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Stroke counting

Counting strokes will be a great way to check how you’re doing. By monitoring your strokes per length, you can avoid the problem of falling into bad habits by just going back and forth. There are different ways to count your strokes. If you use a wearable device, or in our app, you’re going to count “stroke cycles”. This is because typically the wearable is on one wrist, so if you wear it on your left wrist, it’s only going to count the strokes on your wrist. Here’s an example. This swimmer initiates his first stroke with his left hand, so we’re going to pretend he has a wearable on his left wrist. Let’s count how many times the left wrist enters the water. ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX This means your wearable would give you SIX stroke cycles to any calculations. Now, let’s watch the right hand. ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE So, which wrist you wear your wearable on can make a difference in your stroke calculations. But now lets do it the old fashioned way, in which even an odd stroke count can be understood. This is the same length, but now let’s count the “hand hits”. Each time a hand enters the water, add a stroke. ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE TEN ELEVEN. If you’re using our app to help calculate your stroke efficiency, if you have on a wearable, we allow you to adjust what would be 6 stroke cycles for this swim, to 5.5 which would mean 11 hand hits. Now that you’ve got an understanding of how to get your stroke count, how can it help you swim better? Variations in stroke count will require changes in what you do. Let’s watch our swimmer starting at 11 hand hits. He’s going to do through a few lengths in which he’ll focus on taking strokes away or using fewer strokes. The 2nd length he moves from 11 hand hits to 10 hand hits. While he makes subtle changes in the stroke count, he has to do multiple things to impact this change. He’ll start to add a bit more kick, maybe slow the stroke rate down, extend a bit longer. Going from 10 hand hits to 9 hand hits, he’s going to have to add more kick, extend a bit longer, rotate more… just be an overall better balance. Finally, moving from 9 hand hits to 8, now it gets challenging. He adds a bit of length to his pushoff, adds a little more kick. Reaches full extension. This is the sharpening of the stroke, and whatever combination of things you focus on to take strokes away will help create a better overall stroke. The goal is NOT to take as few strokes as possible, the goal of stroke counting is to check to see how you’re doing and if the way you’re swimming is productive. If you start counting on the first length when you’re not tired, then check again in the middle of a practice, the difference may be eye-opening. The goal will be to keep the stroke counts relatively close together no matter what you’re doing.

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Jan 31, 2023 Sculling Zoom

How and Why to Use a Snorkel for Sculling If you’re serious about improving your feel for the water, you need to scull. If you’re serious about sculling, you need to have a snorkel. Time to get serious! https://www.finisswim.com/Stability-Snorkel-Jr

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If you're interested in the FINIS Agility Paddle, click here and remember to use the "goswim" discount code for a special price. James has a great “feel” for the water with his hands. At every speed, his hands always seem to be soft and relaxed, and to be almost SEARCHING for connection with the water. To develop an equal amount of feel through his wrist and forearm, James uses the FINIS Agility Paddles. These are strapless paddles, with a convex shape, that allow his hands to be in the same relaxed position as when he swims without paddles. But they do much more. The Agility Paddles are what’s called “palm positive.” This means that the paddles will stay in place only if the palm is in constant connection with the water. If the swimmer bends the wrist…or drops the elbow…or doesn’t set up an early vertical forearm, the paddles will pull away from the hand. Watch for the relaxed quality of James’s hands. And watch for how there’s a constant connection between palm, paddle, and water – all the way through the pull from catch to hand exit.

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Stroke count

What is Stroke Count? Stroke count is the number of strokes you take each length of the pool. You count both your left and your right arm strokes and most amateur swimmers generally require somewhere between 16-30 strokes to complete 1 length of a 25m pool. Stroke count is something that most swimmers have done at one time or another and reducing your stroke count (swimming one length with less strokes) is generally viewed as an improvement in your efficiency. What is stroke rate? Stroke rate is the number of strokes you take in a single minute, in essence, this is the speed of your stroke. It is very much like cycling cadence (the number of times your legs turn round in a minute). Stroke count is very easy to do… You just swim 1 length and count your strokes. Stroke rate by comparison is much harder to calculate, that’s why very few swimmers actually know what their stroke rate is. Let’s give an example: A swimmer completes 1 length of a 25m pool, she takes 24 strokes to get there and it takes her 30 seconds to do so. Her ‘STROKE COUNT’ is 24 and her STROKE RATE is 48. How did we calculate that? Well is she swam for 30 seconds and took 24 strokes, then we can estimate that she’ll take 48 strokes in 1 minute. You could of course set the ‘bleeper’ on your watch and just swim for 1 minute counting your strokes, that would work. Alternatively get someone else to watch you and count for 1 minute, that would also work. So just to clarify this, your STROKE RATE is how many strokes you take each minute and your STROKE COUNT is how far you move every stroke. The ideal would be that you would move your arms really fast and go really far every stroke, that’s the best scenario. In reality, that’s not how things tend to work. The over-gliders and the over-raters. There is a balance between stroke count and stroke rate. What tends to happen is that those who have a low stroke count (travel far each stroke) also have a low stroke rate. These are the over-gliders. The over-gliders look really graceful, they glide a long way each stroke and may require as little as 16 strokes to swim a full length. People often comment on how smooth and elegant they look, but their arms move VERY.. VERY.. slowly. At this point, it’s important to remind you that whilst swimming is an aesthetic sport, it’s now what you look like that counts… it’s how quickly you reach the other end. They may look graceful, but are they fast? By contrast, the over-raters will have a much faster arm turnover. The stroke rate will be very high, but they are not getting very far each stroke. As a consequence, stroke count is also high. When you see these people swimming, it all looks a bit rushed and you instantly want them to slow down, stop thrashing and try and reach a little further each stroke. The 2 examples above are the extremes of each style and ideally, you want to be in the middle. The first step of course is to know where you are on that scale. So your mission this week, is to calculate stroke count and stroke rate. Go to the pool, swim 1 length and count your strokes (stroke count). Then swim for 1 minute and count your strokes (stroke rate). The best scenario, is high stroke rate and low stroke count. The worst scenario is high low stroke rate and high stroke count. There is a relationship between the 2 things. If you try to speed up your stroke rate by making your arms go faster, you’ll probably find that you’ll take shorter strokes as a consequence (so your stroke count also goes up). Likewise, if you try to reduce stroke count (take less strokes per length) you’ll probably slow your stroke rate to achieve it. What’s normal? Well this will depend on many factors, including how tall you are and how long your arms are! But here’s a rough guide: Stroke count 25m pool: 14-18 Low 19-22 Moderate 23-26 High 27-30 Very high Stroke rate 1 minute: 35-45 Low 46-55 Moderate 56-65 High 66-75 Very high Remember, just because it’s low or high doesn’t mean it’s good or bad. Elite swimmers can have a stroke rate of 80-90 strokes per minute, but they don’t compromise their stroke count, that’s why they are so fast! In the next blog we’ll examine this further and discuss how to progress your swimming!

Advanced Sculling Zoom

Apr 14 test

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April 19

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Apr 20 test

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June 28th Test

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