Training Camp Sets

We are almost done with our winter version of “training camp.” This is when we can plunge headlong into swim training without the school issues that always compete for everyone’s time and attention.

Our goal this “camp” was to keep the skill building while getting in some intensity in the sets. 

Everything we did was a combination of skill development or high metabolic rate work…of course we asked for and sometimes received both. We keep working on this part of the equation; skill plus fast swimming leads to…duh, faster racing…that’s our theory anyway!

We did a fair amount of kicking daily always reminding our gang that kicking is 90% will power…so quit looking for the easier way and just bear down. We did a lot of kicking with fins on tight intervals. An example would be a set of 100’s on 1:20 blowing the whistle at the 1:05 mark. We got a lot of kids under 60 seconds for several rounds. We shall see how this translates when we go racing at our first development meet in two weeks. We think they will have increased levels of confidence in their kicking power.

The following are four sets we used with some notes. As always, you can change the intervals to suit your needs/group ability and what you are after. We kept looking for more intensity as a rule so when the interval was generous we asked for fast swims while when the interval was skimpy, we asked everyone to make it, push into new territory.

#1 –

10x300/4 fins and paddles; #1-3 last 3 laps fast, #4-6 last 5 laps fast, #7-9 last 7 laps fast; #10 all laps fast; question, how many went faster on any of the first 9 than #10…if so why do you think that happened?

# 2 –

1x300/ tight interval – we went on 3:30, then 1x100/2 fast as possible

1x300/3:30 – 2x100/2 fast as possible

1x300/3:30 – 3x100/2 fast as possible…all the way to a round of 6x100/2 fast as you can

#3 –

4x25/.30 smooth and relaxed – flawless swimming

2x50/1 @ 80%

1x100/2 @ 90 %

4x25/.30 fast as you can

2x50/1 smooth and flawless

1x100/2 80%

4x25/.30 90%

2x50/1 fast as you can

Simply keep going through the rotation. When you have done 8 rounds of 4x25, 2x50 and 1x100 you will have done everything twice.

#4 –

10x25/.30 at 80%

10x50/1 at 80%

10x25/.30 at 90%

10x50/1 at 90%

10x25/.30 fast as you can

10x50/1 fast as you can

On this set the idea is to hold time average on the 50’s and each time through go 1 second faster on the time average for those 50’s.

The one common thread on all these sets is that very soon into the set no one was talking between swims…lots of “gathering” your resources and getting ready for the next repeat. Lots of focus and a fair amount of satisfaction afterwards…those that leaned into it knew they had moved forward.

Nice!