Swimming Set of the Week - September 17, 2010

IM set this week.   It offers many chances for the swimmer to work on IM transition turns and for the coach to give feedback on how the swimmer is doing with those turns.   

If you have swimmers who haven't yet learned the transition turns, start them off by watching segments of the DVD Go Swim the 7 Competitive Turns with Steve Haufler.   Steve's progressions and the underwater footage showing the turns from multiple angles will save you thousands of words and will get really fast results.  

If you have swimmers who are looking for that extra edge on their turns, and who want to master the back-to-breast crossover turn, start them off by watching segments of Go Swim All Strokes with Eric Shanteau.   Clear video of a world-class IM'er will show your swimmers EXACTLY what they need to do.   This video is available online AND on DVD.

TECHNIQUE/WARMUP SET:  300
4 X 75 mid-pool 75s
Start each 75 in the middle of the pool.  Swim backstroke toward one end... do a back-to-breast turn... swim breaststroke to the other end... execute a breast-to-back turn (you won't do this in a race, but it's good for practicing the technique of "falling back" on your open turns)... swim backstroke to the other end... execute a back-to-breast turn and stop in the middle of the pool to get feedback from coach.  Repeat.

MAIN SET:  1700
Six rounds of the following.  Pick a sendoff that you can live with for all of the 50s (one that gives 15 to 20 seconds rest).  For the 100 IMs, choose a sendoff that gives approximately 30 seconds rest.  You might want to take a little extra rest before starting rounds 5 and 6.

3 X 50  Fly/Back... Back/Breast... Breast/Free
1 X 100 IM or FRIM (IM with freestyle substituted for butterfly).  Descend time every group of two 100 IMs.

After completing 6 rounds of the above...
100 easy recovery, then...

1 X 50 or 1 X 100 ALL OUT from the blocks.  This is IM or choice of stroke, and choice of equipment (or no equipment).