This afternoon we tried a new type of set for most people – a speed set centered around Negative Splitting. I thought the set went very well. Everyone was focused on what they were doing, and I feel like we got what we wanted from the work.

Most athletes in our group had never really done a set like this before -- one that was centered around some fast negative splits. It's a much different set than a set of 100s simply attempting to go fast. Generally, if we just blast 100s we end up splitting them like postive (29.5-31.0 = 100.5) instead of negative (30.5-30.0 = 100.5). Splitting the 30.0 instead of 31.0 on the final 50, in this example, is a more productive way to train speed over this distance. We do / will do plenty of front end speed training, and we get plenty of that when we dive 50s, do fast 25s, or compete in 50s at meets.

The Set went like this:

5 rounds through:
100 Stroke (130) *Descend 1-5 with Negative Splits
2x75 Free (1)
3x50 Free-Back (1)
4x25 Drills (30)
extra 10 seconds

For the freestylers and backstrokers, the Negative Split aspect of the set was of primary importance. The 2nd 50 of the 100 was the part of the set we wanted exceptionally fast, not the total time of the swim. We can see fast 100s (all-out), but that’s really racing (testing) – not training to race faster than ever before.

For the Breaststrokers and Flyers, we didn’t focus too much on the negative split aspect, but we did focus on attempting to bring the swims back progressively faster. Breaststrokers and Flyers need to time themselves differently when looking for splits – due to the fact that their turns are timed from a hand touch (on the turn) to the hand touch (on the finish), not from the foot touch (on the turn) to the hand touch (on the finish). It’s about a second difference.

Here are the results of the fastest 100s everyone put up today. In the most cases, these swims were the final two swims of the day.

Freestylers:
Erika 28.0-27.3 –55.3; 27.4-26.5 –53.9
Rachel 28.9-28.0 –56.9; 28.7-27.1 –55.8
Haley 29.0-29.4 –58.4; 29.3-29.4 –58.7
Avery 27.9-28.1 – 56.0; 28.3-28.1 –56.4
Max 28.9-26.4 –55.3; 28.0-26.6 –54.6
Jack 27.0-25.8 –52.8; 25.3-25.5 –50.8
Aidan 29.5-27.3 –56.8; 29.7-27.8 –57.5
Marchello 28.7-28.5 –57.2; 29.5-28.3 –57.8
Bun 31.1-31.4 –102.5; 30.9-32.7 – 103.6
Titus 30.9-31.9 –102.8; 30.4-31.7 –102.1
Maca 31.2-33.2 –104.4; 30.3-32.4 –102.7
Sammie 31.1-31.3 –102.4; 29.8-31.3 –101.1
Katie K 30.8-30.1 –100.9; 29.3-29.4 –58.7
Catie 29.3-30.7 –100.0; 28.2-29.6 –57.8
Sara 30.9-30.8 –101.7; 30.2-31.0 –101.2

Backstrokers
Andrew 31.4-31.3 –102.7; 30.4-30.2 –100.6
Connor 32.6-34.0 –106.5; 30.8-33.0 –103.8
Katie A 31.0-30.4 –101.4; 30.0-30.6 –100.6
Maddie 32.4-35.3 –107.4; 32.5-34.9 –107.8
Hayley 36.9-36.2 –113.1; 36.0-36.2 –112.4

Flyers
Nata 31.6-35.3 –106.9; 30.8-35.3 –106.1
Lincoln 33.22-34.2 –107.4; 32.6-33.3 – 105.9

Breaststroker
Ridge 32.3-33.3 –105.6; 31.6-32.8 –104.4