Our swim coach had some fun ones. The first workout of the new year was xx 100’s on the 1:10? 1:15? I forget, but it was where xx was the last two digits of the year. (My senior year in HS was 1985). All I remember is getting to around 45 100’s, and I was so far behind on time I just kept swimming until they kicked us out of the pool. A few of the sprinters with more muscles than brains lost their lunch at around 6200, IIRC.
His other favorite one to spring on us was “in and outs”. Place a towel at one end of the pool on the deck. Now do 20 x 50, and each time you hit the end of the pool with the towel, you hop out, and do either 10 situps, 10 pushups, or 10 scissor leaps (Down on one knee like you’re proposing, jump up and switch legs, clap your hands in between your legs at the top. I recommend practicing first.)
Finally, the partner kick drills. You grab a board and start doing kick sets, with a harness attached to your waist, from which a friend is dangling being towed. Hilarity will ensue.
Yes, our swim coach was a peculiar brand of sadist.
Rocket kicks, Power cords, Power racks, Parachute, Pocket drag suits, Grudge belt, Vertical kick with your gear bag above your head, Anarchy (what a different poster described as “in and outs”), the list goes on and on…
I’ve never had any sadistic swim coaches. I have to torture myself. I don’t know if these are “offbeat” or not but I like them:
Rounds of this are fun ----
100 on 1:30
125 on 1:30
75 on 1:10
100 on 1:10
25 on :45
50 on :45
sets of 125s with the last length fly, and when you’re in deep water :15 sec vertical dolphin kick after each
all-out 100s or 200s off the blocks (Ohhhh sweet pain)
75s in rotating IM order (since you don’t know what order strokes are supposed to go I will explain: first 75 is fly/back/breast, then free/fly/back, then breast/free/fly, then back/breast/free… repeat)
His other favorite one to spring on us was “in and outs”. Place a towel at one end of the pool on the deck. Now do 20 x 50, and each time you hit the end of the pool with the towel, you hop out, and do either 10 situps, 10 pushups, or 10 scissor leaps (Down on one knee like you’re proposing, jump up and switch legs, clap your hands in between your legs at the top. I recommend practicing first.)
My boyfriend coaches for Colby and they did a lot of practices like that at the beginning of the season. I am vicariously college swimming through hearing about their workouts. They do so much cool stuff… Hour of Power is an hour where they are all on relay teams and keep doing 400 medley relays (that’s a fundraiser for something but they did it a couple times)… on their training trip they had a “meet” where each swimmer drew 3 events from a hat and had to race all of those. Their top distance guy (went 4:38 in the 500 at NESCACS… and “crashed and burned” in finals to a 4:45… I want my crash and burn times to be 4:45) did 14 x 400 one day - first seven with paddles that were 2 on 4:50, 2 on 4:40, 2 on 4:30, 1 all out, repeat w/o paddles…
I’ll stop drooling now…
Colby was actually my first-choice school but I went to a state university because they offered me a full scholarship. I wonder if I went to Colby, if I would have liked swimming for them (tried swimming at the school I am at, didn’t like being on the team but that pool is my home too). And if I had swum there, I would have met Zach still… in an entirely different situation. Funny how things work out sometimes. But I am in love with Colby swimming!
I had an ongoing love/hate relationship with the Hypo Challenge back in high school:
25, no breaths
50, one breath
75, two breaths
100, three breaths
75, two breaths
50, one breath
25, no breaths
All on 50 seconds per 25.
The other purely sadistic workout we did was vertical kicking. Pretty standard, even with your arms over your head. The evil was when each lane had to lead the team in singing a verse of “Old MacDonald Had A Farm.”
All the offbeat stuff I remember from my swim days involved holding my breath for many many 25s.
We had a water polo Hell Week, however, that I’ll never forget. 5 days in a row of swimming with shoes on. In between every swim set, we’d do a treading water set, elbows out of the water. Each tread set was 5x(Day# minutes) so Day 1 was 5x1min up to Day 5 with 5x5min. With shoes on.
Or carrying a full 5gal water jug over our heads across the pool while treading water.
I had an ongoing love/hate relationship with the Hypo Challenge back in high school:
25, no breaths
50, one breath
75, two breaths
100, three breaths
75, two breaths
50, one breath
25, no breaths
All on 50 seconds per 25.
Jeebus.
Another peachy one that I’ve only known for about a year is a 10-minute contest to see who can do the most 25s of no-breather fly. There’s no interval; go when you’re ready but you can’t push off until you know you’ll make it. And as long as you’ve started a successful lap when 10:00 rolls around, it counts.
I was at the pool at the same time as the team I swam for as a kid and saw them doing it. The team record was held by a girl who got 21. I did it a few times and maxed out at 13.
My coach freshman year of HS (1987) had a few doozies. Here are some I can remember:
Sharks and minnows, where he was the first shark. It was usually after a hard workout and although it sounded easy swimming back and forth in the deep end underwater was harder than it sounded.The 100’s by the year on new years (87, then 88 the next year and so on…)My personal favorite was the one where he would split the team in two at the end of the workout and make two lines at each corner in the deep end. On the whistle the first two in line would jump in and have to swim underwater to the opposite corner in the shallow end. The first person to their corner without coming up for air was done and could hit the showers. If either you came up for air or got to your corner before the other guy got to his you had to get back in line. Plus, when you crossed the other guy’s path in the middle you were allowed to try to wrestle them to the surface. If you got them to break the surface then they had to get back in line. By the end of the drill there would usually be a couple of guys that could barely even make it to the opposite corner.
I will explain: first 75 is fly/back/breast, then free/fly/back, then breast/free/fly, then back/breast/free… repeat)