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.
Sprinters need practice,but a sprint workout is different. Say you are doing a lactic acid tolerance set of 50s on the minute.A distance swimmer would laugh and say"I do 50s on the 45 and don't breath hard",but here is the difference,the sprinter does them at 100% effort. Distance swimmers try that some time,all out from the first stroke,not a "fast"50,not descending,but ALL out so by the 3rd one you burn all over and by the 5th you're muscles are jelly.
Fortress I can't believe I forgot there is an outstanding short sprinter in my age group. George Schmidt is about my height and an amazing sprinter. He is about as fast as I am in the 50 *** and that fast or faster in the other strokes. Needless to say his 100 IM is unbelieveable.
You are correct, Allen, natch. The people who tell me that sprinters don't need to "practice" are all mid to long distance swimmers, so they don't understand us. Hey, maybe we can send George and Lisa to Canada to train with Solar and the path will be clearer for us here in the US. But we definitely need to practice. I need to practice turns more ...
Solar:
Happy Holidays.:smooch:
Laura Val is a professional swimmer, I'm sure, just like Karlyn P-N. Allen and I actually have to get on with our professions a bit, so we can't train 24/7.
My injury is better, but I've eased off a lot the last 6 weeks or so and been very busy with the kids' meets (which close down my pool) and the holidays. Beth McGee (Swimr4Life) has identical symptoms to me, and she was recently told to try ART therapy as well. When I try to gear back up, I'll see if it still is problematic. If so, I'll go in for my MRI and/or back to ART on a more regular basis. I think I need to do more scapular stabilizing exercises as well. Not currently icing! (Doing sculling along with some drills during warm up.)
Of course, you're right, no one can get to an elite level without practice. But, at least as masters, they might get there despite being short. Look what Allen did at Worlds. :applaud:
Sprinters need practice,but a sprint workout is different. Say you are doing a lactic acid tolerance set of 50s on the minute.A distance swimmer would laugh and say"I do 50s on the 45 and don't breath hard",but here is the difference,the sprinter does them at 100% effort. Distance swimmers try that some time,all out from the first stroke,not a "fast"50,not descending,but ALL out so by the 3rd one you burn all over and by the 5th you're muscles are jelly.
Fortress I can't believe I forgot there is an outstanding short sprinter in my age group. George Schmidt is about my height and an amazing sprinter. He is about as fast as I am in the 50 *** and that fast or faster in the other strokes. Needless to say his 100 IM is unbelieveable.
You are correct, Allen, natch. The people who tell me that sprinters don't need to "practice" are all mid to long distance swimmers, so they don't understand us. Hey, maybe we can send George and Lisa to Canada to train with Solar and the path will be clearer for us here in the US. But we definitely need to practice. I need to practice turns more ...
Solar:
Happy Holidays.:smooch:
Laura Val is a professional swimmer, I'm sure, just like Karlyn P-N. Allen and I actually have to get on with our professions a bit, so we can't train 24/7.
My injury is better, but I've eased off a lot the last 6 weeks or so and been very busy with the kids' meets (which close down my pool) and the holidays. Beth McGee (Swimr4Life) has identical symptoms to me, and she was recently told to try ART therapy as well. When I try to gear back up, I'll see if it still is problematic. If so, I'll go in for my MRI and/or back to ART on a more regular basis. I think I need to do more scapular stabilizing exercises as well. Not currently icing! (Doing sculling along with some drills during warm up.)
Of course, you're right, no one can get to an elite level without practice. But, at least as masters, they might get there despite being short. Look what Allen did at Worlds. :applaud:
