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.
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.
I'm not sure the aerobic energy system really comes into it on a 50 yard bash. You are principally using your anaerobic (ATP) energy systems, depending on how long the 50 yard sprint takes you of course. There is a good article here, on energy systems used during different stages of a race:
www.brianmac.co.uk/energy.htm
While you shouldn't really hold back, certainly not a 50 yard sprint, I do believe it's possible to 'die' on a 50M sprint. If swimmers didn't slow down on a 50 then the race would be decided at 25M, especially LC, but how many races do we see where swimmers lose it in the last 10M? If you tense up and absolutely bash the first 25, like you are swimming a 25 sprint only (eyeballs out), then depending on your own conditioning, those last 10M can hurt like hell. I know, I've experienced it a few times. The key is to get out fast but under control. Don't feel like you're straining until the last 10M.
Some elite track sprinters 'die' on the 100M and they are only running for
Interesting discussion of what I half-wondered was a joke based on the thread title. :)
It seems to me that a 50 LCM sprint is a somewhat different beast than 50 SCY or 50 SCM even though many people here seem to be conflating the two (I think only Eaglesrest noted some differences).
I'm no expert but: underwaters, breakout and turns are obviously critical in the short course versions, and pacing is much less important (it is maybe better to think of the event as two back-to-back 25s).
I've never come close to dying in 50 SCY/SCM and pacing is much more about technique (not spinning your wheels) in those events. But in LCM the pool can get to be pretty long by the end, conditioning becomes a little important that last third of the pool length.
One thing that helped me drop 2+ seconds in one year for the SCM 50fr was avoiding 50m of 50fr equivalent race pace several months out. I would take the proposed 50 pace (or faster) and break it up in 25s with more than enough rest to do about 10 ea. This helped me feel the pace enough to not think about it while racing
I would also do the same set on a tighter interval which resulted in a pace slightly closer to the 100 (but not quite as slow). This year I felt no need to pace, the swimming portion felt like autopilot ( one breath out and 2 in).
Another thing I worked on was the start. In 2012 I probably practiced over 150 from the block and another 200 from the side of pool when no blocks were available.
Now on the other hand, one thing I immediately need to work on is my reaction - it sucks: too much going on in my head like,
Should I breath now or in the air? :blah:
or more recently,
Was that the horn that just went off while I'm still on the block pondering this?:bitching::censor:
With all this said, my 50 free is now only several tenths slower than Chris's first 200 free split:applaud:
I'd like to access your wisdom...how do you swim the 50?YMMV, but this is how I do it:
You definitely want to be last off the blocks. All that effort, straining, quad-burning, etc. from trying to splurge and burst off the blocks will really come back to haunt you those harrowing last 2.3 yards of the race.
By all means, you've got to breathe every stroke. After all, Lezak caught that French dude in the 100 breathing every stroke; if it's good enough for him for a 100, it's got to be good enough for us Masters in a 50.
Whatever you do, make sure to flub your turn. You can do this in any number of ways that I usually do:
Flip too far away
Flip too close
Slip on your push off so you hit the lovely wall wave of water that Rowdy talks incessantly about in any Olympic race shorter than 400 meters
Or, go for the triple-header and do all of the above
Glide into the finish on the premise that you don't want to finish with a short, half stroke.
It takes practice to master these things; I have swum the 50 free more than any other event in my Masters career and I'm finally into a groove where I do the above on just about every 50 free I ever race. You've got some deep, mindful, 10,000 Malcolm Gladwell hours of focused practice ahead of you ... but you can do it!
Hi Mike,
what were your times 50, 1st 25, & 2nd 25
thanks for mentioning MY SFF Tip 177 Split Differentials for the 50 Free Short Course
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.
Maybe
you're swimming too hard on that 1st 25.
you could improve your turn, push off, streamline, kick & break out.
it's breathing,
Hard to say sight unseen.
I'd need to watch you sprint
Part of getting your splits right is perfecting all the high speed swimming skills. Right now my sprint free feels terrible and I need to do more fast 15's, 25's & 50's with rest
do fast 50's where you vary the effort like
90/95 or 95/100
you want a fast turn, a great connection, a hard push off under your draft & a skinny streamline.
here's a few more related SFF Tips:
Tip 03 very fast Kickers
Tip 10 Start with Starts
Tip 12 Correct Splitting
Tip 31 Get Strong
Tip 35 Improve Your Turns
Tip 71 Sprint Training
Tip 89 Training for 25
Tip 99 Make a few Practices that are like Meets
Tip 135 The Formula for Kicking Faster
Tip 165 Build a Better Boat
Tip 173 Crocker's Track Start Tips
Tip 248 Hit Your Targett Splits
Tip 272 Anything YOU do and measure IMPROVES
Tip 335 Build a Fortress of Speed & Strength
Correct Splitting
I think the key is to go as fast as you can efficiently go.You don't want to "spin your wheels" but you don't really want to start slowly either.
If you find you are slowing down at the end of a 50,you probably need to do more lactic acid tolerance sets.
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.
I thought I saw the same article somewhere too.
And yes Kirk's point explains how a finish to the touch shaves off time on the last lap.
A starting block dive + foot touch = a push off and hand touch (+ .50 seconds)
Now on the other hand, one thing I immediately need to work on is my reaction - it sucks: too much going on in my head like,
Should I breath now or in the air? :blah:
or more recently,
Was that the horn that just went off while I'm still on the block pondering this?:bitching::censor:
:
I've debated when to take my last breath on the block, and think I've cracked it. Once everyone is on the blocks and looking like they are ready, take a very deep breath, and get into the race start position. Then focus on nothing but the gun/bleep. Nothing else but reaction, not breathing, not the turn ahead... just when to explode off the block. Everything should be tensed - hands on the front of the block, feet and legs ready to push off, ideally with a backboard. In theory as the 50 free is so short we shouldn't need to breathe AT ALL. Reality is most masters will take a couple of breaths, maybe more, but the benefits of a good reaction outweigh a few more seconds of breathing, especially when you are stationary at the time.
I'm down to a consistent 0.6 reaction time so its working for me.
YMMV, but this is how I do it:
You definitely want to be last off the blocks. All that effort, straining, quad-burning, etc. from trying to splurge and burst off the blocks will really come back to haunt you those harrowing last 2.3 yards of the race.
By all means, you've got to breathe every stroke. After all, Lezak caught that French dude in the 100 breathing every stroke; if it's good enough for him for a 100, it's got to be good enough for us Masters in a 50.
Whatever you do, make sure to flub your turn. You can do this in any number of ways that I usually do:
Flip too far away
Flip too close
Slip on your push off so you hit the lovely wall wave of water that Rowdy talks incessantly about in any Olympic race shorter than 400 meters
Or, go for the triple-header and do all of the above
Glide into the finish on the premise that you don't want to finish with a short, half stroke.
It takes practice to master these things; I have swum the 50 free more than any other event in my Masters career and I'm finally into a groove where I do the above on just about every 50 free I ever race. You've got some deep, mindful, 10,000 Malcolm Gladwell hours of focused practice ahead of you ... but you can do it!
Absolutely AWESOME!! :lmao: This is just funny -- I know you're speaking from the heart - kinda. I love the part about Rowdy and the wave of water.
I also love Rowdy's comments about how the swimmer has no :censor:'n idea where the swimmer is to their non-breathing side as well. :D I'm always able to keep track of where people are in my races, (left right front back)
In seriousness, for a 50, don't follow any of PWB's advice (for this thread), though he usually is speaking the truth.
