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High-Elbow Catch Drills In The Pool – Swim Speed Workout

Incorporate feel and high-elbow catch drills throughout swim sets as a reminder that these are vital elements of the swim stroke.

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Swim Speed Workouts is a deck of waterproof cards of workouts, drills and dryland exercises that are carefully designed to develop a fast freestyle technique. We’ll be featuring a few workouts from the deck over the next few weeks. Look for the book in bookstores or online.

Purpose: Incorporate feel and high-elbow catch drills throughout swim sets as a reminder that these are vital elements of the swim stroke.

Warm-Up

(Choose interval for 0:10–20 rest or 60–65% effort)


100 free @ 1:30, 1:45, 2:00, or 2:15
50 kick with board @ 1:00, 1:20, 1:40, or 2:00
0:40 standing scull drill @ 1:00
2 × 25 one-arm drill @ 0:30, 0:40, 0:50, or 1:00
Please do great streamlines off the wall!

Main Set

(Choose interval for 0:10–20 rest or 60–65% effort)


5 × 100 free, descend 1–5 @ 1:40, 1:50, 2:00, or 2:15
1st 100 60–65% effort to 90–95% effort by 5th 100
100 easy @ 1:40, 2:00, 2:20, or 2:40 (60-65% effort)
50 catch-up drill / 50 swim
2 × 25 free @ 0:35, 0:40, 0:50, or 1:00 (90–95% effort)
0:30 standing scull drill @ 1:00

Make sure you hold the water on the fast parts of this set. Don’t spin your wheels!

Download the PDF version of this workout.

More excerpts from the book.