Counting your strokes is one of the most under-appreciated aspects of tracking your improvement and speed.
I’ve already discussed how to pay attention to and develop your speed, which is a critical aspect of improving your swimming.
If you know how fast you’re swimming, you’re going to be motivated to make adjustments if you believe you can be better, or continue to do what you’ve been doing if you’re happy with where you’re at.
However, there’s more to performance than speed alone.
Measuring your stroke counts provides you with information about HOW you’re swimming.
It’s a simple and effective measurement of how efficient you’re swimming.
Less strokes = more efficient and more strokes = less efficient.
Are you swimming more or less efficiently than before?
Is your efficiency changing within a repetition or within a workout? Is that good or bad?
How does your efficiency relate to your speed?
These are all questions you can answer when you know your stroke counts.
How should you start using stroke counts?
Find out here.
#8 Alternating Between Repetitions
Previously we discussed how to take fewer strokes between repetitions to adjust your skills.
Now, we’re going to go in both directions, up and down.
Here’s a sample set-
6x100 Freestyle; Take 2 more strokes during ODD repetitions than EVEN repetitions.
Rather than just taking fewer strokes, you’ll have to take fewer strokes AND more strokes.
You’ll have to establish technical control in both directions.
For those that tend to swim in one way all the time, this can be a real challenge.
It’s one that will broaden your skill set and make you more flexible in how you can choose to move through the water.
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