Sprint sets in the pool are pretty simple. Take a double scoop of go-go juice, wind up the arms and legs, and unleash white water fury.
Beyond this kind of brute-force power work, one of the funner ways of training the sprinty sprint is with post-activation potentiation.
For those unfamiliar, it works like this:
- Load the muscles with a brief, muscular effort
- The muscles become both fatigued and “primed”
- Take a short break–long enough for fatigue to float away but short enough for the priming to remain
- Sprint while the nervous system is still switched on.
This set capitalizes on this concept to improve 100 performance.
Let’s get to it.
A Sprint Set That Uses PAP for More Speed
Here is the set:
4 rounds:
- 10m all out swim against heavy resistance (drag chute, power tower, etcetera)
- Easy swim back to the wall
- 60s rest between reps
Then:
- 6 minutes rest
- 100 free fast off the blocks
Why This Set Works
This set was based off a study by Hancock et al. (2015) with collegiate swimmers who saw some pretty good improvements in 100 free performance using the exact set design.
- PAP boosted performance. Swimmers went over half-a-second faster with the PAP protocol. A significant improvement in an event that is over in less than a minute.
- Performance improved on both 50s. Interestingly, the improvement was almost perfectly balanced between the two 50s (0.26 and 0.27 seconds). Most PAP research is focused on short explosive efforts that last a few seconds. In this case, the performance boost extended over the back half of the 100 as well as the front half.
- Resisted sprints are an effective way to improve speed work. Brief resisted sprints followed by full recovery can improve the quality of the speed work that follows.
Important to note that the Hancock study wasn’t designed as a training set. Swimmers completed the PAP protocol once, rested six minutes, and then belted out a single 100 free for time. Repeating that for rounds on rounds would gut your nervous system and leave you wrecked.
That’s where swimmers can borrow the concept instead of copy-pasting the exact set design.
By pairing the resisted sprints with fast 25s or 50s, swimmers can get more high-quality exposure to sprinting in a potentiated state without having your teeth floating in lactate.
Option 1 – 100 Freestyle Focus
3-4 rounds:
- 2x10m resisted sprints (1:00 rest between reps)
- + 3 minutes rest
- 50 fast off the blocks
- 5:00 rest between rounds
Option 2 – Pure Speed Focus
4-8 rounds:
- 10m resisted sprint
- + 30s rest
- 25 all-out from the blocks
- 3:00 rest between rounds
Wrapping Things Up
Fast sprinting is often less about cranking out more sprinty meters and more about improving the quality of the volume you are already doing.
Post-activation potentiation is one of the best ways to do just that. By pairing brief, loaded sprints with unresisted sprints after full recovery, swimmers can switch on the muscles and nervous system to work even faster.
Whether you use the original protocol before your next Get Out swim, adapt it for your meet warm-up, or build it into a speed-focused set with shorter sprints, the goal stays the same…
Produce more force. Swim with more intent. Swim fast!
ABOUT OLIVIER POIRIER-LEROY
Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national level swimmer, 2x Olympic Trials qualifier, and author of several books for swimmers, including YourSwimBook, Conquer the Pool, The Dolphin Kick Manual, and most recently, The 50 Freestyle Blueprint.
The book is a beastly 220+ pages of evidence-based insights and practical tips for improving freestyle sprint speed.
It details everything from how to master stroke rate, technique, build a thundering freestyle kick, improve your start and underwaters, and much more.
The 50 Freestyle Blueprint also includes 20 sprint sets to get you started and a bonus guide on how to master the 100 freestyle to complete your sprint preparation.
👉 Learn more about The 50 Freestyle Blueprint here.
