I tried running through a few pages of search results, but didnt really find relevant results.
For the past few years i have been working very hard on stroke length in practice and have improved a ton in this area (can hit 14 pretty regularly and like 11 if i really focus on lengthening it out (5'10)), but when i get on the blocks and race the 50 or 100 i feel like a lot of that goes out the door and i fall back on only stroke rate.
Do you all have any advice on finding an "optimal" length/rate ratio? or any advice on how to control this urge?
I have been improving consistently, but i just feel that there are greater gains that i could be making.
Paul Smith, Kaizen, Ande and others are the real experts on this.
There was some discussion of SR vs. SPL in a sprint in the recent sprinter/weights thread started by RTodd. I think it was discussed in the "muscular endurance" thread as well.
The specific topic of SR vs. SPL was also the title of a thread and discussed at length on forums.usms.org/showthread.php
Have you counted your strokes in a 50, 100, 200? Most think this is beneficial as a diagnostic tool.
It's a tough balancing act. I think many people feel the same way you do. I know I swim a 50 vastly differently than a 200. You should have a pretty good SR for a rip roaring 50. And it should be a lot flatter with less rotation. You can't afford to sit around dwelling on SPL during a sprint -- so I'm not sure how much you want to quell that urge to go fast. You need that inner animal to sprint IMHO. :lolup:
Now, that doesn't mean you ignore SPL of course. But if you've been diligently practicing SPL, I bet you have done more "imprinting" than you think. And you say you've been improving consistently, so that's great! It sounds like you're heading in the right direction. Of course, anyone can always improve. I'm not sure if there's an "optimal" SPL. It depends on so many factors. 11-14 seems like normal variance depending on the distance swum.
I seem to recall Kaizen saying that, when he coached sprinters, he would give sprint sets of 25s focusing on SPL while sprinting. If the target SPL and speed were not reached, they swimmers would repeat the set.
Paul Smith, Kaizen, Ande and others are the real experts on this.
There was some discussion of SR vs. SPL in a sprint in the recent sprinter/weights thread started by RTodd. I think it was discussed in the "muscular endurance" thread as well.
The specific topic of SR vs. SPL was also the title of a thread and discussed at length on forums.usms.org/showthread.php
Have you counted your strokes in a 50, 100, 200? Most think this is beneficial as a diagnostic tool.
It's a tough balancing act. I think many people feel the same way you do. I know I swim a 50 vastly differently than a 200. You should have a pretty good SR for a rip roaring 50. And it should be a lot flatter with less rotation. You can't afford to sit around dwelling on SPL during a sprint -- so I'm not sure how much you want to quell that urge to go fast. You need that inner animal to sprint IMHO. :lolup:
Now, that doesn't mean you ignore SPL of course. But if you've been diligently practicing SPL, I bet you have done more "imprinting" than you think. And you say you've been improving consistently, so that's great! It sounds like you're heading in the right direction. Of course, anyone can always improve. I'm not sure if there's an "optimal" SPL. It depends on so many factors. 11-14 seems like normal variance depending on the distance swum.
I seem to recall Kaizen saying that, when he coached sprinters, he would give sprint sets of 25s focusing on SPL while sprinting. If the target SPL and speed were not reached, they swimmers would repeat the set.
