T2 Aquatics – 30×100 Kick/Drill/Swim

This was a great workout. We had about 45 athletes in the pool, and I’d estimate we had a great practice with 35+ athletes. This type of set works well with Distance athletes who may need a day of non-freestyle and longer rest.

Additionally I’ve found that tougher sprinters will really get into it once they figure out that stung efforts are rewarded with rest (see below for more, as well as the video to view our final 100).

Drills:

• Fly: 3R 3L 2Both (or finish the 25 with both)
• Back: 8 Fly Kicks, 3R 3L strokes in “vertical catch up” position, 2-4 strokes into wall
• Back: opposite hand/arm points straight up off of core while other hand does through 3 pulls, repeat on opposite side
• Breast: 2K 1Pull with a Thumb Lock
• Free: Human Stroke (freestyle with underwater recovery)

Workout

Warmup:
1200: {300 Swim + 300 Kick + 300 IM Drill + 300 Pull}

Preset #1:
16×25 (40)
#1 Free with turn in middle and on wall (work fast tumble) – #2 Fast 15M no breath Free + easy – #3 Stroke Drill — 1 round of each – #4 scull into Fast final 7.5 {work fast finish}

Preset #2:
12×50 (55) — 3 of each — #1 Kick, #2 Drill, #3 Swim

30×100:
3 Fly, 6 Back, 9 Breast, 12 Free
#1 Kick (140), #2 Drill (130), #3 Swim (120) — all Fast Average*
{Breaststroke was done on 150, 140, 130}

200 easy

5×200 Pull (230)
#1, #3, #5 — 3B per 25 for a 100, 2B per 25 for a 100
#2, #4 — even Split, even strokes per 25

200 easy

Workout Total: 6600

Additional Comments:
Lots of athletes in the pool today, and many had a great workout.

The set is bigger than the 30×50 (110) we do fairly often. We do the 30×50 the same way, but we normally keep it the same stroke all the way through. It’s tougher than it looks if you are going fast enough. Athletes should be very very fatigued at the end.

We had guys going 112, 101, 52-54 on the freestyle 100s to finish the set. To their credit (and perhaps a function of the set’s length) — they did NOT go more than one second faster on the last round. It was hard to simply hold it!

I don’t put too much emphasis on the Fly (I just let them get into the set without a lot of fanfare on the deck). Everyone kicks fly kick on a board on the first 100, so if I have anything to say to an athlete I can do it. If I’m doing a great job, I can use this 100 to go over Breast/Free goal times with an athlete or two.

I ask the athletes to work the walls on the Back, and I make sure to watch their first round and throw out some suggestions for times on round 2. I may say, “5 people got under 120 on the kick, let’s get 10 under 120 and at least 8 under 102 on the swim”.

The breaststroke is the crux of the set, like it is the crux of an IM. I ask them to finish their kick with acceleration on the board kick, and GET AFTER the 2Kick, 1Pull drill. They must stay in a thumb-lock position until the second kick finishes, and they’ve got to attack the outscull and stroke. Ideally, they stretch into the outscull and get around the corners quickly.

One of our girls was kicking 124 with a board (breaststroke), then drilling 121, then swimming 112. She enhanced her set by building the drill through 3 rounds, so by the end she was going 123 kick, 115 drill, and 112 swim — and she achieved a completely different training effect. This type of learning is happening all the way through the set if the athlete is “switched on”.

The freestyle is all blood, guts, yelling, and splashing. The Human stroke can be done quickly, even though we normally do this as a moderate drill. We had some great swims at the end of this set. See the video for the last one (it was pretty intense for the last 20 minutes of the set).

This free workout was provided by T2 Aquatics Head Coach Paul Yetter.