How much time to spend on other strokes?

Use freestyle all the time. Maybe do some breaststroke for resting purposes. The backstroke will fill up your sinuses with water, avoid at all costs. The butterfly is useful only when you want to get your heart rate up or when no one else can swim it and you are given no choice when going to a meet with your other team mates.

Use freestyle all the time. Maybe do some breaststroke for resting purposes. The backstroke will fill up your sinuses with water, avoid at all costs. The butterfly is useful only when you want to get your heart rate up or when no one else can swim it and you are given no choice when going to a meet with your other team mates. Ha ... yeah, fills up sinuses and bruises head when you forget to check for the wall.

I'm assuming the last poster was joking--at least I hope. It varies from coach to coach for our team, but we probably do between 25 and 50% stroke work during our practices, mostly back and *** with the option to do fly if you want. This is in addition to IM sets. It's mostly drill with some swim mixed in.

I spend about 70% of my workout on freestyle and then the rest is other strokes, mainly back and *** and an occasional lap of fly just so I don't forget how to do it. LOL.:agree:

I spend about 70% of my workout on freestyle and then the rest is other strokes, mainly back and *** and an occasional lap of fly just so I don't forget how to do it. LOL.:agree: I never could get the fly down, so I don't even bother with it. I think 70% sounds pretty good ... maybe modified IM's or something with the occasional backstroke set.

... how about this Current routine: 2050 total 300 free warm up. 250 kick. 3 x 500 freestyle. With some other stuff thrown in: 2550 total 300 warm up 250 kick 500 free IM (100 free / 50 back / 50 ***) x 5 500 free ... maybe?

Here's an example of our workout: Warm Up 5 x 100 Swim 1:40/1:45/1:50 4 x 100 Pull 1:35/1:40/1:45 3 x 100 Kick 1:55/2:00/2:05 2 x 100 Swim Build 1:30/1:35/1:40 1 x 100 IM 1:35/1:40/1:45 Main Set #1 3 x 300 1. Every 3rd Length is Kick :20 SR 2. 2 150’s Build by 50 3. Underwater Turns 6 x 75 Rotate IM 1:15/1:20/1:25 ie 1. Fly/Back/*** 2. Back/***/Free 3. ***/Free/ Fly etc. 2 x 200 1. IM 2:40/2:45/2:50 2. Free 2 x 50 Choice EZ 1:00 Main Set #2 Choice 8 x 50 :55 6 x 50 :50 4 x 50 :45 2 x 50 :40 1 x 50 :30 SPRINT!!! Warmdown 200 EZ It's about 4,550 yards. That's about average for us, and we do that 4 times a week. Sometimes there is more freestyle, sometimes there is more stroke work.

Uh, wow...that's a lot. I can only get in an hr in the morning and then again in the evening ... that set would take me forever to finish. Pretty sweet though. I'll probably steal bits of it. Thanks!

When not swimming with the group, with the coach, for instance on Saturday mornings, this is what I might do: swim 3 pools (150 meters in 25 meter pool) free then one pool (there and back) ***, but keep the speed up on *** so as not to "rest". So each series will have 200 meters. After two series I do 100 meters of kick drill, with one length dolphin, two sideways and one back. This breaks the training into 500 meter blocks. All this is done with swimming speedo fins. I am pitiful at backstroke unless I am going fast, so I only do it when swimming i.m. at meets. I only do 100 meter i.m. so whatever I do with back is okay. I will do a drill with fly which is: do three dolphin kicks off the wall (under water, the SKDs) then do two or three full butterfly strokes, then breathe and finish the lap with free, repeat till you are exhausted. You can get a lot of 25 series done that way. Eventually you might make the three full fly into four or more as you don't tire up so much.

Uh, wow...that's a lot. I can only get in an hr in the morning and then again in the evening ... that set would take me forever to finish. Pretty sweet though. I'll probably steal bits of it. Thanks! No prob. Our workouts vary daily, but I think they're really good. They take us between an hour and an hour and a half to finish depending on how long they are. That one took us from 7pm to around 8:15pm. Basically, the general format of our workouts is 1) 30 min workout focusing on different parts of the stroke (i.e., kick, stretching out, etc), 2) a long main set that runs about 20 to 30 minutes, 3) a shorter main set that is shorter and more fun, and 4) a quick warmdown that is usually either a 150 or 200 EZ.