Coach’s Intel: Billy Howard of Med City Aquatics Drops a Sprint Breaststroke Set

Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national level swimmer based out of Victoria, BC. In feeding his passion for swimming, he has developed YourSwimBook, a powerful log book and goal setting guide made specifically for swimmers. Sign up for the YourSwimBook newsletter (free) and get weekly motivational tips by clicking here.

The following set was submitted by Billy Howard of Med City Aquatics in Rochester, MN. All you sprint breaststrokers will love this one:

4 Rounds of . . .

50 3K1P Breast @ 1:00

* Put the kick late (relative to the pull) so you feel the speed of each kick   (This was to get them thinking about body line & timing, as some of them rush and put their kick during the pull).  The next time we did this, their timing was much improved, and we did it on a slightly faster interval (:55) with Double Underwater Pullouts off the turns to make it a bit more hypoxic.

 2 x [ 50 + 2 x 25 ]

* This is basically two broken 100’s Breaststroke with maybe :30 – :45 between the two 100’s at most.

50’s @ :50 – 25 Free / 25 Breast with an open turn instead of a flip – be at or faster than goal time

* To set their goal time, I divided their best 100 Breast time by 4.  This 50 was 2 x 25’s added up.  I figured that doing free on the first 25 makes up for it being from a push, it not being a race, and the fatigue from the fact that they do it twice in each of the four rounds.

* This was a set in the early season.  The next time we did this set, I asked them to aim for a time 1 – 3 seconds faster than their best.

 25’s @ :40 – FAST Breaststroke  –  meet or beat goal times

* Adding up the 50 & 25’s – goal is your best 100 Breast

Max of :45 Rest, before finishing up with–

25 Breaststroke from a dive and with a fast turn – goal time, including the turn, is within 5 tenths of what you want to take out your 100.

25 EZ Choice

Rounds 2 & 3 were the best overall.  They were pretty gassed by the time Round 4 rolled around.

Got a workout you would like to share with the swimming community? Submit it to [email protected]

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Rashmi Tyagi
7 years ago

thanks for giving such timing and technical breaststrock info

Rashmi Tyagi
7 years ago
ehab
10 years ago

what effect breststroke

About Olivier Poirier-Leroy

Olivier Poirier-Leroy

Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national-level swimmer, swim coach, and best-selling author. His writing has been featured on USA Swimming, US Masters Swimming, NBC Sports Universal, the Olympic Channel, and much more. He has been involved in competitive swimming for most of his life. Starting off at the age of 6 …

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