Gliding is not something you should do deliberately when swimming whole stroke. It is easier to maintain a consistent speed than to repeatedly accelerate and decelerate, which will happen if you add prolonged gliding phases…the effective way to increase Stroke Length is to improve your balance, make yourself more slippery, take the time to grab more water before you stroke, and so on.

Topic: Strokes Per Length
Conf: Freestyle
From: Dominique Rongvaux
Date: Thursday, November 03, 2005 04:46 PM

For about two months, I've worked on decreasing my SPL. I've begun with 10 x 100m @ 60 strokes with Fistgloves on, and a recovery of 5 to 10 yoga breaths between repeats. Now that I can maintain this SPL for a straight 1000m, I've started the whole process again with a set of 10 x 100 m @ 52-56 strokes with Fistgloves.

But I'm not sure this effort is productive. To achieve an SPL this low, I need to glide between strokes, introducing periods where there is no propulsion, just gliding.

My question: Is it good to keep lowering my stroke count while allowing gliding phases with no propulsion, or is it better to try to make my existing SPL: (60 strokes per 100m) more fluent and to try to avoid dead spots?

From: Adam Honen
Date: Friday, November 04, 2005 08:58 AM

Gliding is useful for learning balance through drills. If you are positioned well enough to glide, you are less likely to use your arms for balance, which will allow you to use them solely for propulsion. So, for example, instead of dropping your lead arm too quickly as you breathe, you’ll be able to choose the moment when you move it to begin stroking.

Gliding is not something you should do deliberately when swimming whole stroke. It is easier to maintain a consistent speed than to repeatedly accelerate and decelerate, which is exactly what will happen if you add prolonged gliding phases. The only “gliding phase” you should have is when one arm recovers and the lead arm is still creating its grip. That phase is usually longer when swimming distance and decreases as you swim faster. That's why sprinters typically use stroke timing with less overlap between the hands and distance swimmers tend toward more overlap.

Rather than just subtract strokes, the effective way to lower SPL (and increase Stroke Length) is to improve your balance, make yourself more slippery, take the time to grab more water before you stroke, and so on.

The basic rule is: if both your arms stop moving at any part of the stroke, you're drilling. If the lead arm pauses but the other keeps moving through the completion of the stroke and recovery, you’re swimming.

From: Dominique Rongvaux
Date: Friday, November 04, 2005 12:03 PM

Adam, thank you for the helpful clarification. I do what you describe: one hand extending forward, not yet anchored, as the other is still recovering. Though I never pause both arms at the same time, it gives a short passive non-propulsive phase, yet not long enough to cause deceleration. I think it's difficult to find the more effective strategy. I like the way I swim now, but I wonder if a slow uninterrupted stroke wouldn't be more efficient.

Does Front Quadrant timing always involve a short non-propulsive phase? Even when done by Thorpe?

From: Donal Fagan
Date: Friday, November 04, 2005 12:32 PM

Any pattern has non-propulsive phases. Even a high turnover swimmer like Brooke Bennett won't be pushing water back all the time. I think you'd need three or four arms to “always” be pushing water back.

From: Adam Honen
Date: Friday, November 04, 2005 02:30 PM

As Donal mentions, no one can be propulsive all the time. However, you can come pretty close to that. Thorpe is a good example of the best timing you can achieve while using FQ timing.

When you look at video of Thorpe, you’ll notice that Thorpe starts to anchor his leading arm as soon as he starts to recover his other arm. Remember, FQ only means that your stroking hand is still in front when the recovering arm is about to enter the water. Thorpe is really only FQ after he breathes. I guess it takes him just a bit longer and he doesn’t want to start pulling before his head is back in place.

From: Terry Laughlin
Date: Monday, November 14, 2005 11:48 AM

You wouldn't necessarily want to be propelling 100% of the time. A large part of my success in competing well in open water, at age 54, with people 15 or 20 years my junior is that I can keep my heart rate lower at the same speed. I do that by conserving momentum, reducing my need to provide new propulsion frequently.

The positive side of propulsion is that it creates momentum. The negative side is that all propulsive actions increase energy cost – even if it’s expended effectively – whereas momentum-conserving actions reduce energy cost.

There's a subtle difference between gliding and conserving. In gliding, you do as Adam describes - both hands stop moving.

In an energy-conserving stroke, the front hand stops for a moment – during which moment it's actually cultivating its grip – while the body continues traveling forward "on the track" as a result of active streamlining. While the body travels forward the rear hand is coming forward, albeit in a more leisurely manner than swimmers who haven't mastered the skills we teach – and which the Grant Hackett’s and Alex Popov's of the world were fortunate to be born with.


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