05/22/03 Short Breaststroke Practice for Speed
On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, I coach a Masters swim team. I don’t usually get a chance to work out WITH them, so I arrive at the pool about 45 minutes early to get in a short practice on my own. I usually go 1500 yards in 30 to 35 minutes. I focus mainly on breaststroke, and mainly on technique and going fast, because I don’t have time for a lot of yardage. I’m targeting the 50, 100, and 200M breaststrokes at the Masters Long Course Nationals in August, and need to build some speed.
WARMUP: 400
With fins.
200 Head-Lead “IM,” which is 50 Head-Lead Body Dolphin + 50 Head-Lead Active + 50 Head-Leady Body Dolphin + 50 Torpedo
200 Hand-Lead “IM,” which is 50 Hand-Lead Body Dolphin + 50 6-Count Backstroke + 50 Stoneskipper + 50 Single-Switch Freestyle
MAIN SETS:
Two rounds of the following — no break between any of the 25s. You’re doing breaststroke kick in all kinds of positions. The rhythm and cadence and body movement is a bit different with each 25. Focus on streamlining and finishing each kick with toes pointed.
25 Underwater Breaststroke Kick
25 Hand-Lead Breast Kick on Your Back
25 Hand-Lead Breask Kick on Your Stomach
25 Head-Lead Breast Kick on Your Back
25 Head-Lead Breast Kick on Your Stomach
5 X 50 swum as 25 drill + 25 breaststroke. Rest interval between 50s is 5 slow bobs. Start each 50 with a breaststroke turn, rather than with a normal pushoff.
1st 50: drill is Underwater Breaststroke Kick
2nd 50: drill is One Up/Two Down (one quick stroke of breast, then two breaststroke kicks under water)
3rd 50: drill is Body-Dolphin Breast
4th 50: drill is Double Body-Dolphin Breast
5th 50: drill is Breaststroke breathing every other stroke
100 EZ swim
3 X 50 Breaststroke Swim Golf on 1:05 sendoff. Count total strokes for each 50 and add your stroke count to your time in seconds. (Don’t count your underwater pullout as a stroke.) This is your golf “score.” Try to reduce your score on each 50. For example, here’s how I swam the set:
1st 50: 14 total strokes in :47 = 61
2nd 50: 15 total strokes in :45 = 60
3rd 50: 16 total strokes in :43 = 59
100 EZ swim
4 X 25 breaststroke on :30 sendoff. My current best time for 100 yards breast is about 1:22. I would like to get this down to 1:20, which works out to :20 per lap. I want to do some practice sets to FEEL what :20 per lap FEELS like. So my goal on this set was to swim each 25 in :20. My times were :20 :20 :21 :20. I didn’t worry about stroke counts; I just went for as fast a turnover as possible.
200 EZ swimdown
Total Yardage: 1550
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