Stroke Rate & Stroke Length in OW

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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  • Former Member
    Former Member
    I don't know that there's an accepted conversion of SCY to LCM for SPL (depends on your turns). If your SCY base is 13-14, then 44-46 for LCM seems high. But if your base is 17, maybe not. Personally, my conversion from 14 is about 38-39. I have no idea if there is a conversion factor either, but I got to 40 strokes and was still nowhere near the end! Like I said, I could feel myself shortening my stroke, keeping myself higher in the water for some reason. Hopefully I can swim LC again tomorrow, thunderstorms permitting, and see how my warm-up goes when I'm not in a "OMG this feels soooo different, help where's the end of the pool? and there's no lifeguard on duty" semi-panic.
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  • Former Member
    Former Member
    I don't know that there's an accepted conversion of SCY to LCM for SPL (depends on your turns). If your SCY base is 13-14, then 44-46 for LCM seems high. But if your base is 17, maybe not. Personally, my conversion from 14 is about 38-39. I have no idea if there is a conversion factor either, but I got to 40 strokes and was still nowhere near the end! Like I said, I could feel myself shortening my stroke, keeping myself higher in the water for some reason. Hopefully I can swim LC again tomorrow, thunderstorms permitting, and see how my warm-up goes when I'm not in a "OMG this feels soooo different, help where's the end of the pool? and there's no lifeguard on duty" semi-panic.
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