CHESTERTON HIGH SCHOOL SWIMMING PROGRAM Program designed to achieve improvement at any level of High School swimming Beginner through national level I wanted to talk today about a topic that I thought was pertinent to every program. So hopefully you can get something out of this. I want to share with today a system that is pretty easy to implement

workout design system A common sense approach to organizing practices to benefit all levels of ability Easy to administer and understand I have tried to create a very simplistic workout design that is easy to use and understand. We have beginners with no experience and we have kids with lots of experience and talent.

Program design Goal All swimmers get progressively faster throughout their High school career. Have a measureable means for consistent improvement We want to have athletes improve each season regardless of where they started. At Chesterton we have beginners with no experience through trial qualifiers.

PROGRESSIVE IMPROVEMENT Name event 9th 12th Kyle Whitaker 200 IM 1:54.98 1:44.25 (-10.7) 100 fly :52.13 :47.80 (-4.3) Kate Curley 200 IM 2:22.43 2:05.71 (-16.7) 100 back 1:05.53 :57.95 (-7.6) Blake Pieroni 200 IM 2:01.52 1:48.86 (11) (-12.7) 100 free :48.59 :44.17 (11) (-4.4) Aaron Whitaker100 fly :52.73 :47.33(11) (-5.4) 100 back :1:02.87 :47.29(11) (-15.6) Ethan Whitaker200 free 1:58.06 1:38.77(11) (-19.3) 500 fr 5:24.62 4:30.09(11) (-54.6) These kids were good when they came in as freshman, here is the improvement through senior year, or for some junior.

Improvement examples Name Event 9th Pat Curley 200 IM 2:14.31 1:54.47 (11) (-19.9) 100 breast 1:07.30 1:00.03 (11) (-7.3) Brent Vondra 100 free :58.71 :50.39 (11) (-8.4) 100 back 1:09.40 :56.78 (11) (-12.7) Kelly Craig 200 free 2:02.05 1:52.95 (9) (-9.1) 500 free 5:26.17 5:03.47 (9) (-22.8) Tony Kincaid 100fly started in 10th :52.71(11) These kids were not great comimg in, here is how far they came.

Balanced system design Aerobic – use of cruise intervals to determine aerobic training pace to challenge beginner through national level athletes Anaerobic – create racing opportunities daily, to teach the swimmer both the physical and mental side of racing We want a system that works for beginners through National level athletes. To accomplish this you’ve got to balance aerobic and anaerobic training

Aerobic Aerobic training – help you hold a strong pace the middle of the race A. Basic endurance – moderate effort swims, with moderate rest, 15 x 100 on comfortable pace. Helps with endurance and recovery. EN-1 B. Threshold training – stronger effort swims with very little rest. Hold 12-15 x 100 on best sendoff time possible. Helps you delay the build up of lactate in muscles, you can go stronger longer. EN-2 C. Aerobic overload – holding a stronger pace each repeat, but given more rest to be able to recover enough for the next repeat. This allows you to learn to train faster as the season progresses. 15 x 100 fast with :15-:30 rest EN-3 We use 3 types of Aerobic training. These endurance terms are from Ernie Maglischo’s swimming fastest and I have tried to simplify them to fit my program.

Establish Aerobic Paces An adaptation of Dick Bower’s “cruise intervals” to determine aerobic training paces. Test set 6 x 100 on :05 R.I. any stroke take average (minus rest) to determine your 1. Overload pace – cruise 1 2. Threshold pace – cruise 2 3. Basic pace – cruise 3

Determine pace 6 x 100 free total time = 6:25 Avg per 100 minus rest = 1:00 1:00 is your cruise 1 time (overload) 1:05 is your cruise 2 time (threshold) 1:10 is your cruise 3 time (basic end)

Cruise interval test 6 x 100 – total time 6:25 free Cruise 1 would be 1:00 (ie. 12 x 100- hold 1:00, leave on 1:15, – EN-3 (overload) Cruise 2 would be 1:05 ( ie. 12 x 100- leave on 1:05 – EN-2 (threshold) Cruise 3 would be 1:10 (ie. 15 x 100-leave on 1:10 – EN-1 (basic)

This is an example of the training chart we use after we have done the cruise test for free, IM, and stroke.

Here is our girl’s chart from last year to show some of the faster and some of the less experienced kids.

How often do you test Test cruise intervals in free, stroke, IM, even kick if you want. Retest cruise interval about every 3 weeks for the early part of the season. Then as needed later.

