I have been coaching a summer league (50's only) and a high school swim team for about 10 years now. I have phanominal swimmers in many event past and present but never in the 500. I have a swimmer who is 10 seconds off of the state time. What kind of workouts should I be giving her to train for the 500?
Well, hopefully you've cut some people and actually have less than 60 people on your team; otherwise it makes it hard to do more than 50s or 100s without number one swimmer lapping number 10. Distance guys need distance and usually this requires their own lane or at least one side (unless you have a few that go the same pace).
Sample sets:
5x500s descending on interval that allows for 10-30 sec rest.
10x100s on interval that allows for 2-5 secs rest.
Ladders are always good--1000 negative split (2nd 500 faster than first), 900 NS--also make 900 faster than first 900 in previous 1000, 800 NS--also make faster than first 800 in previous 900...Down to 100.
Several variations...like start at 500 and go down, or go down and back up.
You can also get fancy by finding their aerobic threshold by doing a 30 minute swim and see what they can hold and use that to plan intervals for sets (especially the 10x100 set).
Hope this helps. My kids are in HS swimming and I think the only event worth watching is the 500 (meant as a throw down for all sprinters)--it has much more drama than the 50 or 100s. There is really nothing like watching two distance swimmers hammer on each other.:dedhorse:
Well, hopefully you've cut some people and actually have less than 60 people on your team; otherwise it makes it hard to do more than 50s or 100s without number one swimmer lapping number 10. Distance guys need distance and usually this requires their own lane or at least one side (unless you have a few that go the same pace).
Sample sets:
5x500s descending on interval that allows for 10-30 sec rest.
10x100s on interval that allows for 2-5 secs rest.
Ladders are always good--1000 negative split (2nd 500 faster than first), 900 NS--also make 900 faster than first 900 in previous 1000, 800 NS--also make faster than first 800 in previous 900...Down to 100.
Several variations...like start at 500 and go down, or go down and back up.
You can also get fancy by finding their aerobic threshold by doing a 30 minute swim and see what they can hold and use that to plan intervals for sets (especially the 10x100 set).
Hope this helps. My kids are in HS swimming and I think the only event worth watching is the 500 (meant as a throw down for all sprinters)--it has much more drama than the 50 or 100s. There is really nothing like watching two distance swimmers hammer on each other.:dedhorse:
