Increasing stroke rate to become MORE efficient?

Originally posted by nc452010

I'm currently swimming 4-5X/wk.....and have been since 8/1 (but only a few swims since I ditched the core shorts). 16 spl is in a 25yd pool. I'm 6'1".

Originally posted by jckcrlln

I have been a swimmer for 19 years. I swam at national level events in scy and lcm. Maybe I can add some insight.

Increasing stroke rate is not path towards efficiency, however, it is a way increase energy output to improve speed. You wouldn't say that a propeller is more efficient because the RPMs increase, in fact, efficiency in this case would be defined as the amount of work done by the propeller on the water in a single 360 degree rotation. That's where my analogy ends.

Most beginners have a few general areas in which, if improved, will dramatically increase the efficiency of a single pull.

-The catch

Fully extended the shoulder should be under the chin and eyes pointed straight down(when not breathing) hand should be positioned as a relaxed cup with fingers together. Elbow pointed straight up. Arm slightly bent to make a C-shape with the body. The pull is straight backwards careful not make an S-shaped pull. If there is a line at the bottom of the pool then your hand should follow the line. If there is no line then imagine if the sun was directly over head, then your hand/arm would follow the shadow your body makes directly under you. This will enable you to pull with your latissimus dorsi instead of your shoulder. This will allow you to pull with a much, much stronger/larger muscle, thereby increasing efficiency and preventing the most common injury to swimmers, the shoulder injury. Besides being balanced, this is by far the most telling sign of a good/great swimmer.

-Balance in the water

We call it "down-hill" swimming . With the head and spine in perfect alignment, the chest should be pressed into the water pretty significantly. The effect should be that there is a slight downward pitch of the body with respect to the surface of the water. This forces your butt/ legs higher in the water reducing the drag they produce. This is something we used to work on alot. At first it will feel exaggerated, and be careful to make sure your head and spine are constantly in alignment. Do not drop your head in an effort to do this, and make sure it is the chest that is being pressed down. And yes, in a freeze frame of your stroke from the side it should look like you are swimming "downhill". This might seem counter-intuitive (and I don't have time time to go into more detail) but this is a very important part of balance in the water.

-Shoulder/hip rotation and head position

As I stated multiple times before, head and spine are in perfect alignment. (and, yes, even while breathing). Shoulders and hips need to be rotated 180 degrees for each stroke. This is part of keeping you spine straight. They need to move together. Head should not move unless breathing. Your head will move with your shoulders from looking straight down to 90 degrees. One goggle under the water one goggle out and your mouth will be half out and half in. (Now, when actually swimming your head will make a wave and there will be a drop in water level where your mouth is. This will leave your mouth out of the water so as to not inhale water.) Don't tuck your head into your shoulder while breathing. This will cause your head to lose alignment with your spine. You can tell if you are doing this when you are breathing into your armpit and you will be looking slightly backwards. (this habit took me years to break)


I know this is dense, and hard to visualize, but if you work on these areas you will see drastic improvement in your stroke. Stay long. The fewer strokes per length the better. Shoot for 12-15 in 25yds. Try a drill where the only thing you do is take 12 stroke per length is a good way to feel the reach required before each catch.

For the more advanced swimmers: A more advanced technique to think about is "front quadrant swimming." Imagine when you are horizontal in the water, divide your body into four equal quadrants lengthwise. If you draw an imaginary vertical line from through each hand that is perpendicular to the surface of the water. As you stroke, the lines through your hands will pass each other in the front quadrant. this is the accepted technique for endurance swimming. Sprinting will be different but for anything over 200yds this is the appropriate technique.

Originally posted by TJHammer



This is all so true and so helpful as those were my prime areas to be addressed to improve efficiency. To the OP, I used the metronome in my swim cap in pool training to increase my spm to expose and eliminate my dead spot excess of glide when arm extends at 12:00. By doing this in the pool, I did many intervals at various stroke rates and I eventually exposed OTHER issues once, by trying to maintain a higher stroke rate, my effort and breathing became harder, but my times plateau'd or GOT slower, which meant, in turn, other areas of technique became less efficient. I then used self check to see where I was digressing in form as a result of increases in stroke rate. Then slowed stroke rate back down a bit, worked on those techniques, one's I quoted by jck, AND that elbow position! Then time to time dialed up rate and interval pace to check improvement. This is how addressing and using stroke rate has helped me.

Side note: Some of these recognitions and repetition of swimming helped with muscle memory when open water swimming, when your mind is attentive to many other details (i.e. waves, current, others in race). I sometimes allow myself to overglide when coming off a mis-timed breath due to a face splash or a bad wave/swell: that glide, or slight over-rotation can help me ever so to keep my face out of water to get a clean relaxed breath to restore sanity and get back to a good stroke rate

Originally posted by nc452010 I was thinking more along the lines of a boat that uses a little extra speed to get on plane and stay there. I know you can back off the throttle, once on plane. If that's a bad analogy, just say so.

Originally posted by nc452010 s the only metric of stroke efficiency....................how few of them you take to get from point A to point B? Where does HR and O2 debt figure in? Just curious.