Here is our Stroke Rate Chart - a diagram of how fast you are swimming on the bottom axis versus your Stroke Rate per minute on the vertical axis. To find your Stroke Rate, all you need to do is count how many strokes you take when swimming for a minute - if you find this tricky to do whilst swimming, ask a friend or coach to do this for you. A good way is to count for 15 seconds and multiply by 4.
Where do you lie on the chart? You can look at it for any effort level - easy, steady or hard swimming - it works for all speeds.
We have nick-named this the "BMI Chart" because it reminds us of the Body Mass Index charts you find in a doctors surgery.
One word of caution - this chart is nearly always right but is not complete gospel. For instance, if you're exceptionally tall you might want to be on the blue borderline. If you are very short with short arms for your height then you may be best bordering on the red region with a high stroke rate. But for 95% of adult swimmers, getting well into the white region is the right thing to do.
So what if I need to lengthen my stroke?
To lengthen your stroke, you need to work on traditional swim development. Improving your body position, body roll, catch etc. Using our Swim Smooth DVD Boxset is the perfect way to do this.
Check this box to add an example on the chart.
On the chart, when you increase your stroke length you move in a downward direction, more often than not straight down, Arrow (1) is a classic example of this. Getting in to the white area by lengthening your stroke is making you more economic - you will take less strokes to swim the same distance.
In good time, when you have learnt and ingrained the movements which give you a longer stroke, you can look to increase your stroke rate again and pick up some real speed - Arrow (2).
Don't miss the video clip of Ian on page 3. He uses a Wetronome to slow his stroke down and develop stroke length in a very controlled way.
So what if I need to increase my stroke rate?
When you increase your stroke rate, you tend to move in a diagonal direction, up and right. Upwards because you have increased your stroke rate and to the right because you're going to be moving faster!
Check this box to add an example to the chart.
But how high should you take your stroke rate? Initially you move in a nice diagonal direction through the white area, Arrow (3) for example. But, there comes a point where your stroke starts to deteriorate. At this point your journey on the chart will kick up towards or in to the red area - that's taking your stroke rate too far, you need to back it down again. Arrow (4) shows this happening. When this happens it will also feel much harder physically, so it will be quite obvious to you!
Play with the numbers
If you're a numbers geek (like us!) then playing with your stroke rate and seeing how it effects your swim speed can be fun. To this end, we made another simple tool for you to try. See how much faster you can swim by increasing your stroke rate or increasing your stroke length. Our Simple Stroke Calculator:
