Hello Swim friends! Back in 2007 Ande posted the below Swimming Tip to his blog. It concerns split differentials in the 50 yard freestyle. As you can see, among top swimmers, the first 25 yards is roughly .5 faster than the second 25. Remove the dive, and in many cases the second 25 is probably faster than the first among the elite swimmers
My 50 yard free is far more lop sided - usually the first 25 is roughly 1.5 seconds faster than the first. It never really occurred to me that I was doing something wrong. I'd like to access your wisdom...how do you swim the 50? Are the first 4-5 strokes sub-maximal, and then all out the rest of the way?
Thank you for your help, and thank you to Ande for his challenging posts!
Ande's Swimming Tips:
Swim Faster Faster
Tip 172 Split Differentials for the 50 Free Short Course
I've written about the importance of correct splitting in other swim faster faster tips, but let's drill down and take a close look at how to correctly split the short course 50 free.
Study the 50 free split differentials of each swimmer
You calculate split differentials by
subtracting a swimmers 2nd 25 time from his first 25 time
2nd 25 time - 1st 25 time = split differential
Here are the final results for the 50 free finals in the
2007 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming & Diving Championships
1 Joyce, Kara Lynn 21.71 10.63 11.08 diff = 0.45
2 Jackson, Lara 21.73 10.64 11.09 diff = 0.45
3 Nymeyer, Lacey 21.80 10.62 11.18 diff = 0.56
4 Silver, Emily 21.99 10.82 11.17 diff = 0.35
5 Bishop, Brooke 22.17 10.85 11.32 diff = 0.47
5 Aljand, Triin 22.17 10.90 11.27 diff = 0.47
7 Bradford, Jenny 22.23 10.60 11.63 diff = 1.03
8 Denby, Kara 22.41 10.79 11.62 diff = 0.83
Here are the final results for the 50 free finals in the
2007 NCAA Division I Men's Swimming & Diving Championships
Event 4 Men 50 Yard Freestyle
1 Cielo, Cesar 18.69 9.14 9.55 diff = 0.41
2 Targett, Matt 19.08 9.29 9.79 diff = 0.50
2 Wildman-Tobriner, Ben 19.08 9.39 9.69 diff = 0.30
2 Subirats, Albert 19.08 9.30 9.78 diff = 0.48
5 Goodrich, Scott 19.29 9.35 9.94 diff = 0.59
6 Weber-Gale, Garrett 19.33 9.49 9.84 diff = 0.35
7 Tsagkarakis, Apostol 19.48 9.32 10.16 diff = 0.84
8 Lundquist, Bryan 19.49 9.54 9.95 diff = 0.41
Ideal Split Differential
It looks like around 0.30 - 0.40 of is the ideal split differential for the short course 50 free.
Swimmers should target their 50 free splits in the a range of 0.25 - 0.60.
If a swimmer has a differential of 0.60 or more, she probably worked her first 25 a bit too hard or maybe had a bad turn or push off.
Sadly enough, even in a 50, you may not swim your fastest time by
going all out from the get go, you need to be swimming close to all out, hit a great turn, have an excellent streamline breakout
When Fred Bousquets went 18.74
His splits were 9.26 9.48
so his differential was only 0.22!
When Cesar Cielo went 18.69
his splits were 9.14 9.55
so his differential was 0.41.
One excellent swimmer told me that when he races the 50 free
the first 2 strokes in his breakout are at about 80% effort,
since he's already going fast from his dive.
A couple things to keep in mind:
1. Even though you've got the advantage of the start on the first 25, you've also got the reaction time. Even the fastest swimmers take about 0.6 seconds to leave the block after the start.
2. You turn to your feet and finish to your hand, so that probably adds a couple tenths to the first 25.
Because of these two things I think you're seeing splits closer than they really are in terms of swimming speed. The elite swimmers are not holding back. There is no 'pacing.' They are going as fast as possible the entire time. It might take a few strokes to "build into it" but that is mainly because they don't want to just start out spinning their wheels. That's my take, anyway.
Out of curiosity...How often do you breathe during this event?
It sounds as if you may need to develop a personal strategy so that your not gassed after the first lap. Think of the 50 in the same way as letting air out of a balloon. It's better to make it to the touch pad just as the balloon is totally deflated. Not before and not after.
Thanks for the question! I take one breath for a 50 yard freestyle. I will say this, my training until recently has been very race-pace oriented, without a lot of aerobic base "underneath" so to speak. I've recently gone on an aerobic kick for the past several months, and I'm curious what that might do when I switch to race pace training next February or so. Perhaps the elite sprintes bring the 50 home so fast because they have such a sound aerobic base, and I do not.
