After recognizing that my stroke is much longer than most OWS, I decided to poke around and see if stroke was different for OW as opposed to swimming in a pool. I found this (There is a part 2 if you click on the channel and scroll down the right side):
YouTube - Swim Smooth: What Is An Efficient Freestyle Stroke? Part 1
I would love to get reactions. I know that when I quicken my stroke rate and shorten my stroke I seem to fatigue much more quickly. However, this could be due to not pursuing this long enough to re-establish breathing patterns. (When I concentrate on my stroke, I tend to hold my breath without realizing it).
I do know that while my per 100 pace is slowly improving with more speed work in my work outs, it has dropped now where near what it used to be 20 years ago.
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I'd like to offer an observation, based only on my own personal experiences and some tenuous connections to physics.
First, not all open water swimming is the same. Let's assume just for the sake of argument that in all cases a swimmer in a pool is faster if they lower their SPL. If we move that pool swimmer into a calm lake, and assuming there are no other swimmers around, then that swimmer should remain the fastest. So the question is: does the longer stroke being used by the swimmer become a disadvantage as the conditions worsen? If so, how bad do they have to get.
Second, not all swimmers ultimately reach a magic SPL that guarantees success. Regardless of SPL, some swimmers simply will not make it to the top. So that means that there are other biomechanical & physiological issues that will determine maximum performance.
So what does this mean? Frankly, I don't know other than comparing one swimmer to another by simply comparing SPL seems helpful but not definitive. If I understand Chaos he is saying they as to each individual swimmer, decreasing SPL makes them a faster pool swimmer. Not necessarily when they are working on the skill, but it does once they return to their previous SR. This seems to be a good common sense argument, but my question is: so what? (SARC INT)
What I think EVMO is saying (and please guys correct me if I am wrong) that a higher SR allows the swimmer to adapt better to the conditions in a swim. If this is true, how bad do the conditions have to be for it to be a meaningful advantage. I don't know.
However, what I do know (or believe, if you prefer) that a shorter stroke (i.e. higher SR) allows me to adjust my stroke to take advantage of the conditions - or at least not be dominated by them. If I have a low SPL and low SR then as I swim in rough water the wave, or waves if the the wind and deep swells are not identical in direction and period, will interfere with the rhythm of my stroke and cause me to lose momentum. If I switch to a higher SPL and higher SR this will minimize the negative effect of the waves. This is critical because it always requires less power to achieve a certain average speed if your speed is constant, than if you are constantly speeding up and slowing down. each stroke cycle.
I'd like to offer an observation, based only on my own personal experiences and some tenuous connections to physics.
First, not all open water swimming is the same. Let's assume just for the sake of argument that in all cases a swimmer in a pool is faster if they lower their SPL. If we move that pool swimmer into a calm lake, and assuming there are no other swimmers around, then that swimmer should remain the fastest. So the question is: does the longer stroke being used by the swimmer become a disadvantage as the conditions worsen? If so, how bad do they have to get.
Second, not all swimmers ultimately reach a magic SPL that guarantees success. Regardless of SPL, some swimmers simply will not make it to the top. So that means that there are other biomechanical & physiological issues that will determine maximum performance.
So what does this mean? Frankly, I don't know other than comparing one swimmer to another by simply comparing SPL seems helpful but not definitive. If I understand Chaos he is saying they as to each individual swimmer, decreasing SPL makes them a faster pool swimmer. Not necessarily when they are working on the skill, but it does once they return to their previous SR. This seems to be a good common sense argument, but my question is: so what? (SARC INT)
What I think EVMO is saying (and please guys correct me if I am wrong) that a higher SR allows the swimmer to adapt better to the conditions in a swim. If this is true, how bad do the conditions have to be for it to be a meaningful advantage. I don't know.
However, what I do know (or believe, if you prefer) that a shorter stroke (i.e. higher SR) allows me to adjust my stroke to take advantage of the conditions - or at least not be dominated by them. If I have a low SPL and low SR then as I swim in rough water the wave, or waves if the the wind and deep swells are not identical in direction and period, will interfere with the rhythm of my stroke and cause me to lose momentum. If I switch to a higher SPL and higher SR this will minimize the negative effect of the waves. This is critical because it always requires less power to achieve a certain average speed if your speed is constant, than if you are constantly speeding up and slowing down. each stroke cycle.
