Set Of The Week: Parachutes and Race Pace

Photo Courtesy: Andy Ringgold / Aringo Photos

Welcome to Swimming World’s Set of the Week! This week’s set is a short set that mixes together pace and resistance work with parachutes. Take a look at the set below and the description that follows:

6 Rounds:

100 w/ parachute, remove parachute and rest :20

50 at pace

50 easy, rest ~:30-:45

The concept of this set is relatively simple. Your athletes will start out swimming a 100 at a moderately high intensity level with resistance from a parachute before going into a 50 at race pace without the parachute. The 50 can be whatever pace you need to be working on, but 200 or 500 pace are both good places to start with this set.

The main idea behind the set is that your athletes will go from a moderately high effort where they “feel” slow to a high effort swim that, although fatigued, should “feel” extremely fast after losing the resistance of the parachute. The parachute will expose any “dead” points in your athletes’ stroke where they are not accelerating forward, making them much more aware of their technique heading into the pace 50’s. Breaststrokers in particular should gain a greater awareness of the timing of their kick and pull when using the parachute.

This is a great set to do long course, as it cuts out having to do too many turns with a parachute and gives your athletes more time swimming against resistance. Happy swimming!

All swimming and dryland training and instruction should be performed under the supervision of a qualified coach or instructor, and in circumstances that ensure the safety of participants.

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