My coaches have been telling me that my swimming is very pretty but not powerful enough, and I need to swim harder. I try, but I can't! I mostly race 50's and a few 100's, so I don't need much endurance. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Work some blast 12.5 sprints where you really focus on turning over fast even if it's at the expense of form. I interpret the "pretty" comments to mean smooth, low stroke rate swimming.
I also race 50s and 100s. My freestyle sprint is not where I want it to be. Part of my problem is that it is difficult to push off the wall and immediately go full blast. My stroke gets too short and smoothness disappears. What I do to improve this is to swim some accelerations. Push off, swim smooth and long, get the legs into it, and accelerate to nearly 100% by the end of a 25. Swim back easy. This is useful for all strokes - especially for butterfly and *** which need rhythm.
Thanks, I'll try those. My stroke rate isn't necessarily really low in practice, but I do have trouble increasing it enough in races. I've also thought about getting a tempo trainer. Has anyone used one and is this a good idea?
