Stroke Length and Stroke Rate
Your Stroke-Length is how far you travel with every arm stroke. Because it's hard to use a tape measure while you're swimming, we count the number of strokes you take to cover a length of the pool. 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. A high stroke rate would be 70 SPM.
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 largely focused on increasing the length of your stroke. You've probably heard about increasing your body roll, improving your catch and cutting through the water by reducing your drag. Our Swim Smooth DVD Boxset is an excellent tool to this end and explains clearly how to go about developing these skills.
If you've worked on developing a longer stroke you'll know that it can increase your economy - you go further for the same effort. This is great and it often brings speed improvements with it too. But very often swimmers then plateau and find it very hard to get quicker. There are two reasons why:
1) Pushing your stroke longer and longer 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, 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.
2) Deadspots and pauses in your stroke make you lose touch with your natural rhythm. This is why many overly long-stroked swimmers become one-paced. If you don't have any rhythm then it's very hard to lift your stroke rate to swim faster. If you have experienced this, you'll know that without rhythm it's very hard to change your pace and increase your speed.
If you've worked on your stroke length but hit a plateau then we have some great news for you. On page 2 of this article we'll show you where you fit in the world of stroke length and stroke rate. We'll show you which direction you need to go to get quicker. On page 3 we'll tell you exactly how to make that happen with an exciting tool called the Wetronome.
Other Timing Problems
Some swimmers struggle to develop their stroke length in the first place. Even with the help of World-Class tools like our Swim Smooth DVD boxset, they can still struggle to develop enough body-roll and they end up fighting the water. In a sense this is also a problem with timing - many of these guys struggle to co-ordinate slowing down their Stroke-Rate. Slowing down is essential, it gives you time in your stroke to work on and improve your stroke mechanics 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 a way to break out out of your stroke habits - the Wetronome stroke tool.
Yet More Timing Problems
Lop-sided strokes are inefficient and nearly always include deadspots - greater on one side that the other. When you are swimming you become used to your stroke and it feels normal. So how do you know if you have a lop-sided stroke? We'll introduce you to the Wetronome tool on page 3 - this is going to be great for you. It will highlight straight away if your timing is uneven because it's timing is perfect.
A Missing Piece In Your Swim Puzzle?
Nearly every swimmer can improve their rhythm and timing. For the majority of swimmers, it's 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?
> Page 2. What Stroke-Rate is Right For You? |
