The idea for this blog occurred to me after a recent Friday morning session with our development group. The group I am talking about is comprised of beginners — which is not to say that the people in this group don’t know how to swim. The swimmers in this group are beginners in the sense that they are all new to the sport. So while nobody in the group is a drowning risk (I’m not in the water helping people master bubble blowing, back floats, or rocket ship glides), there is nevertheless a whole language and etiquette that swimmers in this group have never encountered.
I coach workouts almost every day of the week. But on Fridays, I teach. When I am teaching, I try to remember what it’s like to hear some piece of information for the first time. You don’t necessarily retain it right away. There is a whole process of trying things out, asking for clarification, and making connections. Every once in a while things click. But because it’s all so new, you often forget things. You might hear the same bit of information two weeks later, and it’s become unfamiliar again. That’s why students take notes. The only thing is, it’s kind of hard to take notes when you’re in a swimming pool.
The purpose of our Friday morning group is to help swimmers who are new to the sport acquire the skills they need in order to participate in a masters swimming program. Sometimes these skills are technical; sometimes they have to do with etiquette; and sometimes, like last Friday, they have to do with the acquisition of insider language. The theme of the session was “how to read a set.” I wanted to introduce the swimmers to the jargon they would encounter on the white board during a workout. Since it was all so new to them, I thought it would be a good idea to write out some definitions from that morning session. The following notes may even be useful to “graduates” of the development level: I bet there are a few of you who are doing pretty well keeping up in the pool, but who still feel like some of what is being asked is going over your head. If you speak the language, but not quite fluently, I’m talking about you.
Here are some of the terms I introduced last Friday. I am calling it a workout glossary.
IM order
IM stands for individual medley, which is a race comprised of all four competitive strokes. The race is divided into four equal parts. So if it’s a 400 IM, you do 100 metres of each stroke. If it’s a 200 IM, you do 50 metres of each. The order of the strokes in the race is specific: butterfly, followed by backstroke, then breastroke, and finally freestyle. Fly, back, breast, free.
Here is a set you might see on the whiteboard:
16X25 IM order @ :40
What this means is that you are going to swim 25 metres at a time on an interval of forty seconds. The first 25 will be butterfly, the second backstroke, the third breastroke, and the fourth freestyle. Then you repeat that cycle three more times through.
Reverse IM order
Some coaches will write “MI” to be cute. But reverse IM order just means that you do IM order backwards: free, breast, back, fly.
Here is another sample set:
6X100 @ 2:15
odds = IM
evens = reverse IM
For this set, you would swim reps # 1, 3, and 5 in IM order, and then reps # 2, 4, and 6 in reverse IM order.
Freestyle
This one is easy. It means you are going to swim freestyle for the set. Freestyle has also been known as crawl, front crawl, or Australian crawl.
Build
A sample set using this term might be:
4X50 freestyle build @ 1:00
What this means is that you are going to increase your speed gradually over the course of each 50 metre repeat until you are storming into the wall at top speed.
Descend
A descending set is progressive. Instead of swimming all the reps at the same speed, you do each one faster than the last one. Sometimes there are several rounds of a descend. For example a set like this
12X100 IM descend
1-3
4-6
7-9
10-12
means that you swim a relatively easy 100 IM, then add some speed on the next one, and then even more speed on the next. On the fourth rep you would go back to swimming relatively easy. Four rounds of descends.
Negative split
Any race over 50 metres is all about the splits. In other words, if it’s a 200 freestyle, your splits refer to how fast you swam the first fifty metres compared to the second fifty metres (or the third fifty metres or the final fifty metres). How fast did you close the race? Were your splits tight or did you drop right off? On a negative split set, your goal is to swim the last half of the distance faster than the first half. The purpose of this type of set is to work on your back end, because the race always goes to the closer. If you’ve never tried it before, it’s easier said than done. On a set like this
4X200 freestyle negative split @ 3:45
you might aim to swim each 200 freestyle in 3:15 seconds, with a split time of 1:40, which would make your back end 1:35.
Choice
A choice set gives you an opportunity to work specifically on your stroke specialty. Most swimmers have one stroke other than freestyle that they are good at, and what “choice” usually means is that you choose a stroke for the set that is not freestyle. However, some swimmers are freestylers, and they might even want swim freestyle during a choice set. If the coach really wants you to take a break from swimming freestyle, she’ll specify that the set is “choice no freestyle”.
Best average
This is when your goal is to swim the fastest time you can manage over and over again on a designated interval. Here is an example of a set using this term:
8X50 choice best average @ 1:20
Your best time for a 50 breastroke might be :39 seconds, but on a best average set like this you might be aiming to go :45 seconds 8 times in a row.
So there you have it: a few introductory terms to get you comfortable reading a workout. Welcome to masters swimming!
Legacy Masters Swim Club 
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