It sounds as if you have to info & will use it well.
Former Member
There is no 'pacing.' They are going as fast as possible the entire time. Agreed. Sprinters have only one gear. There's no holding back anywhere. Like Ande said, they train for great starts, breakouts, turns, finishes and in being explosive.
My 2 cents...there are strategies for masters swimmers ie...like when to breathe (either once before and/or after the turn). But that's about it in my opinion. Most elite swimmers don't have this as a consideration because they don't take any breaths.
Out of curiosity...How often do you breathe during this event?
It sounds as if you may need to develop a personal strategy so that your not gassed after the first lap. Think of the 50 in the same way as letting air out of a balloon. It's better to make it to the touch pad just as the balloon is totally deflated. Not before and not after.
Former Member
Thanks for the question! I take one breath for a 50 yard freestyle. I will say this, my training until recently has been very race-pace oriented, without a lot of aerobic base "underneath" so to speak. I've recently gone on an aerobic kick for the past several months, and I'm curious what that might do when I switch to race pace training next February or so. Perhaps the elite sprintes bring the 50 home so fast because they have such a sound aerobic base, and I do not.
You're welcome.
I only asked this because the 50 free was one of my events in college. I took one breath which was four strokes right after the turn. As an old man now :) this strategy is a recipe for a drop-off as you pointed out. That's why it might be best to stay 'oxygenated' by sneaking in one breath before you make the turn.
Granted it's a very short race and you really won't be oxygen depleted after one lap, but expelling some carbon dioxide and getting in a quick inhale before the turn could set the stage for a better last lap.
Try some 25's "all out" but work on timing your stroke so that you can catch a breath in mid-pool without hampering form. This could be the key to coming home strong.
I've heard its said that a dive provides about a one second drop in time versus a push-off.
In theory the elite sprinters who split the second lap almost as fast as the first are actually swimming faster on the way back! That seems plausible but unusual travel at a higher rate of speed from the turn to the touch pads than from the blocks to the turn.
Back to Mike's first post...assuming the dive gives a full one second advantage....a 1.5 second drop-off means that the second lap was only .50 slower than the first. That's really not so terrible. It's just not elite!
Actually the research I saw said the dive is 2 sec faster than a pushoff and one sec faster than diving from the deck.
Kirk's point about turning to the feet and finishing to the touch is relevant there though.
Former Member
I would say you don't want to get pace and rate mixed up. Too high of a rate and you could run into spinning wheels, etc as people are saying but imo this is not the same as pace. To me, pace is simply the speed you're going in relation to your maximum. In a 50 free, you should always be going your maximum speed. Whatever stroke rate and kick rate gets you there...
Former Member
On 50 yard freestyle split differentials, Top sprinters are 0.5 or less & the very best are 0.25 to 0.40
If you're at 1.5, somethings wrong. Part of it could be hand timing error.
I wish masters meets had electronic timing at both ends.
I've heard its said that a dive provides about a one second drop in time versus a push-off.
In theory the elite sprinters who split the second lap almost as fast as the first are actually swimming faster on the way back! That seems plausible but unusual travel at a higher rate of speed from the turn to the touch pads than from the blocks to the turn.
Back to Mike's first post...assuming the dive gives a full one second advantage....a 1.5 second drop-off means that the second lap was only .50 slower than the first. That's really not so terrible. It's just not elite!
Very interesting discussion, especially since my workout partner, coach Mark Johnston of the Swim Dogs team, just did an analysis of my 50 free from Atlanta in 2010. He has this new software that is very cool. He normally does the recordings at his own pool and can do a simultaneous split screen of above and below water. He can also do a nice printout analysis and compare you to other swimmers. Unfortunately, he compares me to a swim by Ian Crocker. My analysis is very low tech as he had to get it off a youtube video.
BTW, I don't breath during the 50 and my second 25 was .52 slower than my first (10.79 / 11.31). I go all out from the begining, but on my way back I keep trying to accelerate by kicking as hard as I can and keeping my head down.
Check out the video.
VRA Rich Abrahams 50 Free in Atlanta - YouTube
If you're interested in getting an analysis like this you should try to contact Mark directly at swimdogs.net
I'll suggest one other reason to not to swim all out. My stroke technique breaks down at high effort (not necessarily when exhausted, just when trying to swim "too fast"). I'm still working on that. It's possible that at 92% effort you might actually swim faster than at 97% effort if your stroke technique suffers a bit with the increased effort. Given the density of water I doubt it takes much of a form break to negate any increase in effort, especially at high output.
