relays

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We sometimes swim butterfly relays in order to get some quality butterfly swimming done without the need to one-arm drill or lose our rhythm in order to not smack arms in narrow lanes.  Recently, we did a little change-up on the relays that worked well.

  • 3-4 swimmers per lane are on a relay team.
  • We placed markers (in our case, orange hockey pucks) on the bottom of the pool 15m and 20m from the start end.
  • Each swimmer swims 3 times.  The first time, the swimmer sprints fly to 15m mark, does an open turn on an imaginary wall at that point, and swims back.  Next swimmer does the same.
  • The second time a swimmer goes, he goes to 20m and back.  The 3rd time to 25m and back.
  • After the relay concludes, swim a bit easy, and do it again! Change up the distances, the order, the number of total swims, whatever you want!

Tempo Trainer Kick Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

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

Backstroke Progression

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

3 x 75 backstroke w/ band (around ankles) descend 1-3 @ :20 rest
3 x 75 backstroke w/ buoy and band (around ankles) descend 1-3 @:20 rest
3 x 75 backstroke w/paddles, buoy, and band (around ankles) descend 1-3 @:20 rest
3 x 25 spin drill (max hand speed, sitting up) w/band and buoy @:30 rest
1:00 rest
1 x 200 backstroke for time

The Fly Back Grinder

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

1 x 200  done as 100 fly strong/100 back get your time @ 3:30
1 x 100 ez @ 2:00
1 x 300  done as 100 fly strong/200 back get your time @5:00
1 x 100 ez @ 2:00
1 x 400  done as 100 fly strong/300 back get your time @ 6:30
1 x 300 ez swim

add up your 100-200-300 backstroke times.  Now go:

600 backstroke for time — try to beat that total time!

Fly Fri

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This was our most recent version of our Friday Fly Day Set:

LCM

30 x 50 @ 1:30
descend 1-3
After #1 of each set of 3 – 5 pushups
After #2 of each set of 3 -10 squats

Kick and Swim For Distance Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

Longtime readers of this blog will know that I like to use timed swims (or kicks) for distance as a way to get some aerobic training in a slightly different-than-normal way.  The swimmers dictate the effort level, and I certainly encourage them to give it all they’ve got!

This particular set was performed LCM, and I tapped a wrench on a metal pipe at the end of the 3:00 time period (repeating every :10 for each successive group) to let them know when to stop.  Swimmers then swim easy to the nearest wall to start the next repeat.  We place kickboards along the edge of the pool every 10m so that they can pretty accurately tell how far they have gone.

KICK & SWIM FOR DISTANCE – GO :10 APART!
5x through:
1 X 3:00 CHOICE KICK FOR DISTANCE @ 4:00
       – BOARD FOR BR ONLY
       – DESCEND ACROSS ROUNDS (ALL OUT ON ROUND 5)
1 x 3:00 FREE SWIM FOR DISTANCE @ 4:00
       – DESCEND ACROSS ROUNDS (ALL OUT ON ROUND 5)

60 x 50 Friday Fly Day Set

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

It is critical to train fly with excellent technique or it becomes what I call “butterstruggle” and is counterproductive. This set allowed is to get a decent volume of fly in while keeping it in manageable chunks. We allowed two versions of the set: The A is for our strongest flyers. The B is for our non-flyers or flyers without as much strength. Doing the set in “zipper” fashion allowed us to never half to “fly-dodge” or take one-arm strokes.


60 x 50 @ 1:00 DIFFERENT INSTRUCTIONS BASED ON A/B LEVELS
DONE IN 6 SETS OF 10, “ZIPPER STYLE” – DOWN IN LANE 2, BACK IN LANE 1 AND 3.
5x:          A                                  B         
#1        DRILL                           DRILL              
#2-3     25m FLY                      15m FLY         
#4-6     35m FLY                      25m FLY         
#7-9     50m FLY FAST              35m FLY FAST
#10      EZ FREE                       EZ FREE
FOR THE LAST SET OF 10:
ODDS: 15m FAST FLY THEN EZ FREE
EVENS: 50m FLY at P200 TIMED TO HAND TOUCH

Butterfly Stations

Posted on by rdwoodruff

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

This week we split into 3 stations for our customary Friday Fly Day.  This allowed us to use a variety of equipment and stagger our numbers to give us more space where we needed it (Station 3). We did 2 rounds through the 3 stations.

Station 1 – with Power Bags
12 x 25 Fly @ :40
descend 1-5 and 6-10, take the bags off for #11 and #12 all out
Hold consistent cycle count & breathing pattern, use the core to drive the kick.
For round 1, swimmers wore the Power Bags on their calves.  For round 2, swimmers wore the Power Bags around the ankle with the mesh hanging off their feet.

Station 2 – No equipment
18 x 25 fly @ :30
1 dolphin kick on side, 1 drill fly, 4 swim fastest possible average

Station 3 – with fins
4x:
3 x 25 Fly @ :25  Kick past 10m underwater, focus on rhythm and breath timing
1 x 50 Fast Fly @ 1:00 with a flip turn, no breath on the last 10m

After each station, do a 100 easy before rotating to next station.