From: Brian Vande Krol
Date: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 01:15 PM

While working my way up through my stroke count range, I could feel myself achieving greater speed, and tried to up my count to 15 SPL. In the end, I ran out of pool at 13 strokes, and sat there wondering what I did differently.

I often find that once I think I have something figured out, I either take it for granted and lose it, or make too much of it and lose the relaxation that makes it flow. I felt what you mentioned about being anchored and moving past the anchor. I also started to feel what someone had mentioned about "catching moonbeams". I hope to recapture that feeling on my next swim!


From: Terry Laughlin
Date: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 10:34 PM

Running out of pool at 13 SPL is a good problem to have. Next time around “force yourself” to take 14 and 15 SPL. Might you feel a bit hurried? Perhaps, but that's okay. That will motivate you to make higher counts feel as smooth and controlled as lower ones And you'll enjoy the feeling of going effortlessly faster when you do make the choice to add efficient strokes to your count.

Last week in Masters workout, I did 21:30 for 1650 yds (same as 1500m) which last year was fast enough to place 8th in the 55-59 age group at US Masters Nationals. My SPL averaged 15 throughout. At 13 SPL, I would not have been able to swim that fast.

If speed is your goal, you should view the ability to swim with very low stroke counts as a bit of a "TI party trick" that many people would not be capable of, but ultimately not as the way to maximize your speed. Being able to swim smoothly at a higher stroke count will yield more speed. Though I'm capable of swimming 25 yds in 9, 10 or 11 SPL, I only do so infrequently because the effort to do so doesn't create movement habits that will lead to relaxed speed, which as a distance swimmer is my goal. I achieve great control and relaxation at 13SPL and can maintain that sense up to 15 or even 16 SPL.

As an example, in a recent practice, I decided to focus on relaxation and economy on a set of 8 x 200 on 2:50. I averaged 13 spl, probably 110 HR and 2:38 for those. Then we did 6 x 200 on 2:45 and I realized I'd need to increase my SPL in order to comfortably make that tighter interval. So I increased to 15spl and averaged 2:36 and probably 120-130HR. I was able to easily maintain both SPL and finishing time throughout that set. At a lower stroke count it actually would have taken me more work to do that.

The goal is always energy efficiency, more than stroke-count efficiency. Stroke-count efficiency is ONE way to get there.

On the other hand, low stroke count swimming does have its own value, as the discipline and attention it requires leads to deeply examined swimming. But that value is greatest if the very low count is produced by efficiency and relaxation and rhythm – if it's truly effortless – and not the result of halting, over-kicking, strained efforts. Your lowest count should also represent your lowest effort.

I use my lowest counts to establish a sense of a very patient catch, then work from there, trying to keep my catch as patient as possible, at every stroke count. I can easily be VERY patient at 11 or 12 spl. At 15 or 16 spl (my racing stroke counts) it takes enormous concentration to make my lead hand stand still for the briefest instant before stroking. But that focus always pays off in more control, more "purchase" and less and less sense of slippage in my stroke.

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