Coaches

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

IM VARIETY WORK

One of the things that our team stresses (and I'm sure that it's this way with many teams) is the emphasis on IM work, with the simple explanation that we are striving towards every swimmer being well rounded swimmers.  The neuromuscular benefits are huge, not to mention added coordination work for younger swimmers.  For years as a younger coach, I kept IM work similar to what MY coach gave us which was variety in what surrounded IM main sets, but ultimately doing some sort 100/200/400 IM repeat set....and that way of swimming was very successful for me, and quite a few other IMers that went through my former program. 

But I remember how my mind would constantly wander, partly because of my ADHD and partly because of my boredom with what I was doing at the time, set wise.  So I have been on a personal mission to try to spice up my IM workouts and I figured I would share a few of the things that I do.  I'm not re-inventing the wheel, just putting it down in type:
Free IMs:  This is where you substitute free for fly.  This is great for repeat 200+ yards of IM work, where butterfly tends to break down significantly during training.  I use this as a performance substitute when I am looking for kids to hold slightly more difficult EN2 intervals. 

Flutter IMs:  This is where every stroke in the IM is done with a flutter kick.  I love this because we use both flutter-fly as well as flutter-breast as drills within our technical phase.  Flutter fly is great in keeping kids from coming out too high in the water.  I use flutter breast working on a more forward body position while asking that their kick NEVER stop.  So the idea of being able to reinforce body position within an IM with strokes that are more likely to break down was a HUGE addition to our IM work.

Roving IMs:  I typically would do this set as 150's or 250's.  These are swims where I will choose which strokes to "double up" on.  For example, I would tell them to go repeat 150's, where they "double up" on their best stroke and free.  So if Johnny was a backstroker, his would like this: fly/back/back/breast/free/free by 25.  I have quite a bit of fun with this set, as it is one that can constantly change.

Broken IMs:  This is where I break these up as shown below, multiple rounds included. 
Dive 37.5 Fly @ :40
25 fly/back @ :20
37.5 back @:50
Dive 37.5 breast @ :40
25 breast/free @ :20
37.5 free @ 1:00

Curious as to if there are any of you that may have some interesting takes on IMs...I'm always up for new ideas!