28/10/10 Swim Squad. - Increase Stroke rate for efficient faster swim time

In this post, I will like to try to put into perspective of the below point:

Why are we increasing stroke rate now? YOU KEEP ASKING US TO INCREASE GLIDING.. NOW YOU ARE SAYING THE OPPOSITE?

Yes, and No.

As you all would have known, I do things especially in sports, with a Lot of planning. And as I share with you, I improvise stuffs as I gain new knowledge and change as time goes by. So when you combine those two ideas together, you'd get what we call an unconventional way to train.

Below explains what we're trying to achieve and what we're actually looking at as improvement as of now.

----------------------- To start off: the formula for speed of swim in water ------------------

Velocity (Speed you move through the water) =
Stroke Length (Distance moved with EACH PULL) X Stroke Rate (No. of pulls over a period of time)

Example:

50m swim.

If I were to do a 1min 50m swim..

Velocity = 50meters / 1 min

Lets say my Stroke Length is 2.5m EACH PULL.

So in order to travel 50m I will need 20 pulls.

In order to travel 50m in 30 seconds, I will need to pull 20pulls in 30 seconds, i.e the STROKE RATE is 20pulls/1 min.

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Now, to improve TIMING, I can have 3 general options.

Option 1) Keep Stroke Length Constant, INCREASE STROKE RATE
Option 2) Keep Stroke Rate Constant, INCREASE STROKE LENGTH
Option 3) INCREASE BOTH Stroke Rate AND Stroke Length

Explanation:

Option 1:

When you increase stroke rate, it means you finish the number of pulls in a shorter period of time.

And with the stroke length constant, you finish the distance in shorter period of time.

Option 2:

When you increase stroke length, it means you
i) REDUCE DRAG, by streamlining
ii) PULL HARDER and thus achieve a greater distance per pull

And when the stroke rate stays the same, you finish the lap with lesser amount of strokes and of course, Shorter time.

Option 3:

When you increase Both stroke rate and stroke length, you do all the above and thus reaches the destination in the shortest time out of the three.

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So now that we understand how things work.. we'll get to the training part.

When I started this team, in all honesty, all I knew was to increase stroke length and thus that will result in a lesser amount of pulls per lap and in comparison to a higher number of pulls, that should become a more "efficient" and energy saving stroke.

But as I trained harder and read more and got educated more by my coaches in life.. I realised that the "efficiency" part isn't exactly true just because of the drop of number of pulls per lap.

The good news is my logic got us started at a good starting point.

My logic is that we're all born with this body of ours, and we have a base line of fitness that we currently possess.

However, to do a skill to perfection, it does not take into account how much fitness you have but how much muscular and bodily control you have to execute a movement.

I.E, no matter how fit you are, that is not a good indicator to how good you are at doing a certain thing.

And thus I started the training by teaching you guys how to MAXIMIZE the stroke length with your then-current fitness that you possess when you started training with me.

I.E I polish your technique to streamline your body and reduce drag AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE (skill training) and pull in the correct manner (to maximize leverage in water and move your body forward).

------------------------AND right now, I feel that we have all come to a common understanding on your swim techniques and also reach a point in time whereby all of you are able to more than amaturely execute the swim in a streamlined position that constitutes of the lowest drag relative to your body shape and movements in water ----------

*********THAT IS WHY I AM ASKING YOU TO INCREASE YOUR STROKE RATE********


Take note that since your stroke technique has reached a certain level whereby you know how you should reduce drag and do that consistently over laps of 50m swims (all of you were doing 24 to 28 strokes with exaggerated gliding which are really impressive)... the next step (look at ii) of Option 2 above.. is to PULL HARDER.

Any attempt right now to increase your stroke length even further, you will be resorting to pulling harder more than to inch out an extra cm from an even more streamlined position. That is because for most of you, if we want to achieve streamlining to another level, we will need proper video equipment and laser beams and EVEN MORE MENTAL FOCUS.

And taking the last point (MENTAL FOCUS) into consideration, I doubt you guys have enough of that.. and thus your body will definitely CHEAT and start to pull harder to go faster.

NOW THAT - is what I don't like to see in your swim right now. WHY?????? --- CONTINUE at ***

I've always emphasized aerobic training being 80% of your training volume and 20% anaerobic at max. When we pull harder, it is easy for us to cross that line and go into anaerobic mode.

In all long distance sports including Triathlon, we try our best not to go deeply anaerobic throughout the whole race unless we're racing for a very strong purpose or the race is less than an 1hr long.

For reason on why train aerobically...

1) Lower intensity = lower risk of injury due to
i) Lower effort = more ability to focus on right joint movement / techniques
ii) Lower effort = lesser impact on joints and muscles

2) Aerobic system is the system that provide us LONG LASTING ENERGY and thus to be successful, we must train that aerobic capacity to as high as we can because most of our races last longer than an hour and we will be working aerobically 90% of the race except when we over take people or race to the end line or when the gun goes off!

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CONTINUED --- ***
When you pull harder, you tend to go anaerobic. I.E High intensity.

In a nut shell, that is complete opposite of the reasons on why we train aerobically or what we're trying to achieve to have a well trained body and have a successful racing "career"/lifestyle.

