My pull count is around 22 if I don't pay attention to it. If I really concentrate, I can get it down to about 18. Once I made it across our 25 yard pool with 16.
I consider my pull count to be very high for someone with freakishly long arms like I have. I want it lower.
When I do get my count down below 19, I feel like I did a 25 yard sprint. And my times in that distance seem to reflect that.
So I have two questions. First, should I spend part of my workout just doing intervals of 25s with break of about 15 seconds between them, and concentrate soley on my pull count.
Second, it seems like I'm sprinting when I count my pulls. I'm not a sprinter. In fact, the only competition I have in my plans are triatlons and open water swims. In biking, for distance rides you are supposed to keep your cadence high. Is that true for swimming. In other words, is pull-count more important for sprinters than distance swimmers?
One drill we do which seems to help with pull counts is this:
12x 25 yds, broken into groups of 3:
1st 25: concentrate on stroke, low stroke count
2nd 25: just let your arms move as fast as they can
3rrd 25: put the 1st and 2nd together
I think we do them on 0:35, but do it on an interval where you'll get 10-15 seconds rest on the slowest.
If you have a coach, ask him/her to look at your stroke and give you pointers. If not, maybe ask someone at the pool to do so...and you may want to think of swimming with a coach at least once a week.
One drill we do which seems to help with pull counts is this:
12x 25 yds, broken into groups of 3:
1st 25: concentrate on stroke, low stroke count
2nd 25: just let your arms move as fast as they can
3rrd 25: put the 1st and 2nd together
I think we do them on 0:35, but do it on an interval where you'll get 10-15 seconds rest on the slowest.
If you have a coach, ask him/her to look at your stroke and give you pointers. If not, maybe ask someone at the pool to do so...and you may want to think of swimming with a coach at least once a week.
