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... ;)
Former Member
mines 14 for 25m breastroke.i think i counted 25 separate arm pulls for free=12.5strokes per length,i'm 6ft i don't know how good/bad this is?
Sparx,
The stroke count on freestyle is tallied every time your hand enters the water. (Not every cycle.) Your stroke count is therefore still at 25, which can most likely be improved over time. I have gotten mine down as low as eleven because of a nice streamline off the walls. It also helps to be tall. At cruising pace my hundred yard repeats are right around a minute per hundred. But when it comes time to crank the arms faster, the stroke count increases by about 20 percent.
The key to fast swimming is in maintaining that distance per stroke when the engine (torso and arms) increases in turnover. The fastest land animal on the planet (the cheetah) gathers its speed with loooong strides. The same holds true with swimmers.
At cruising pace my hundred yard repeats are right around a minute per hundred.
That's pretty fast at our age. I haven't done that since college. What kind of interval are you using for those repeats?
Our coach has us do "speed work" on Wednesdays. The main set is (10) 100's on 1:40 with an emphasis on a controlled effort (not all out sprinting). .
Since getting back into the swing of things about a year and a half ago, I've found that this pace is fairly manageable to hold with enough rest. When the interval gets tighter (1:30-1:20) it's more difficult to maintain anything much lower than 1:05's. I really enjoy competition and have put an effort on quality workouts. The weekly yardage is only around 15,000 compared to about 50,000 from school days. It would be very rewarding to approach those times again with only a third of the workout distance.
I can only wonder if we didn't empty out so many beer kegs during our youth if we could have been faster? Our swimming and water polo squad could not only swim like fish, but we drank like them too.:D
Originally posted by sparx35
mines 14 for 25m breastroke.i think i counted 25 separate arm pulls for free=12.5strokes per length,i'm 6ft i don't know how good/bad this is?
On freestyle I count,
left arm=1
right arm=2
left arm+breath=3
right arm=4
left arm=5
right arm+breath=6
...
On a 100 sprint, I can do 9 then 5 on the the first 2 25's
and on a 3rd 25 when I'm not as strong I do 1+7-3-3+flip breath
4th 25 I try for 9+5 again
well... anyway, hope this makes sense...
Originally posted by valhallan
Sparx,
The key to fast swimming is in maintaining that distance per stroke when the engine (torso and arms) increases in turnover. The fastest land animal on the planet (the cheetah) gathers its speed with loooong strides. The same holds true with swimmers.
Since I'm not strong enough yet to have a very high stroke rate, I've noticed that when I put little extra umph into elongating, and stretching forward when I take the stroke, I get going just a tad faster.
Beiing that I'm still building up, for now, I try to make my every 3rd stroke the extra long one, usually the one right after I take the breath, then the other 2 are there to try and not lose the momentum.
As I build up, I hope to be able to do this every stroke.
One of my favorite non-swimming activities is kayaking. I sometimes can't help but think about the correlation between stroking the paddle on the kayak and my swimming. When I want to get in the zone and build up some speed, the strokes are loooong and the the pull is hard. There's no such thing as short choppy stokes to effectively gather speed when your dealing with the element of water. Too much splashing means that there's too much resistance.
The thought of kayaking always crosses my mind now in the pool especially when I'm getting tired. The best way to hang tough on a repeat of two hundreds is to keep nice clean form. Swimming smoothly will win every time over effort when the going gets tough. I happen to be a backstroker which in my mind is very much like paddling a boat. Ride high in the water with your hips just at the surface, and paddle a straight course.
Keeping the emphasis on stretching out rather than pulling water will ultimately lead to faster swimming. It's at that point that the strength factor will play an important role.
ConnieKat8, check your personal messages. (You can delete it right away if you want, I just wanted to make sure you knew it was there.)
Originally posted by valhallan
There's no such thing as short choppy stokes to effectively gather speed when your dealing with the element of water.
Unless you're playing water polo, gathering speed shouldn't be an issue. You are maintaining your speed (either from your pushoff, or from your previous stroke). But I do like the analogy. Watch an Olympic crew race, and compare their oar strokes, at the start (power) versus the middle of the race (efficient holding of speed).
