Workout Directory

This page contains links to workouts and related information. Each workout is based on a theme that is introduced at a weekly group workout. If you are swimming three times a week, try to make the group workout that introduces the weekly theme, and then perform two additional workouts as your schedule allows. To perform a recovery workout based on the weekly theme, perform all drill sets and either reduce the swim set distances by 50% or perform the swim sets at the EN1 pace (long slow distance pace). To perform a key workout based on the weekly theme, reduce the number of drill repeats by 50% and increase the swim set pace.

If you are new to this program, see the following:

Terminology and Workout Format
About Training Categories (REC, EN1, EN2, EN3)
About Critical Swimming Speed (CSS)

If you are new to group swim workouts in general, see the following:

Lane Etiquette (this link is to a Go Swim website page)
Pace Clock 101 (this link is to a Go Swim website page)

Weekly Workout Focus (Tue 7:30-8:30pm - Z Center Main Pool)

Focus	Description	Workout Date
tbd	tbd	May 29, 2012 (Coach Bill will be away)
tbd	tbd	May 22, 2012 (Coach Bill will be away)
Navigating Crowds	Practice navigating your way through crowds.	May 15, 2012
Conditioning	Main set helps you to hold form while increasing distance.	May 8, 2012
Arms	Conditioning main sets with arms focus.	May 1, 2012
Flip Turns	Triathletes! Stop embarrassing yourselves at the wall...	Apr 24, 2012
Swimming Golf	Check your swimming golf score on a regular basis to track efficiency.	Apr 17, 2012
Drafting	Practice drafting in a pack.	Apr 10, 2012
Timing the Kick	Work on connecting the 6-beat kick with your arm stroke.	Apr 3, 2012
Sighting (again)	Head down. Head up. Repeat. See the sighting practice videos.	Mar 27, 2012
Open Water Arms	Two aspects of the arm stroke for open water: a high elbow recovery, and a high turnover rate.	Mar 20, 2012
Sighting	Minimal or "Alligator Eyes" sighting technique.	Mar 13, 2012
Arms	Conditioning main sets with arms focus.	Mar 6, 2012
Kicking	Focus on kicking for propulsion, rotation and stability. Underwater video.	Feb 28, 2012
Open Water Turns	Practice open water turns and navigating through traffic	Feb 21, 2012
Drafting	Practice catching some free speed.	Feb 14, 2012
Sighting	Head down. Head up. Repeat.	Feb 7, 2012
Arms	Conditioning main sets with arms focus.	Jan 31, 2012
Timing the Kick	Work on connecting the 6-beat kick with your arm stroke.	Jan 24, 2012
Pulling	Practice an early catch and a long, powerful pull.	Jan 17, 2012
Passing	With the pool is set up for long course, we can practice open water skills (passing, drafting, etc)	Jan 10, 2012
Backstroke	Use backstroke to reset and refresh your freestyle stroke.	Dec 5, 2011
Powerful Setup	Focus on getting into the setup position powerfully, because that what makes you both fast and efficient.	Nov 28, 2011
CSS Calculation & Workout	Calculate CSS and swim at endurance paces EN1, En2 and EN3.	Nov 21, 2011
Arms	Focus on various aspects of the arm stroke.	Nov 14, 2011
Kicking	Focus on kicking for propulsion, rotation and stability.	Nov 7 , 2011
Speedy Recovery	Get faster by speeding up your arm recovery.	Oct 31, 2011
Technique	Kicking, pulling and freestyle sets with focus on individual issues.	Oct 24, 2011
Consistency	Focus on maintaining form for progressively longer repeats.	Oct 17, 2011
Balance	To swim efficient freestyle, you need to practice perfect posture, line and balance.	Oct 10, 2011
Sensory Images	Swimming is so complicated that we can easily get too focused on a hand or a foot or some other bit player in the whole-body stroke. Sensory images can help to organize the whole thing without worrying too much about the parts.	Oct 3, 2011
EVF Catch and Pull	Drill progression to work on the EVF (early vertical forearm) catch and pull - the favored catch and pull for distance swimming.	Sep 26, 2011
Arm Stroke Setup	Get the setup right, and it's hard NOT to have an effective stroke.	Sep 19, 2011
Kicking	It's true that you don't need to kick much for distance swimming, but you must kick right - otherwise your legs will become a hinderance.	Sep 12, 2011
Walls Part 2	Now that we are swimming across the pool the short way, we need to practice open turns and flip turns.	Sep 5, 2011
