attention sprinters, have a question on your strength

I would think it would be more useful to count your strokes at race pace than while swimming at warm up pace. It is too easy to fudge an untimed stroke count by streamlining further, adding glide, and kicking harder; things that won't necessarily make you faster if done to excess. Lindsay....God forbid I bring up another TI strategy I support, but what the heck. In warm up, warm down and at race pace I try and maintain the exact stroke count (based on 200 race pace which is 10 per lap yds)....

Lindsay....good point. I've brought up in prior threads that spl varies (at least for me) between 50-100-200+ Typically for a 50 I'll move up to about 15-16, 100 is in the 12-13 range and 200+ 10-11. I try and maintain the 200+ spl in warm up, warm down and on most aerobic based sets.

This thread is all over the swim map but it's sure good for reading and commenting. First, while it may not be necessary to lift weights for swim strength, it sure can't hurt. But all great swimmers know that you lift higher weight and less repetitions for shorter events, and lower weight with more reptitions for distance events. And I loved someone's mention that a swimmer didn't look bulked up. Well, when a truly competitve swimmer is spending endless hours in a pool, it does physically offset the bulking up. Longer muscles, toned, but more lengthened, so looks can be deceiving. However, those swimmers I have seen with huge muscles look great on the blocks, but that is where it usually ends. SPL? I'm for it, I do it, I take about 10 strokes every 25 during warmup; 12 when racing, but now that I do distance, it is less of an issue plus it is already imbedded in my swim style. TI is good, lots of people have benefitted from it, but I have yet to see world records set by a person who said they were TI ing. I don't know that it is all that different than what I learned 30 years ago except TI swimmers are much lower in the water which I truly believe is not a good thing; I have seen no proof of it being of benefit; I'd rather swim over the water than plow through it myself. I've read about it, I've watched it, and contrary to what has been said or written, water coming OVER the body cannot increase speed; it may feel better, but where's the speed. One thing I have been reading here in the past about the TI way is that you have to think to swim. Sorry, I can't do both when racing. No one has talked about how they truly achieve a low SPL; what exactly they do stroke wise to accomplish this so I'll go first. I have a huge reach, no dropped elbows, no sculling, and a more straight arm underwater even during hip rotation which is called a large rotational stroke until the finish, and I finish my stroke lower on my body than at the waist or high-hip and that finish is also controversial here. I did this years ago and I do it now but I can't time myself because I only swim ocean, no pools here, but for the 1 mile triathlon swim, I usually swim a 22 minute whatever that comes out to. Oh, and I have gray hair. Donna

Yes the same correlation holds with swimming too. The longer your arms the more water you will be able to displace and the less strokes you will need to get across the pool. You'll notice sprinters are generally tall, where as distance swimmers can get away with being a bit shorter. Fort and I break the mold, short sprinters. We'll be signing autographs before our world record 100 m free this summer location: tbd ... we are expecting to go a 51.00 - not just break the record but absolutely smash it ... hitting the wall at the exact same time ...

Paul, You are so much kinder than his Highness; I appreciate your comments so much. You know, regardless of what a swim technique is called, if people are benefiting, that is the bottom line. Believe it or not, even at my advanced age, well especially at my advanced age, I want to swim farther the easiest way possible and I an open to anything that makes sense, as long as a coach or promoter isn't slamming me for questioning a particular way. Being inquisitive and challenging anything in life is paramount to understanding and choosing the way to go.... So, if world class swimmers are doing TI's drills, then there you have it because they wouldn't be doing them if they weren't benefitting from them. Touche!!! But, and there is a but, no way can I think about technique when racing; I'd better already have it in place!!! Donna

Lindsay....God forbid I bring up another TI strategy I support, but what the heck. In warm up, warm down and at race pace I try and maintain the exact stroke count (based on 200 race pace which is 10 per lap yds).... You'll certainly get no argument from me on that. Perhaps rtodd holds his 14 spl in his races, it was just the way that he qualified the circumstances of his 14 spl that made we wonder if maybe he goes higher at race pace, and maybe there is a useful clue there that will help him go faster. When I looked at a race video of myself my spl was higher than at cruising pace and there were several glaring problems with my stroke. It gave me things to work on.

At a recent masters meet...we had the pleasure of sitting next to Mr.T...who by the way has an effortless looking freestyle. Did the earrings and jewlery slow him down? Did you ask about an A-Team reunion? Thoughts on the newest Rocky movie? Inquiring minds want to know!

I don't think it's a clear cut formula there's guys who are very muscular (not me) and guys who are very skinny (not me) i'm kind of in the middle at my peak I could do 10 dips with 100 extra pounds bench 5 x 255 lat pull 6 x 250 standing broad jump about 9.5 feet I could kick 50 scy free from a push with a board in 28.0 do 50 SDK in 23.8 now I struggle to bench over 200, lat pull 210, i don't do dips, but there's guys who aren't nearly that strong who are much faster than me it's all about how well conditioned you are how well shaped your body is, remember my swim faster faster tip on Build a better Boat" Ande, So what you are saying is that there is a strength vs weight factor in sprinting. So what would be good numbers for what I am asking? What would Lesak's numbers be? Can he do 20 pull ups or 200? If I have decent strength, which I don't know yet, I will spend all my time learning how to apply it efficiently. Paul Smith, With your great sprinting ability, you are telling me you can only do 2 pull ups? come on......If that is the case then you must have a mental kick. How do I quantify how efficient or strong my kick is? How can I tell if I am kick biased or pull biased? These are the things I am trying to figure out. I am trying to evaluate myself and determine if all I have to do is swim, or add aditional strength work in the gym. The last year I have only been lifting once a week.

You'll notice sprinters are generally tall, where as distance swimmers can get away with being a bit shorter. Fort and I break the mold, short sprinters. I'm 5'3" and a sprinter. In fact the taller girls on my teams have always been distance swimmers while as the average or even short girls have been the sprinters. Go figure.

You'll notice sprinters are generally tall, where as distance swimmers can get away with being a bit shorter. Fort and I break the mold, short sprinters. I'm 5'3" and a sprinter. In fact the taller girls on my teams have always been distance swimmers while as the average or even short girls have been the sprinters. Go figure. As I get older (32), I learn more and more everyday that stereotypes of all sorts are completely useless in daily life.