Looking to get an idea of where I should be with regards to SPL (stroke per length) on my 50m sprints. Right now I'm at 17/23 for 50m but I know I need to get that down. I'm thinking that getting it down to about 14/18 without a reduction in speed would be optimum as I'm 6'3" with about a 6'6" wingspan. Does that stroke count sound reasonable?
Now how to do that?
Here's what I think I need to work on.
1) stronger kick
2) better underwater work at the start and turn
3) Work on becoming longer in the water, both stroke and body position.
4) swim downhill. I've been reviewing my 50m race from earlier this month and I'm still swimming too much uphill.
Any advice on drills would be helpful.
Paul
YEP!!!
My thoughts:
1) Stroke drills!!! Get these from coach, other swimmers, videos. If you're not doing at least 25% of practice time on drills, go do them on your own. You can't over drill but they have to be done correctly.
2) Work on streamline. IMO, this is the single easiest means of improving your stoke and time.
3) Work on kicking (without a board) on your stomach, side, and back. Free, fly, and back!
4) Integrate that into SDK! (steamlined dolphin kick) You have 15 meters before you have to actually start swimming in Bk, Fr, and Fly. But, SDK without maintaining speed is counter productive so work on kick first.
If you are taking 17/23 stokes per 50m, your stoke isn't very efficient. For someone your height and wingspan, 14/18 is certainly not unreasonable and with lots of work it could be lower than that. I'm 6' tall with a 6' wingspan and definitely NOT a freestyler but I'm about 11/12 in a SCY pool.
Hope that helps,
Allen
Thanks, Allen.
1) Completely agree. Don't do enough stroke drills in our practices.
2) Agree again. I'm still swimming too much uphill and need to get my head lower and my hips higher.
3) I've ditched the board and use a snorkel while kicking and that is really thrashing my legs and helping me get my hips higher. One thing I need to figure out (or get someone to help me with) is HOW to kick better. I know one way is to kick more but I'm also struggling to figure out how to kick BETTER.
4) There's a Monofin in my future. And I'm trying to hold my streamlines off the wall until I'm well past the flags. That is giving me good feedback on maintaining my speed.
As for stroke efficiency, you might be right but right now I'm trading efficiency for turn over in my 50 sprints. I'm at 26.8 50m and 24.4 50y and want to get that down by at least another second in each.
Appreciate the input and I'll work on putting your recommendations into action.
Paul
YEP!!!
My thoughts:
1) Stroke drills!!! Get these from coach, other swimmers, videos. If you're not doing at least 25% of practice time on drills, go do them on your own. You can't over drill but they have to be done correctly
great point, drills it seems are the forgotten stepchild of swimming these days. I try to incorporate at least 400 yards per work out of quality drilling. Slow down the intervals and practice the strokes you compete in.
I'd start by examining how you set-up your stroke. When your hand enters the water, how effective is your catch, from there your streamlining, kick, a pull pattern should be examined. Do some sets that allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of your training. If you spend three weeks trying to improve a certain aspect of your stroke, you should see a time drop, don't you think? If your training time gets better, I'd hope you'd see your time drop. Good Luck, Coach T.
