Last time we chatted, we discussed head position, resistance and balance… If your body is in the wrong position, your efficiency is out the window and you have to work a lot harder for the same distance and speed… it’s a real drag…. literally.
The other critical area in freestyle is distance per stroke….. improving it can have a massive bearing on your times. Neglecting it can mean a very tough day at the office and a scoreboard that is telling a story you don’t want to hear.
It’s not rocket science.
Stroke length – it’s another well discussed but misunderstood aspect of swimming fast. It is as critical as any aspect of freestyle and to put simply it is the distance you travel between your hand entering the water at the front and leaving at the back. And that extra distance, even if only a few extra centimetres can make a world of difference to your times.
Using a simple example with some very simple maths, it’s easy to see how a longer stroke can make you faster. My apologies if you’re not a fan of maths but I am a coach and whilst I’m no maths genius, it comes in handy when looking for that edge.
For the sake of this example we will use John who is a 200m freestyler who has been stuck on his PB for quite a while,…
