Competitive Kick Set

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

Swimmers partnered up.  For the first part of the set, they push their partner (who is in a streamlined position) with one hand.  Then they race their partner in an all out 100 flutter kick. The 100 was handicapped based on a “best average” kick set earlier in the week, meaning that one partner got a head start over the other.

Fly Set

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

I can’t wait for our season to start on Monday, so to keep the blog going until then, I am reaching back into the archives a bit.  This workout is from my days at the North Carolina Aquatic Club in 2010.  This is a SCY workout that we did about two weeks before we attended Junior Nationals.

Backstroke Parachutes Set with Back/Breast Follow-up

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.

Bottle Flippin’ Relays

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

My swimmers have recently been obsessed with flipping water bottles.  They toss them up in the air, trying to get them to land on the base.  We have spent countless hours at meets and even time at practice in between sets trying to successfully flip bottles.  Maybe you have seen the video sensation on youtube. 

So we decided to make it part of a workout.  We did a relay.  Before each swimmer dove in, someone on his or her team had to successfully execute the water bottle flip.  It made for a fun event.

A video posted by Lynchburg Y Swimming (@lynchburg_y_swimming) on Aug 1, 2016 at 8:35am PDT

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Kick, Fartlek, and Descend

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

Kick Set (last 25 of every repeat is MAX UW- at least 12.5 yards)
Slower kickers should drill or swim the first part of each repeat to keep up
No kicking with board, no br kick
Options: face down fly, face down flutter, side fly, side flutter. Snorkel is o.k.
4 x 25 @ :30
3 x 50 @:55
2 x 75 @1:20
1 x 100 @1:45
100 smooth swim @1:30
4 x 100 intervals same as above
3 x 75
2 x 50
1 x 25 all out all UW kick
100 smooth swim @1:30

Wrench Bang Fartlek Set
6 rounds (4:30 per round)
    2 x {Round 1 – free, Round 2- No free, Round 3- weakest stroke}
:30 scull
WRENCH BANG
1:00 drill (athlete’s choice of stroke)
WRENCH BANG
1:30  smooth swim with CRAZY FAST turns & underwaters
WRENCH BANG
Sprint between 25 and 50 yards (do one great turn and one great finish)
Start next round all together
Main Set
20 x 150 free
(paddles and/or buoy optional on all descending parts)
1 @1:35/1:40/1:45
5 descend @ 1:45/1:50/1:55
1 @1:35/1:40/1:45
4 descend @ 1:45/1:50/1:55
1 @1:35/1:40/1:45
3 descend @ 1:45/1:50/1:55
1 @1:35/1:40/1:45
2 descend @ 1:45/1:50/1:55
1 @1:35/1:40/1:45
1  @ 1:45/1:50/1:55

Race Pace Saturday

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

Standard Warmup

Pre-Set 4 x 100 choice @ :20 rest.  Fast turns and 4+ dolphin kicks
   
Main Set (go to a hand touch on everything and keep an eye on the clock):
 
4 x 75 at P200+6 seconds @ 1:20
200 ez @ 3:00
3 x 75 at P200+4 seconds @ 1:20
200 ez

2 x 75 at P200+2 seconds @ 1:20
200 ez
1 x 75 at P200 @ 1:20
 
300 kick/scull/swim by 25

4 x 50 at P200+2 seconds @ 1:00
150 ez @ 2:20
3 x 50 at P200+1 seconds @ 1:00
150 ez @ 2:20
2 x 50 at P200  @ 1:00
150 ez @ 2:20
1 x 50 at P200-1 @ 1:00
 

300 kick/scull/swim by 25

1 x 25 at P100  @ :40
100 ez @ 1:40
2 x 25 at P100  @ :40
100 ez @ 1:40
3 x 25 at P100  @ :40
100 ez @ 1:40
4 x 25 at P100  @ :40
 

500 ez warm down, your choice of equipment

Snake-Style Fly Set

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We have three narrow lanes for our group, so swimming fly with 20 swimmers sometimes gets hairy.  We swam this set “snake-style” to avoid collisions and 1-arm strokes. We went one direction in the first lane, came back in the second lane, and so on…

Have you checked out Bob Bowman’s new book?
The Golden Rules: 10 Steps to World-Class Excellence in Your Life and Work

Parallel Sprint and Distance Sets

Ryan Woodruff
Head Coach
Lynchburg YMCA

We did the following parallel sets this morning.  The structure allowed me to focus on the sprinters for a few minutes, and then shift my focus to the distance swimmers, making me able to time everyone’s race pace swimming. LCM.

Distance Group
5 rounds of:
1 x 500 free B3, paddles, snorkel, buoy optional @ 7:30
3 x 100 @ 1:30
   Round 1 – descend to P1500
   Round 2 – at P1500
   Round 3 – descend to P1500 -1
   Round 4 – descend from P1500
   Round 5 – Fastest possible average

Sprint Group
5 rounds of:
3 x 35m sprints timed to the head, swim 15m easy @ 2:20
1 x 300 free B5, paddles, snorkel, buoy optional @ 5:00

We used these pace cards for determining race pace.