Decoding Swim Workouts: What Do All Those Numbers and Abbreviations Mean?
If you’ve ever glanced at your swimmer’s workout board and felt completely lost, you’re not alone. Swimming workouts can look like a foreign language full of numbers, abbreviations, and symbols. But once you understand the lingo, you’ll see how coaches use workouts to build skills, speed, and endurance.
💡 How do coaches write workouts?
Swimming workouts are designed based on:
✅ Goal of the practice (endurance, speed, technique, recovery)
✅ Stroke or event focus
✅ Training cycles (building up or tapering down)
Coaches break workouts into sets with specific distances, repetitions, intervals, and focuses to achieve these goals.
🏊♂️ Common abbreviations and what they mean
Here are some terms you’ll often see:
FR, BK, BR, FL: Freestyle, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly
IM: Individual Medley (all four strokes in order: Fly, Back, Breast, Free)
K: Kick
P: Pull (using a pull buoy, focusing on arms)
Dr: Drill (stroke technique drills)
Sw: Swim (normal swimming)
Desc: Descend (get faster each repeat)
Build: Start slow and finish fast within a single swim
EZ: Easy swim or recovery
Hypoxic: Breathing control sets, often with limited breaths per length
DPS: Distance Per Stroke (focus on efficiency and long strokes)
🔢 How to read a set
Example:
4 x 50 FR @ :55 Desc 1-4
What it means:
✅ Do 4 repetitions of 50 yards freestyle
✅ Leave every 55 seconds (including rest)
✅ Get faster on each repeat (1-4)
Another example:
3 x (4 x 25 IM Order @ :35) K/Sw by 25
What it means:
✅ 3 rounds of:
➡️ 4 x 25s in IM order (Fly, Back, Breast, Free)
➡️ Each on 35 seconds
✅ Kick one 25, swim the next within each stroke
🔑 Why does swim workout lingo matter?
✅ Efficiency
Using shorthand keeps workouts organized and quick to write on the board.
✅ Precision
Specific intervals and focuses ensure swimmers train the correct energy systems and techniques for their goals.
✅ Swimmer independence
As swimmers learn the lingo, they can read, understand, and execute sets without confusion, building responsibility and confidence.
💛 Final thoughts
Coaches write workouts with intention, blending endurance, speed, technique, and mental training. Learning to read swim workout lingo helps swimmers understand why they’re doing each set, making them smarter, more focused athletes in the water.
Next time you see your swimmer’s workout board, try decoding it together – it’s like learning a new language that unlocks the secrets to swimming success!