Tag: Woodruff

13 Fascinating Things I Read (and one that I watched) in 2013

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Ryan Woodruff

One topic that has garnered much attention this year is safety in football.  Thomas Lake’s The Ghost of Speedy Cannon (1) provided a riveting tale probing a long-ago death on the field.  Though I have long enjoyed Rick Reilly’s writing, he can get under the skin of some readers.  His piece about the NFL Becoming a Guilty Pleasure (2) is hard to argue with.

I love reading about legendary coaches.  Perhaps none are more legendary in his sport than Dan Gable.  Wright Thompson’s incredible piece The Losses of Dan Gable (3) is even more poignant now that wrestling has won reinstatement into the Olympics.  The Book of a Coach (4) tells the story of Bill Walsh and the legacy of a coaching legend.  Soccer fan or not, if you are a coach you will find some wisdom in Eight Coaching Keys from Sir Alex Ferguson (5).

Unless you are still using dial-up internet service, you have probably heard of Seth Godin.  I highly recommend a few posts of his from this year: The Merchants of Average (6), Choosing To Be Formidable (7), and All Boats Leak (8). All three inspire me to be a better coach.

Just read this article: Two Enemies Discovering a Higher Call in Battle (9). It will renew your faith in humanity.

This article got me thinking about the technological frontiers of swimming: Mobile Athlete Monitoring – The Next Big Thing (10).  Coaches of all sports should be keeping up with Vern Gambetta and his Functional Path Training blog.  He hit the mark in Pay the Piper (11).

How Great Teachers See (12) made me ponder how I perceive my swimmers’ talents and how powerful that perception really might be.

On a personal level, a few things I came across this year made a difference in my life. Leo Babuata inspired me to aim for Living the Quiet Life (13) and Dr. Michael Greger’s powerful video Uprooting the Causes of Death convinced me to make my most profound personal change this year.

I hope you enjoyed the list.  Have a happy, healthy, and successful 2014!

 

Killer Kick Set for a 20yd pool

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Ryan Woodruff

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One of our coaches came up with this kick set for use in our 20-yard diving well.
Green is underwater.
Blue is descend
Red is Fastest Possible Average

Good Stuff

The Sprinter’s Dozen

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Ryan Woodruff
 

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P100 = 100 yd race pace. We performed the first one of each set from a dive and the rest from a push.

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The ? Set

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Ryan Woodruff
 
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? x 50 @ :50
Using a dry-erase board, give the swimmers a different set of instructions for every 50, erasing the old instructions and writing the new one while they swim. Mix it up, changing speeds, strokes, drills, breathing patterns, etc. Don’t let the swimmers know what is coming beyond the next 50. All swims are choice unless the stroke is specified. Here’s an example:
#1- P200+5
#2- P200+3
#3- P200+1
#4- P200-1
#5- EZ free B3
#6- Free B5
#7- Free B7
#8- At count
#9- Race!
#10- At cycle count -1
#11- 25 underwater dolphin kick/ 25 sprint
#12- 25 sprint/25 underwater dolphin kick
#13- 25 race/25 ez kick
#14- Fly B 1 up/1 down
#15- Fly B 1 up/2 down
#16- Fly B 1 up/3 down
#17- Fast fly
#18- EZ breaststroke
#19- Race!
#20- At cycle count -2
#21- 12.5 fast/12.5 ez of same stroke as #20
#22- At cycle count
#23- Breast with dolphin kick
#24- Backstroke 12.5 spin drill/12.5 swim
#25- P1650
…
The set could go on for as long as you like. The changing up speeds and instructions every 50 keeps the swimmers alert and the set fresh and interesting. What other interesting instructions can you come up with?

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The Pyramid of Pain

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Ryan Woodruff
 

This set provides some incentives for fast swimming.  The picture below explains the process of the Pyramid.  All swimmers begin with a 200 for time with the goal of being within 6 seconds of lifetime best (girls) or 8 seconds (boys).  100 easy for all, and then those that failed will do a broken 200 (75-50-50-25 @:10 rest) while those that succeeded in reaching the goal will do a broken 100 (50-50@:10rest).  The goal on the broken 200 is a lifetime best.  The goal on the broken 100 is within 2 seconds of lifetime best.  The second swim is followed by another 100 easy, and based on a swimmer’s success or failure he then completes either a broken 200 (75-50-50-25@:20 rest), a broken   100 (50-50@:10 rest), or an all-out dive 50.  The goals are a lifetime best, a best +3 or faster, and the starting 50 split for a lifetime best 100, respectively.  Success or failure on the 3rd swim leads to 10 push-ups or a “Hooray!”