Walls	If you come off every wall with authority and snap to a perfect streamline, you will be starting every length of swimming with good posture.	Aug 29, 2011
Breathing	When you breathe, you can disrupt your posture, balance, aquatic line and timing. The trick is to minimize the disruption - especially when the breathing cycle is also your sighting cycle.	Aug 22, 2011
Faster Swimming	Your body does not adapt to swimming faster unless you spend some time swimming faster (duh). Today we will swim faster.	Aug 15, 2011
Catch and Drafting	With everyone swimming in circles, one half of the team performs catch drills, while the other half practices drafting and passing.	Aug 8, 2011
Open Water Surprises	Simulate two common open water surprises: lost goggles and wobbly legs on exit.	Aug 1, 2011
Speed Work	We tend to swim lots of long slow sets (in open water, for example) during summer. One swim per week should include speed work. This is your speed work for this week.	Jul 25, 2011
Stroke Rate	At endurance swimming speeds ordinary swimmers tend to turn their arms over more slowly. The best endurance swimmers switch to a two-beat kick (which requires much less energy than a six-beat kick), and they turn over their arms more quickly.	Jul 18, 2011
Gearing	The ability to change speeds in open water is critical. You typically need to start fast to find some open space. Then relax for a while to find your cruising gear. Then you need to accelerate into the turns or to find open space again, or to catch a draft.	Jul 11, 2011
Continuous Swimming	To simulate swimming in open water, we will swim in circles - alternating direction (clockwise or counter) each set - with lane lines removed, and without pushing off the walls.	Jun 27, 2011
Breathing & Pack Swimming	Learn the cost of breathing on your "hard" side, which hopefully will inspire you to address that issue. And learn to deal with a pack - you can join it or swim around it.	Jun 20, 2011
Setup & Drafting	To get the best draft, you need to get right on somebody's toes. With a good (wide) setup, it's easy. Note: Video for those needing a fresh look (and who did not have video last week).	Jun 13, 2011
Sighting	Focus on sighting. Video for those needing a fresh look.	Jun 06, 2011
Connect the Kick - Part 2	Connect the kick to the arm stroke. Simultaneous drill and swim sets.	May 23, 2011
Connect the Kick - Part 1	Connect the kick to the arm stroke. Simultaneous drill and swim sets.	May 16, 2011
Navigating Crowds	Now that the pool is set up for long course, we can practice open water skills under more realistic conditions.	May 9, 2011
Stem-to-Stern Balance	Swimming well is a balancing act. With good stem-to-stern balance you can move through the water like a sleek kayak. With poor stem-to-stern balance you move like a wounded guppie.	May 2, 2011
Swimming Golf	Checking your swimming golf score on a regular basis is one way to track stroke efficiency.	2011-04-18
Pace Control	During a race your first focus should be consistency - same pace, same stroke length - and that is hard without a wall to bounce off of every 25 yards. This week focus on learning to maintain form (strokes per length) at race pace while increasing distance.	2011-04-18
Body Position	All expert distance swimmers have one thing in common: great body position. They organize their body into a sleek displacement hull, and then balance that hull right at the surface.	2011-04-04
Timing Part 2	Whole body stroking coordinating the kick with the arm stroke (with the balance shift).	2011-03-21
Timing Part 1	Balance shifting: coordinating the recovery arm with the stroking arm. (Because it don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing.)	2011-03-14
Arms	Focus on the arms using half-bad drills (where you exaggerate a flaw for half a length, and then correct for the second half of the length).	2011-02-21

Beginner Program (Mon 8:30-9:30pm Z Center Teaching Pool)

Drill progressions in the teaching pool, for newer swimmers or anybody needing focused technique work. Send Coach Bill a note ahead of time if there is an aspect of your stroke that you think needs attention.

Do you have a workout focus that has worked for you? Send Coach Bill a note and let him know about it. Thanks!