Stroke Rate vs Stroke Length, which is more difficult?
Former Member
This topic may have been discussed in the past but a search gave too many hits. I am very interested by your comment and advices for the following real scenario. This is for kids but may be this could apply to masters. BTW, I am just a parent swimmer, very interested in swimming in general but unfortunately not a good enough swimmer.
Two age group swimmers (11-12 years old) coming from different swimming history have opposite swimming style:
Swimmer 1 (let's call the higher stroke rate swimmer) swims 50 meters freestyle, taking 60 strokes. Swimmer2 does it in 45 strokes, with a time 0.5 to 1 second slower.
In general, Swimmer1 beats Swimmer2 in all distances (freestyle and back). Including a 2000 meter freestyle test set, faster by about 20 seconds. In this particular 2000m, aside the time and stroke rate, Swimmer2 (slower stroke rate) did it with even splits while Swimmer1 positive splits toward the last 25% of the distance.
Q1. Assuming two swimmers have similar aerobic conditions, which one will have better margin of progression? More exactly, would it be "easier" for Swimmer1 to improve the technique or for Swimmer2 to improve the Stroke Rate?
Q2. What would you recommend to these swimmers to get better?
To these two swimmers, stroke rate seems to be the winning bet. Swimmer2 was taught with a focus on excellent technique (and indeed looks better in the water), but is confused as this skill doesn't translate into better performance.
Of course, we are talking about SL and SR relative to a context where the swimmers already know about swimming.
Thanks you in advance for your help.
Parents
Former Member
The most phenominal swimmer I ever swam against was Laura Val. I was always 2nd to her in the backstroke; she owns it.
She's 55 now and here are some of her times this past year:
100 LCM Free: 1:02.63
100 SCM Fly: 1:10.93
100 SCM Back: 1:14.80
She also frequently kicks 100 yd free sets under 1:30, and can hold 100 yd free sets under 1:00. She is an advocate of BIG paddles, resistance tubing, pull buoys, kickboards. She says she is a swim training junkie, so to speak; she thrives on the hard, power training, lots of yardage. She has never had a swimming injury.:bow:
Donna Bloody fast. :applaud: Do you know what she does as a living?
Big Paddles, resistance tubing, pull buoys and kickboards... her copy of TI swim book is certainly more recent than mine.
(btw, I posted the results of this sprinter guy to show that there has been at least one guy capable of lowering the 50m near 23s, but that has never lower the 200m under 2min.)
... and I scull a little because Solar told me to. BTW, how does it go? And in what type of set do you implement these?
I have heard many people remark that sprinters don't really need to "practice." I've seen some sprinters that didn't need to get wet all that much. But none of them made it to the real big league though. From what I can remember, none of them really did well on the international league. So really... I donno.
How's your injury going?
And Oh(!)... Happy Holidays !
The most phenominal swimmer I ever swam against was Laura Val. I was always 2nd to her in the backstroke; she owns it.
She's 55 now and here are some of her times this past year:
100 LCM Free: 1:02.63
100 SCM Fly: 1:10.93
100 SCM Back: 1:14.80
She also frequently kicks 100 yd free sets under 1:30, and can hold 100 yd free sets under 1:00. She is an advocate of BIG paddles, resistance tubing, pull buoys, kickboards. She says she is a swim training junkie, so to speak; she thrives on the hard, power training, lots of yardage. She has never had a swimming injury.:bow:
Donna Bloody fast. :applaud: Do you know what she does as a living?
Big Paddles, resistance tubing, pull buoys and kickboards... her copy of TI swim book is certainly more recent than mine.
(btw, I posted the results of this sprinter guy to show that there has been at least one guy capable of lowering the 50m near 23s, but that has never lower the 200m under 2min.)
... and I scull a little because Solar told me to. BTW, how does it go? And in what type of set do you implement these?
I have heard many people remark that sprinters don't really need to "practice." I've seen some sprinters that didn't need to get wet all that much. But none of them made it to the real big league though. From what I can remember, none of them really did well on the international league. So really... I donno.
How's your injury going?
And Oh(!)... Happy Holidays !