We performed two rounds and saw many season-best practice swims.
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Everyone Swims Butterfly: A Beautiful Thing

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Ryan Woodruff
 
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Each week we make sure that every swimmer gets to train at least a small amount of butterfly.  This past week’s Friday Fly Day set had our entire crew doing the same general set (reps, distance, and intervals), with adjustments made for three different ability levels within the group. 

Level 1 = Our 200 butterfly specialists who simply can’t get enough.
Level 2 = Reluctant but capable butterflyers (who just can’t do it all day long).
Level 3 = “Coach, butterfly… it ain’t my thang”

It turned out to be a great set, and one easily manageable for one coach alone on deck

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Get In Yo Face Race Pace

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Ryan Woodruff

After an extended warmup, we performed the following set to work on maintaining our race pace under fatigue.  We are quite skilled at repeating race-pace swimming for repeat 50s.  Throwing in the 100 fast swim (where we asked swimmers to approach P200) more closely mimicked actual race-like fatigue.  We saw some excellent results, particularly on the third round.

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4 x 50 at P200 @1:00
1 x 100 all out @1:40
300 easy
 
2 x 50 at P200 @1:00
1 x 100 all out @1:40
2 x 50 at P200 @1:00
300 easy
 
1 x 100 all out @1:40
4 x 50 at P200 @1:00
300 easy
 

12 Fascinating Things I Read in 2012

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Ryan Woodruff

Not a workout, but some resources especially for coaches that I came across this year…

1. Former Texas A & M Football Coach Mike Sherman’s Letter To Texas High School Football Coaches by Chris Brown This is an incredible piece of writing that makes me think about why I coach.

2. The Surfer’s Guide to Taking Risks by Srinivas Rao Some great advice in the context of a beautiful sport.

3. Quantum Thinking When Coaching Swimmers by Jonty Skinner, Beijing Blog. Skinner might be on the frontier (fringe?) of modern thought on swim training and I find his ideas curiously stimulating.

4. The Toughest Coach There Ever Was by Frank Deford, Sports Illustrated A must-read for coaches in any sport.

5. The Greatest Assistant Coaching Article Ever Written by Wayne Goldsmith. This boldly titled article delivers on its promise.  I wish I had read this 10 years ago.

6. High Volume or High Velocity by Paul Yetter, Developing The Champion Within Blog. Yetter answers one of swimming’s longest-standing debates with the best answer I have heard yet.

7. Did You See The Gorilla? An Interview with Psychologist Daniel Simons by David DiSalvo: The psychology behind this is fascinating.

8. The Fifty-Nine Story Crisis: A Lesson in Professional Behavior: A powerful lesson on admitting your mistakes.

9. Standing Near Greatness by Ashley Harrell: Find out what it is like to be Tim Tebow’s teammate and Urban Meyer’s doormat.

10. Marathon Man Kip Litton is a Fraud by Mark Singer: You won’t believe the lengths this guy went to…

11. You are Not Lazy, and Still You Are an Idler by Abraham Lincoln from Letters-of-Note blog: Strong words of advice from our nation’s greatest President.

12. Rich Thompson’s Pact With Baseball by Johnette Howard, ESPN.com: An inspiring story of faith, persistence, and dreams come true.

And one last memorable tidbit, from the “Faces In the Crowd: Coaches’ Edition” in Sports Illustrated:

 

Distance Kicking Test Set

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Ryan Woodruff
 

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We performed the following kick set last night in order to test our kicking ability and fitness coming off a recent taper meet.  It is essentially three broken 1,000s with some easy swim and drill mixed in between.

In the first 1,000, swimmers could use a board if they liked or could kick in any of our standard body positions. Typically when given this option, many of our swimmers prefer to kick on their backs.  For the second 1,000, no boards were allowed and swimmers had to wear a snorkel, meaning that they had to kick either face down or on their side (which we do for free and fly kick).  The third 1,000 used Streamline Sticks at the 12.5 yard mark and emphasized underwater dolphin kicking (in any body position) and the swimmers could choose the body position to continue kicking in once they surfaced.  We recorded total times for each 1,000 and will use this information to develop kicking intervals for the next few months of training.

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