Stroke Rate: An Experiment

Stroke Rate: An Experiment

Do you wonder if you would swim faster if you changed your stroke rate?

Previously, I have written about two ways of increasing speed – increasing distance per stroke and increasing stroke rate.

Today, I want to talk about stroke rate a little, show you a session I did recently and share the results of my experiment.

I had a fun session playing around with my stroke rate, changing swim technique slightly to accommodate the faster and slower stroke rates.  As well as having fun, I managed to learn a thing or two in the process.

I hope the lessons make sense to you and you find something in there that you can learn from.

The Session

If you want to see the impact of changing stroke rate on your swim, try the session I did (below). See if you reach the same conclusions or learn the same lessons as I did.

Warm Up

12 x 50m easy and relaxed, gradually building the pace.

Main Set

This was a set of 50s – changing stroke rate by 4 strokes per minute every 2 x 50m.

I was aiming to work at about 7/10 effort through the 50s. I started off the set setting the Finis Tempo Trainer at 56 strokes per minute and went up to 80 strokes per minute, before coming back down to 56.

2 x 50m @ 56 / 2 x 50m @ 60 / 2 x 50m @ 64 / 2 x 50m @ 68 / 2 x 50m @ 72 / 2 x 50m @ 76 / 2 x 50m @ 80 / 2 x 50m @ 76 / 2 x 50m @ 72 / 2 x 50m @ 68 / 2 x 50m @ 64 / 2 x 50m @ 60 / 2 x 50m @ 56

What Did We Learn

• As you might expect, the pace increased a little as the stroke rate increased, but not massively.

• To keep the effort at 7/10, the faster the arms moved, the slower the legs had to kick.

• As stroke rate reached the faster end (76 & 80 strokes per minute), my stroke had to change significantly to keep up with the beep.

• At a faster stroke rate, it was important to put force through the early part of the stroke and really reduce the power at the back end of the stroke to hold pace and to move my arms quick enough to meet the next beep.

• The number of strokes I took to complete each 25m increased a little as the stroke rate became quicker, meaning I was sacrificing some distance per stroke to help with arm turnover.

• As we moved from fast stroke rate to slower stroke rate, stroke lengthening was really obvious and swimming felt so much smoother.

• As we moved from fast stroke rate, where swimming was at it’s fastest, swimming at the slower stroke rates actually increased in speed compared to the same stroke rate earlier in the session (68 strokes per minute was 38.5 coming after 64 strokes per minute, but 37.2 when coming after 72 strokes per minute).

• There is definitely a sweetspot stroke rate – where my stroke felt controlled and smooth, but was quick and (I think) sustainable. Somewhere around 68-72 strokes per minute was my happy place.

What Next?

Of course, what you can sustain on a 50m effort will be very different to a 400m or longer. When I recently raced a 400m at the NW Masters (5.03), I started off at 72 strokes per minute but dropped to 68 by the end of the race.

The next time I do this type of session, I’ll be reducing the range of stroke rate – maybe start at 64 (rather than 56) and finish at 76 (rather than 80). I’ll also extend the volume of swimming at each stroke rate. Either increase to 100s – or increase to 4 x 50m at each stroke rate.

Lessons?

Did you pick up anything from this? Has it made you think about your own stroke? Is there anything you will take away from this post? Will you be doing anything differently in your next swim sessions?