On the other hand we can also explain it this way:

RACE PACE = The pace that you trained yourself to stay inside, i.e a comfortably uncomfortable state whereby your body is pushing at a state somewhere just below its limit of breaking.

When you go anaerobic completely, you will drain yourself out sooner than when the race will end. I.E That is HIGHER THAN RACE PACE.

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SO, now I'm introducing to you to INCREASE STROKE RATE while Stroke Length is maintained to be constant.

I.E we're aiming for No harder pulls.

Taking the example from above, each pull still move you through 2.5m of distance in water. So you will still need 20pulls to cover 50m.

The ultimate goal is for the amount of forced applied to stay nearly the same.

However, what changes now is that you complete the 20pull at a higher speed.

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It looks really easy on paper/screen.. however it will be tough.. This is due to the increase of frontal resistance from water as we move through the water at a higher velocity.

The amount of effort per pull will definitely have to increase in order to keep the distance travelled per pull the same as when you do a slow swim that allow you to travel 2.5m per pull.

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Digress:
Now, you ask, why do this? Why not stick with pulling harder?

From our example above, we take 20pulls to reach 50m in 30seconds if we travel 2.5m per pull...

so if we pull harder and increase stroke length to 5meters per pull and keep the stroke rate the same (speed of pulling = 20pulls/30seconds).

That way we reach other side in shorter time because we will only need 10 pulls (10 x 5meters) and so we will reach in 15seconds!

Right. But the REAL QUESTION is... HOW MUCH HARDER?

When you swim slowly (maybe 1min 5secs per lap or around 55 seconds per lap) and try to pull harder while streamlining yourself, you notice that the amount of swim time decreases a lot, maybe by 5 to 10 seconds. That is good.

However, when you do a swim at a higher speed (around 43seconds and below) it becomes SO MUCH harder to increase stroke length.

Reason: Water Resistance DO NOT INCREASE in LINEAR fashion.

I.E The faster you want to swim, the MORE FORCE YOU NEED to travel a MUCH longer distance per stroke.

So, by choosing Option 2, increasing stroke length, when you have already maxed out your current skill level to reduce drag, you will have to INCREASE YOUR STRENGTH BY A LOT.

You will now take slower pulls compared to Option 1, but each pull is going to have to be so powerful that it is pure anaerobic stuff.

SO....................

I choose Option 1, increasing stroke rate. Because given your current stroke skill level, you will have to just increase your strength per pull minimally to maintain the stroke length at 2.5m per pull instead of increasing the effort per pull by a whole lot just to ensure increase in stroke length even though you can pull slowly.

On a easier way of saying things:
1) Moving your arm slow at a HIGH effort = anaerobic (picture squatting 150kg)
2) Moving your arm faster with a lower effort = aerobic (picture squating 15kg 10x)

Total volume of work done is the same but you can last much longer on the aerobic state. That is GOOD for triathlon.

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Another comparison for the brain dead people.

You set your bicycle gear to big chain ring in front and 5th cog at the back as you feel moderate effort when pedalling at that gear.

So for example, 1 revolution of the crank will bring you forward 5meters.
And thus to travel 50m, you need to pedal 10 revolutions.

If you want to travel 50m in the shortest amount of time, you can either

1) Finish the 10 revolutions in very quick fashion (note: resistance didn't increase as gear maintain the same).

Or you can

2) Set the rear to 10th cog and travel a further distance per revolution. However, as you increase the distance travelled, you also increased the resistance due to the gear used. And that means you are pushing a very heavy weight with you legs to move through the 50m and that is anaerobic.

CLEAR?

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Now, you ask me, what about Option 3? I want to be REALLY FAST so I want to increase both my stroke length and stroke rate!

Note that moving your arms quickly in a form that is specific to the demand of the technique is a SKILL.
That's why we do speed skill training.

Once you master this skill of moving quickly without increasing much force, you can train to swim very quickly and efficiently at an aerobic state and thus maintain that speed for a long time.

WHAT HAPPEN WHEN YOU DON'T TRAIN THIS SPEED SKILL?

Then you will be churning your arms in the water and not catching any water with good technique in your arm pull and recovery and entry because you just never teach your body to move quickly while conforming to that stroke technique!

No offence but Vincent can be a testimony to this because you heard him said it himself that the effort was so high that he can't even think about what he is doing.. let alone maintaining proper stroke technique.

Okay, so lets fast forward 1 yr later.. you hit the plateau for this level, you will have to increase your strength per pull by doing RESISTANCE TRAINING. I.E Gym and paddle work and zoomer fin work.

By doing that, you'll increase your general strength and your "normal" pulls at aerobic state will become stronger.

Thus stroke length will then increase because of your increased strength and not because of an increased effort to apply more force.

That, is your option 3 lor. :)

Understand?

If no, please comment here.

Cheers
KK

ps: you can do the strength training side by side with what you're doing now.

ps ps: JSUT HOW THE HELL DO I DO IT?

Do a moderate swim and count your number of strokes per lap. Divide the 50m by the strokes per lap and you get stroke length.

Then try to swim faster.

The key is to keep your chionging nature in control and, try to apply same if not just minimally increased effort to maintain the stroke length achieved in your moderate swim now in your fast swim..

i.e swim faster by increasing the speed of your pulls while keeping stroke length constant.