High School Swimming Tryout Prep: The 5-Week Plan

Everything here builds toward the time trials and the first hard main set, when the coach is watching who keeps leaving on the interval. An adult is on deck for every water session.

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Twelve push-offs, hands stacked, arms squeezing the ears, chin tucked, four to six dolphin kicks from the hips before the first stroke. The goal for the week is to break the surface at or past the flags on every wall. Feel the kick move your feet and not your shoulders. If your streamline bends when you kick, tighten the squeeze on your ears.

Twelve lengths of freestyle on a send-off that gives you about fifteen seconds of rest (time one easy length, add fifteen). Same speed on the last length as the first. At the end, one full sentence to the adult on deck, not a song. Breathe to the side with one goggle in the water, and finish every length by touching the wall before you look at the clock.

Two rounds: twelve squats, ten push-ups, a 30-second plank, twelve band rows with elbows below shoulder height, twelve band pull-aparts at chest height. No loaded overhead pressing at this age; shoulders get strong gradually or they get hurt. If anything pinches in the front of the shoulder, stop.

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Twenty kicks holding the wall: heels up, toes out, sweep around, squeeze. Then four lengths of kick on a board counting kicks per length and using fewer each time. Then eight pullouts from a push: streamline, one big pull to the thighs, one kick, head breaks the surface before the arms come around. No flutter kick anywhere in breaststroke. Ever.

Four lengths of dolphin kick on your front, chest pressing down and hips rising, then two lengths of single-arm fly on each side, then four lengths of full fly with rest whenever you need it. Both hands touch the wall together with shoulders level on every finish. Build the length before the speed.

Ten backstroke turns: count strokes from the flags, roll to your front for one pull, somersault, feet on the wall, push off on your back in a streamline. Then ten finishes: same count, touch on your back with your hand. Say the count at the wall every time until it is automatic.

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Fifteen freestyle turns from the flags: swim in fast, chin to chest at the T, both feet on the wall, push off on your back and rotate to your front in the streamline, four dolphin kicks, breakout. Feel the wall push you rather than you pulling yourself around. In a 100 you will do this three times, and every one is a place to gain or lose.

Ten turns each: two hands on the wall, one elbow back, feet on the wall, push off on your side into the streamline, then the pullout (breast) or the kicks (fly). The hand that comes off the wall first should already be pointing where you are going. No looking at the clock mid-turn.

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Session A: eight repeats of two lengths freestyle on a send-off with about ten seconds of rest, holding the same speed on every repeat. Session B: six repeats of four lengths on a send-off with about fifteen seconds of rest. Run each version twice this week. Leave exactly on the number every time. When it gets ugly on repeat five, that is the set. Finish it the way you started it, and keep the streamlines past the flags on tired walls.

Eight lengths of flutter kick on a board, on a send-off that gives ten seconds of rest, small fast kicks from the hips with the toes pointed. Then four lengths of dolphin kick on your back, arms in streamline. Legs are what a tryout main set drains first.

Six fast two-length swims of your weakest stroke, full rest between, legal on every wall and finish. The coach will time a 50 of a second stroke this week or next, and this is that swim.

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One length of each stroke in medley order (fly, back, breast, free), as legal as you can swim it, with the adult on deck watching one thing per stroke. Then two fast 50s of free from a push, full rest. Do this once, early in the week.

Six fast lengths of free with full rest, streamline past the flags every wall. Then get out. The work is in the bank; this week keeps it without adding tired to day one. Pack the bag two days before, and walk through the order: warmup, stroke check, a set, timed 50s. Nothing on day one should be new. Then sleep.

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Run the plan, then after the first tryout practice, tell us which strokes the coach timed and how the main set felt on the last repeat. That is where the next plan starts.