Training Blocks: Age Group Sets With Westchester Aquatic Club

Every now and then at SwimSwam, we’ll get a copy of a workout from a major college, professional, or club training group. But with our new series ‘Training Blocks,’ we’re aiming to go deeper, with a set of workouts over a longer period of time. It’s an effort to see how multiple workouts are structured, how they work together, and how the top minds in our sport build out a training block. 

The New York-based Westchester Aquatic Club Wolverines have been making waves as an age group program, producing success stories like breakout 13-year-old Claire Weinstein.

We connected with Westchester head coach Carle Fierro, who shared some sample workouts for swimmers ages 10-12 and 13 & Over.

Training Philosophies

Here are some of the guiding philosophies of the Westchester Aquatic Club, in Fierro’s own words:

“How can we get our swimmers to swim fast – swimming less yardage and avoiding injury?

Develop your own style of coaching, being creative and connecting with your athletes.

The Drill Warmup must be drills you feel that work for your swimmers, combine those drills with pull, kick and perfect swimming focusing on distance per stroke and kicks, minimize the amount of rest and make it aerobic with great technique. should be combinations of 25s, 50s and 100s.

We do not use kick boards. All kicking is done with a snorkel or on their backs.

Your workout should be your wish list – read your athletes during the workouts and adjust the workout based upon their needs and not what you want.

Explain the sets, goals of the sets and encourage them to be comfortable being uncomfortable.

More important to do less correctly than more poorly.

Teach intelligent training, heart rate monitoring and teaching swimmers how their training will reflect in their race performances.

There is no one practice fits all – be flexible with your training keeping your swimmers best interest your number one priority.

They must trust that you care. Sometimes a little give goes a long way.”

Workouts

We’ve embedded the workouts below, but you can also see them in PDF form by clicking the links above each workout.

Drill Warmup – Fast 10s to 12s Workout

Drill Warmup – Fast 10s to 12s Workout – Perfect – Fast

13&Overs Middle Distance – 12X150s

13&Over Group IMX – Workout