Sorry if this is a repeat thread, but I searched and couldn't find anything. Is it odd to have your breaststroke be significantly faster than your front crawl? I thought breaststroke was supposed to be the slowest stroke, but it seems to be the opposite for me. My time for a 50y free used to be 45-50s, but it's about 35 now (VERY slow, I know). My time for 50y *** is between 28 and 29s even at the end of a long practice.
My coaches have watched my technique for both strokes, and they said that my front crawl technique is great. I'm probably taking about 10 strokes per 25 yards. The only thing I can think of is that my front crawl looks almost identical to Grant Hackett's, even when I'm trying to sprint. I think you're supposed to stay flat when you sprint, but it doesn't feel natural to me.
Anyway, does this just mean that *** is my natural stroke, or is there something horrifically wrong with my front crawl that 4 coaches and myself missed?
So, basically, I should try and increase my turnover while keeping my strokes efficient. That seems obvious, but I guess my body just doesn't want to do it. Ha.
You might throw in some swims where you just turn over as fast as you can w/o worrying much about technique. Just try doing some 25s where you spin your arms as fast as you can and see what your time/stroke count is there.
Overall, yeah, ideally you want to increase turnover and keep your strokes efficient at the same time. You shouldn't let stroke count be your sole metric for determining efficiency, though. Like alphadog said, you probably want to look at your time and your stroke count together.
So, basically, I should try and increase my turnover while keeping my strokes efficient. That seems obvious, but I guess my body just doesn't want to do it. Ha.
You might throw in some swims where you just turn over as fast as you can w/o worrying much about technique. Just try doing some 25s where you spin your arms as fast as you can and see what your time/stroke count is there.
Overall, yeah, ideally you want to increase turnover and keep your strokes efficient at the same time. You shouldn't let stroke count be your sole metric for determining efficiency, though. Like alphadog said, you probably want to look at your time and your stroke count together.
