Swimming Set of the Week - February 8, 2013

Yep, we love breaststroke around here.   

Some swimmers like to pull for a thousand yards, but we'll take this kind of set any day, all day.  It gives you a chance to work on so many things:
1.  Aerobic endurance (it's not easy spending so much time under water)
2.  Narrow kick (when you're totally submerged, it's easy to feel when and where your kick might be creating resistance)
3.  Timing (focus on keeping your face in the water until the hands are at the "corners" and ready to pull
4.  Turns (you'll have multiple opportunities to work on getting the hand off the wall, getting the elbow back, and staying low to the water)

Swim 4 rounds of the following 250-yard/meter sequence.  Each 250 is continuous...no breaks.   Do not do any breaststroke pullouts on this set!  

1 X 100 of 3 down/1 up  (3 breaststroke kicks under water + 1 full stroke of breaststroke at the surface)
25 easy recovery, choice
1 X 100 of 3 down/1 up (same as above)
25 easy recovery, choice

That's it!  To see a demonstration of this drill, check out Brendan Hansen's video.

If you need a little bit more air than Brendan, this can be done as 2 down/1 up...or even 2 down/ 2 up.

Eric Shanteau does a full-stroke version of the drill that you can see here.