What is a good stroke count?

Susan, The reason you don’t see “the” number is because there isn’t one number that everyone should shoot for. And yes, a person's height (and arm span), gender, strength, fitness, endurance, technique, efficiency all influence someone's stroke count. But low stroke count is just a measure of technique and efficiency and not an end in itself. For me my optimal stroke count for a 25 is around 12-14 arm pulls (6-7 cycles). If I’m doing distance per stroke drills this can drop to 8-10 and if I’m doing stroke per distance drills I can get it up around 30 strokes per 25.

Swimming harder will make the count go up unless you are really good at swimming golf. I too am about 17 for height of 5-4, but that is my medium paced swim, if I press and try to sprint, I add a couple.

a persons stroke count depends upon the following: the swimmers + height / arm length / hand size + weight / body shape + arm stroke path + flexibility / relaxation / muscle tension + feel the water, ability to hold water, water grip + ankle flexibility + how fast the swimmer is going on the 25 + how hard the swimmer kicks + push off / streamline glide / underwater kicks / break out + body position in the water most beginning swimmers take way too many strokes I have helped many swimmers lower their stroke count I'm 6'3" when I exaggerate, glide far and focus on DPS i take 4 - 8 strokes normal swimming I take 10 - 12 sprinting 12 - 14 different swimmers need to do different things to lower their stroke count typically they need to + streamline longer + pause their arm out front, + accelerate their hand underwater + glide a little off of each final press + improve their head / body position + relax + eliminate wasted motion ande Originally posted by MichiganHusker Everything I've read emphasizes a low stroke count, but I've yet to see a number. What is the optimal number of stroke counts for 25yd. freestyle? Does a person's height influence someone's stroke count? Gender? Strength? Fitness? Endurance? I've got my own theories, but would love to anyone else's.

Being a piano player, my stroke count is naturally 88 per length. how's that for a number?

I understand the DPS drills, but what is stroke per distance drills? I've got my stroke count down to 17 on a 25 (I'm only 5'3") and I'm happy with the number especially after watching another female lap swimmer yesterday about my height and she had 29 strokes on a 25, but she had better endurance than me. (I'm quite competitive as you can see). :) Is the stroke count supposed to remain about the same whether you are swimming easy or hard?

Mine is 17 for 25m. but i only started doing crawl a few weeks ago. I'm 5'11"

I think the whole strokes per length game is largely overplayed. It is a good tool to use on occasion to test your efficiency but in the end, the timers stopwatches will tell you just how good you really are.

But improving the efficiency of your stroke will help bring the times down.

I have found a great thing for me to do is swim for at least 45 minutes straight and not allow more than 16 strokes/25 yards. If I go over I add a minute more.

Swimming with a lower stroke count can translate to faster times when a greater turnover is applied. Most people don't swim with exaggerated strokes during a race, but swimming longer will win out over short and choppy strokes. Less drag and better body posture are two side effects of having a lower stroke count.