This week’s sessions were about endurance and open water skills. The water is still cold, but open water venues have started to open for the season and races aren’t far behind. I’ll be coaching some club sessions at our local lake, but until then it’s good to get some practice in at the pool.
Wednesday, 6th April 2016 – Swim Session
| Warm Up | ||
|---|---|---|
| 400m Front crawl | ||
| 2x | 50m Front crawl – head up – on 10s rest | |
| 100m Front crawl | ||
| 2x | 100m Front crawl – sighting practice – on 15s rest | |
| 2x | 50m Front crawl – building – on 10s rest | |
| 900m | ||
| Main Set | ||
| 300m Front crawl – steady, drafting practice – on 30s Change lead every 50m |
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| 100m Front crawl – hard – on 30s Deep water start practice |
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| Repeat 3-4 times | ||
| 2,100m – 2,500m | ||
| Cool Down | ||
| 200m Front crawl – easy; sighting practice | ||
| 2,300m – 2,700m | ||
Wednesday’s session focussed on three open water skills: sighting, drafting and starting. For the first I contrasted swimming with your head out of the water with crocodile sighting where you try to minimise the head movement. The main set worked heavily on drafting in each lane, making sure everyone had a chance to both lead and draft. We also practiced race starts, moving away from the wall and starting a hard 100 without a push off.
Thursday, 7th April 2016 – Swim Session
| Warm Up | ||
|---|---|---|
| 300m Front crawl | ||
| 2x | 50m As 25m front scull, 25m front crawl – on 10s rest | |
| 2x | 50m As 25m mid scull, 25m front crawl – on 10s rest | |
| 2x | 50m As 25m doggy paddle, 25m front crawl – on 10s rest | |
| 2x | 50m Front crawl – fist drill – on 10s rest | |
| 100m Front crawl | ||
| 2x | 50m Front crawl – building – on 10s rest | |
| 900m | ||
| Main Set | ||
| 2x | 600m Front crawl – pull – on 45s rest 2x 200m Front crawl – building – on 30s rest |
|
| 2,900m | ||
| Main Set 2 | ||
| 8x | 50m Front crawl – on 20s rest Odds: easy< br/> Evens: hard |
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| 3,300m | ||
| Cool Down | ||
| 200m Choice – easy | ||
| 3,100m – 3,500m | ||
Thursday’s warm up was focussed on the catch. I used a mix of drills and also a swim tool in the form of Palm Paddles for an enhanced version of fist drill. After that the main set was a big endurance block with a long rep followed by a couple of building 200s. To finish a few fast reps and some more work with the Palm Paddles.
