Time differentials between strokes

You can click here to compare collective masters swimmers time differences between strokes. I just did a little search out of curiosity. By taking the middle time (i.e. the 250th ranking time out of 500) for each stroke of the 50-54 male SCY swims last season respective to free. It was: fr 1.00 bk 1.26 br 1.32 fl 1.10 Yours was: fr 1.00 bk 1.10 br 1.38 fl 1.06 Myself: fr 1.00 bk 1.23 br 1.31 fl 1.13 I thought back was my slowest, turns out to be my fastest

i would say your a fly/backstroker ... and like me they will be passing you in breaststroke in the IM Those are my two favorite strokes... the other two are just so confounding.

Yeah, your breaststroke is pretty far behind your other three strokes. I'd say 5-7 seconds difference between free and *** is probably a good rule of thumb. Backstroke is a bit off compared to your fly, in an ideal world those are pretty much even from a push. Obviously from a dive that would change things some. But keeping the ratios "in line" really only matters if you care to be a generalist or IMer. FWIW, I'm an IMer, pretty even between strokes. Last meet (which was my first meet back from 6-year swimming break so take it with a grain of salt), I swam all of the 50s short course meters, my times were: Fly - 26.5 Back - 27.5 *** - 31.2 Free - 25.3 Wow those are great times, I guess my swimming goal would be not to have such a large variance/deficiency between any of the strokes... so breaststroke needs a lot of work. I’m probably too drag-sensitive for big improvements though, and swimming it feels like an accordion that’s being scrunched and stretched out over and over. i think I could see bigger improvements in back and fly, with some marginal improvement in free, but reducing the huge difference in the *** time is going to be a life long goal probably.

Fly - 26.5 Back - 27.5 *** - 31.2 Free - 25.3 OK, now I am really embarrassed with my times :-(

Have you tried the early dolphin kick in your pullout? Are you faster with the dolphin during the pulldown? At the risk of derailing the OP, I did dolphin during the pulldown all through college but I have been playing with timing a bit recently actually... I just haven't put a clock on it or anything yet. Will do more investigation and report back!

Well, I'm a terrible backstoker and my backstroke time wise has been worst than breaststroke since I was a kid. Although I didn't swim as a kid, I'm the same way. My strokes by speed are: free, ***/back (about the same), then fly. I've swum the 100 IM at meets a few times, both yards and meters. After the first 50 I'm usually toward the back of the pack, then by the end of *** I'm back in the thick of things.

Wow those are great times, I guess my swimming goal would be not to have such a large variance/deficiency between any of the strokes... so breaststroke needs a lot of work. I’m probably too drag-sensitive for big improvements though, and swimming it feels like an accordion that’s being scrunched and stretched out over and over. i think I could see bigger improvements in back and fly, with some marginal improvement in free, but reducing the huge difference in the *** time is going to be a life long goal probably. Well, I'm a terrible backstoker and my backstroke time wise has been worst than breaststroke since I was a kid. Its true you probably need to work on breaststroke since I did a 42 breaststroke when I was 45 years old after not swimming for over 30 years. At age 59 years old for not swimming much the past 8 years I posted a 51 second breaststroke.

Well, I'm a terrible backstoker and my backstroke time wise has been worst than breaststroke since I was a kid. Its true you probably need to work on breaststroke since I did a 42 breaststroke when I was 45 years old after not swimming for over 30 years. At age 59 years old for not swimming much the past 8 years I posted a 51 second breaststroke. I’m going to get a camera to film myself underwater and over water... hopefully the areas for improvement will be apparent and an easy fix.

Although I didn't swim as a kid, I'm the same way. My strokes by speed are: free, ***/back (about the same), then fly. Same here, although I swam in high school, and then took 31 years off. My stroke speed is the same as yours. :agree:

I haven't swum 50s in all 4 strokes in the 65-69 age group. But I think the ratios would be the same as 60-64: 50 yd Fly 28.52 50 BK 33.62 50 BR 30.35 50 Free 27.11. My 50 BK was that fast only because I swam the underwater parts as breaststroke on my back(much faster than my dolphin kick, much much faster than my surface backstroke.