please bear with me while I brag!
Let me remind you .... 2 months ago, in a LCM meet (and my first meet ever) I was doing 1:58 in 100 free!!!! I just started swimming, just over 3 months ago, first time ever, at the age of 34.
This afternoon at the workout the coach had us doing 4x100, on 4 minutes, no holding back race sets. (SCM pool)
I did 1:27, 1:30, 1:33 and 1:31 :)
The coach was very very pleasantly surprised... I was so surprised I thought he was reading off someone else's time!
Earlier in the workout he commented how my stroke is looking really good. Couple other teammates commented on my stroke looking good in last couple of weeks as well...
I'm vevy vevy excited... I think I feel a touchdown dance coming on... ;)
Originally posted by Conniekat8
Oh, a question for all of you guys... What's the deal with the stroke count? is it something real significant?
I just happened to count it today because of the breating count, as I was doing another 100 sprint (1:32), and it's 14 for 25 yards. Is that good, bad or indifferent? Does stroke count tell me anything? I keep overhearing about it, but I'm not sure what to make if it yet.
Checkout any of the threads about stroke rate, stroke length, or TI (Total Immersion). (There have been many discussions.) I think 14 is fairly good, but it is up to you if you can continue to improve on that number or not. (What is your height, do you have a strong kick, wall pushoff, etc.) The other point is, can you maintain this stroke length while sprinting?
The outdated school of thought was, if you want to go faster, you increase your stroke rate. (This is true for a sprint vs. long distance swim.) When that happens, your stroke length (and efficiency) start to decrease. Soon, you will put in a lot more effort, without getting any extra speed. Research has shown that elite swimmers go faster not because of stroke rate, but because their distance per stroke is much better. (A side note is that stroke length doesn't mean much if your stroke rate has dropped to almost zero!) TI and other methods teach you to swim more efficiently at low stroke rates, then try to maintain that stroke length as you speed up to a racing stroke rate.
Originally posted by Conniekat8
Oh, a question for all of you guys... What's the deal with the stroke count? is it something real significant?
I just happened to count it today because of the breating count, as I was doing another 100 sprint (1:32), and it's 14 for 25 yards. Is that good, bad or indifferent? Does stroke count tell me anything? I keep overhearing about it, but I'm not sure what to make if it yet.
Checkout any of the threads about stroke rate, stroke length, or TI (Total Immersion). (There have been many discussions.) I think 14 is fairly good, but it is up to you if you can continue to improve on that number or not. (What is your height, do you have a strong kick, wall pushoff, etc.) The other point is, can you maintain this stroke length while sprinting?
The outdated school of thought was, if you want to go faster, you increase your stroke rate. (This is true for a sprint vs. long distance swim.) When that happens, your stroke length (and efficiency) start to decrease. Soon, you will put in a lot more effort, without getting any extra speed. Research has shown that elite swimmers go faster not because of stroke rate, but because their distance per stroke is much better. (A side note is that stroke length doesn't mean much if your stroke rate has dropped to almost zero!) TI and other methods teach you to swim more efficiently at low stroke rates, then try to maintain that stroke length as you speed up to a racing stroke rate.
