What are Stroke Length and Stroke Rate ?
Your Stroke Length is how far you travel with every arm stroke. To measure this you can count the number of strokes you take to cover a length of the pool, counting both arms. The lower this number, the longer your stroke.
Your Stroke Rate is simply how many strokes you take in a minute, counting both arms. For example, 40 Strokes Per Minute (SPM) would be a slow stroke rate, 70 SPM would be a high stroke rate.
Watch this short video clip, Paul compares stroke length and rate with the gears on your bike:
Why Rhythm and Timing are So Important to Your Swimming
For the last 10 years the swim coaching world has been focused on increasing the length of swimmers' strokes. You've probably heard about increasing your economy, developing your body roll, improving your catch and improving your body position. All of these improvements to your swimming technique help lengthen your stroke. Here at Swim Smooth we believe this is very important, much of the information on this site is aimed at helping you develop a long stroke and we recommend our Swim Smooth DVD Boxset as the ultimate tool to this end. If you have a short stroke it's vital that you work on lengthening your stroke to get quicker.
Here's the 'but' : If you have increased the length of your stroke and have seen gains in speed and economy (less effort for the same speed) then well done - you've done great! But, nearly every swimmer who does this then hits a plateau and finds it very hard to get quicker. There are two reasons why this happens:
Reason Why You Plateau 1. Pushing your stroke longer than long is impossible. An overly long stroke introduces dead spots and pauses. The drag of the water is always there and slows you down during these pauses, so your next stroke has to get you up to speed again - this actually starts to hurt your economy again. Think about it like this:
If you're a triathlete swimming in open water, pauses in your stroke are double trouble - you are vulnerable to being stalled completely by waves, chop and current. This is why many elite open water swimmers and triathletes have very high turn overs (high stroke-rates) - they can drive through waves and chop without losing momentum.
Reason Why You Plateau 2. Deadspots and pauses in your stroke make you lose touch with your natural rhythm. This is why many swimmers with overly long strokes are one-paced. If you don't have any rhythm then it's very hard to increase that rhythm to swim faster. If you feel you are very one-paced then improving your rhythm and timing is very important to get you swimming faster.
How Stroke Rate Comes In
When you have an overly long stroke, the pauses and deadspots result in a slow stroke rate - low strokes per minute. We have studied thousands of swimmers and can tell from your stroke rate if you have an overly long stroke. How do we do that without seeing you swim? We use the chart on page 2 of this article.
This chart helps us recommend what you need to do to break through to faster swimming. If you need to lift your stroke rate then we'll show you how to do this with great precision on page 3. Very often increasing stroke rate, without any other conscious changes to your stroke, will remove those deadspots and have you swimming quicker with no greater effort.
Other Timing Problems
Some swimmers have short strokes and struggle to develop the longer stroke they need to get quicker. When you swim with a short stroke it tends to be slightly scrappy stroke, with poor body-roll and you end up fighting the water.
If you have a short stroke, slowing your stroke rate is near essential in the short term. The greater time period of each stroke will give you time to make changes to your technique and introduce more body roll. On page 2 of this article we'll help you decide whether this might be your problem and on page 3 we'll introduce you to a tool that will help you break out of your current stroke habits.
Yet More Timing Problems
Lop-sided strokes are inefficient and nearly always include deadspots - greater on one side that the other. One reason lopsided strokes are slower is that you tend to fish-tail down the length as your uneven stroke pulls you off line.
When you are swimming with a lop-sided stroke you become used to your stroke and it feels normal. So how do you know if yours is lop-sided? The Wetronome tool we'll introduce on page 3 has perfect timing and when you swim with it you'll become immediately aware if your timing is out. This will help you cut through the water much straighter and faster.
A Missing Piece In Your Swim Puzzle?
Nearly every swimmer can improve their rhythm and timing. For the majority of intermediate swimmers, poor timing is a major problem that's stopping them becoming quicker. Here at Swim Smooth we often explain that swimming is like a jigsaw puzzle - you need all the pieces in place to become a great swimmer. Is good Rhythm and Timing the missing piece in your swim puzzle? Find out on page 2.
> Page 2. What Stroke-Rate is Right For You? |
