Swim Practice Sets by Age Group (Free Workout Templates)

A fun set earns its place when it trains the thing the practice was about and the swimmers would do it again without being asked. The five below are the ones in the sample practices, and each has a published source so you can run it exactly as the coach who wrote it does.

Two more from the same source that fit any practice: 50s Until...?, where swimmers do not know how many all-out 50s are coming and the coach adds a partner or team finish when energy fades, and the 200 IM Predictor above, which is both a main set and a game because the result is a number swimmers want to beat.

A beginner practice runs on rest, not send-offs, and it has more skills blocks than swim blocks. The 8U Skills and Games practice above is the template: 25s and 50s with 20 to 30 seconds of rest, a streamline challenge measured against a cone on deck, side kick before any swimming, and one drill per stroke. For an adult or teenage beginner the same shape holds with longer swims; the YourSwimLog beginner ladder (4 x 25, 4 x 50, 3 x 75, 2 x 100, 1 x 150, all smooth, 20 to 30 seconds rest) is a good first endurance set, and the progression is to repeat the ladder or lengthen each step, not to shorten the rest. The marker that a swimmer is ready for send-offs is simple: they can read the pace clock, and they can hold a legal stroke on the last rep of a set, not just the first. If you are placing new swimmers into groups, the tryout evaluation form gives every coach the same 1 to 5 scale to score that last rep against.

Start from the base per 100 for the swimmer's level, multiply by the repeat distance, add the rest you want, and round to the nearest five seconds. The 13-14 freestyle base of 1:20 on a 150 is 2:00; add five seconds of extra rest and the send-off is 2:05, which is the interval in the 12 x 150 set above. The Base Intervals tab in the set builder does this for any base, distance, and rest, and the practice tabs total minutes from reps and send-off so you can see whether the plan fits the pool slot before you get to the deck. Two rules from the sources that save more practices than any formula: read the group during the set and adjust the send-off rather than the distance, and give swimmers a "last one" warning before the final repeat so the effort is there when it counts.

The sets on this page are also your evaluation day. The 200 IM predictor and the threshold 200s are time trials in disguise, and a tryout that mimics a practice (warm-up, then a main set under fatigue) is what most clubs run anyway. The how to run a swim team tryout guide covers stroke-by-stroke evaluation, time standards, and the deck timeline; the tryout evaluation form is the printable scoring sheet; and evaluation events in Rizzler let every coach on deck score from a phone, with the ranked list built as the scores come in. For a club placing a few hundred swimmers into training groups, Team Tryouts carries the same scores through registration, check-in, and offers.

The weekly frame for when these practices fall sits on the practice schedule template, and the youth sports seasons calendar shows how short course and long course seasons overlap with other sports a swimmer may play.

About 45 minutes for 8U, 60 for 9-10, 75 for 11-12, 90 for 13-14, and up to two hours for senior swimmers, which is the ladder the six sample practices follow. The ADM asks for 20 to 30 minute main sets at Level 3 and 30 to 45 minutes at Levels 4 and 5, and the total practice is roughly double the main set once warm-up, kick, drill, and cool-down are added.

8 x 50 freestyle on 1:00, descending 1 to 4 and 5 to 8. It is the main set of the 9-10 Base Builder above, it runs on the Level 2 freestyle base, and descending teaches the pacing a 10 year old needs before anything longer. Pair it with 6 x 50 kick on 1:30 and two 100 IMs on 2:30.

Multiply the base per 100 for the swimmer's level by the repeat distance, add the rest you want, and round to five seconds. A 1:20 base on a 150 with five seconds of rest is 2:05. The set builder's calculator does the math; the bases by stroke and level are on the first page of the PDF.

Yes. The PDF and the Excel set builder download directly from this page with no email or account.

The sample practices kick on the side or the back without a board, following the Westchester Aquatic Club approach, because a board holds the body flat and high in a position none of the four strokes use. A snorkel on freestyle kick is a fair substitute when the group has them.

Yes. The 200 IM predictor set gives every swimmer a 200 IM estimate in one practice, and the 12 x 150 and 10 x 200 sets show who holds pace under fatigue, which is what most tryouts are measuring. The swim tryout guide covers the rest of the day.