Practice + Pancakes: Both Single-Gendered Practices from the Dayton Raiders

SwimSwam wants to give you an inside look at what a normal day-in-the-life looks like for any given swimmer, and how that differs from team to team or city to city. We send our head of production, Coleman Hodges, to be a fly on the wall at practice, then relay what he discovered back to you over pancakes. Or at least breakfast.

Remember when we did that video about how the Dayton Raiders started holding single gendered practices for some of their workouts every week? Well SwimSwam attended one of each of those practices, and is here to tell you allllll about them.

Boys Practice: Monday morning – Butterfly

When we went to visit the raiders, they were just getting back into the swing of things after coming back from their spring break; this was their second week back in the water. The girls had Monday off, and so the boys had a fly practice in the morning, and a longer, more aerobic workout in the afternoon. The fly practice went like this:

WARM UP

300 swim + 200 kick

8×25 @ :30

odds) undulate

evens) 3right arm/3left arm/3 swim

DOLPHIN KICK

3x 4×25 sock, 4×25 sox + fins, 4×25 fins

rd 1: 50, 45, 40

rd 2: 45, 40, 35

rd 3: 40, 35, 30

MAIN SET

12×50 fins @ 1:00

3x

1. 10 yds uwdk + 3 fast strokes
2. 12.5 yds uwdk + 3 fast strokes
3. 15 yds uwdk + 3 fast strokes
4. @ 1oo speed

24×25 @ :30

4x

1. right arm
2. left arm
3. build-best tech
4. – 6. @ 100-200 speed

OTB

2×50 fly

2×75 fly w/ fins

Girls Practice: Tuesday Afternoon – “Long Sprint”

The Dayton coaches aren’t afraid to turn up the volume and give the kids a longer workout, but that doesn’t mean they have to call it that. Hence, “long sprint”. The boys and the girls actually did the same workouts, morning and afternoon. The boys did the butterfly and long sprint workouts on Monday, while the girls had Monday off, and the girls did the same workouts on Tuesday, while the boys had Tuesday off. The long spring workout was a more typical mid distance workout, giving the girls some yardage under their belt after coming back from break.

“Hello Distance My Old Friend”

2×750 Pull @ 9:30/10:00 (2 faster than 1)

20×25 @ :25 swim 

odds: Free – 3 dolphin kicks – 3 breaths

evens: IM Order, Fast 

1:30 rest

3×500 swim @ 6:05/6:20 Desc 1-3

1. neg split
2. desc by 100
3. hold strong

10×50 @ :40 hold :28-:32

1:30 rest

4×250 pull @ 3:00-3:10 desc 1-4 HR 160+

5×100 @ 1:15 BA