Weekly Aerobic PM Plan M T W Th F Sat Cr- 1 cr-2 Cr-1 Cr-2 Cr-1 Cr-2 Free free str/IM str/IM free Str/IM 12-1600 “ “ “ “ “   Cr-3+ cr-3 cr-3+ cr-3 cr-3+ cr-3 Desc str/IM desc free desc free str/IM free free str/IM 12-1600 “ “ “ “ “ 2 aerobic sets each practice 1 fr/ 1 str-IM. We go cruise 1 on m-w-f, and cr-2 on t-th-sat We do cr-3 or cr-3 + on second aerobic set, each set is 12-1600 yds. We alternate between free and stroke

Aerobic plan M T W Th F Sat Fr fr str IM fr str 8x200 8x150 15x100 8x175 12x125 8x75 str Cr-3 Hold leave hold leave hold 8x75 IM leave cr-2 Cr-1, cr-2 cr-1 cr-2 cr-1 leave leave leave +:30 +:15 +:20 Str IM fr fr str fr 9x125 15x100 4x300 6x250 9x150 8x175 Cr-3+:20 cr-3 cr-3+:30 cr-3 cr-3+:20 cr-3 Desc desc desc This is just putting numbers to it to illustrate better.

Anaerobic Anaerobic training – helps you adapt to the pain and fatigue associated with racing. 3 types – Tolerance, Race Pace, and Speed Anaerobic is the other part of the equation. This is where you learn to race. We use three types.

Tolerance and Race Pace A. Tolerance training – small repetitions, high speed, long rest. Helps you get mentally strong to finish the race hard.example: 4 x 100-4:00 all out B. Race Pace – Broken swims at race speed or predictor swims at race speed. Helps you learn pace and race rehearsal. Example: 4 x 100-4:00 resting :10 at 50/75, or 6 x 50-2:00 holding ½ of race 100 time. This type of training allows you to be great the last ¼ of the race. Rest should be long and intensity should be maximal

Anaerobic weekly plan M T W Th F Sat Race Tol Race Tol Race Tol Pace Pace Pace Broken Broken Broken 4-600“ “ “ “ “ Instead of having a couple major anaerobic practices a week, we do 4-600 anaerobic work at the end of every pm practice.

100 emphasis M T W Th F Sat 4x100 4x100 6x50 4x150 2x100 8x75 @4 @4 @2 @6 broken @3 :10 at straight hold straight 2x50 hold ¾ of 100 50/75 100 pace broken

200 emphasis week M T W Th F Sat Broken 3 x 200 broken 5 x 100 broken 4 x 150 3x200 @6 3 x 200 @3 2 x 200 @6 hold :15 at straight :10 double :10 ¾ of 200 pace 100 Quality at 50’s avg. at 50’s @6 @6 2x100 :10 at 50 @4 This is an example of quality work we might do with our mid dis and IMers

Speed training Speed training – To help you get easy speed the first ¼ of the race without pain A. Unassisted.(develops stroke rate, breathe control, coordination) B. Assisted (fins, tubing,- allows for more hand acceleration) C. Resisted (parachutes, buckets,- teaches you to hold more water each pull) Examples – short distance long rest -8 x 25-1:00, 10 x 37. 5-1:30, 8 x 15 meters kick, etc Speed training helps you get out the first quarter. Unassisted develops stroke rate, breathe control. Assisted helps promote faster stroke rate. Resisted teaches you to hold more water.

Speed work weekly plan M T W Th F Sat 25 37.5 50 25 37.5 12.5/25 25 37.5 50 25 37.5 12.5/25 :45 1:00 1:30 Turns 1:00 resisted AM PM AM PM AM AM 4-600“ “ “ “ “  

Placement of training types Speed training – To help you get easy speed the first ¼ of the race without pain (Early in the workout before you get tired and technique suffers) Aerobic training- to help you hold strong pace in the middle of race (middle of workout, we do two sets 1 free, and 1 stroke or IM) Anaerobic training – Helps you adapt to the pain and fatigue associated with racing. This helps the last ¼ of your race. (Last set before warm down, so you are already tired)

Weekly AM plan M T W Th F Aerobic Cr-3/+Dry cr-3+ Dry Cr-3/+ Desc desc desc 2000 2000 2000 Speed spr-3 spr-3 spr-3 Short short short Long rest long rest long rest 12.5/25/37.5/50 400-600

Test sets 100 predictor – 6 x 50 @ 2:00 double the average to predict 100 (Bob Steele) 200 predictor – 5 x 100 @ 3:00 double the average to predict 200 (Bob Steele) 500 – 20 x 50 @ :45 hold 500 pace Univ of Michigan prediction program 6-8 x 100 @ 8 predicts 100-200 (Urbanchek)

Favorite training sets 6 second start drill Lochte kick set and variations Cross pool kicks Extended 50’s Phelps 50’s (Bowman-Steele)