How to Find Your Ideal Stroke Rate

Hey swimmers! This is coach Milo.

Welcome to another Q&A session where I answer questions from you all on the internet.

Today's question is:

"How to Find Your Ideal Stroke Rate"

Summary:

Milo's first principle for stroke rate is distance per stroke. Before you worry about turnover, you want to travel as far as possible with each stroke and establish a baseline of how many strokes it takes to reach the other wall. Once that baseline is set, you sprinkle in a little speed, and you'll notice your distance per stroke shrinks slightly. He explains that the right stroke rate is personal: a young swimmer with short arms, an adult with longer arms, a daily-training competitor, and a recreational or beginner swimmer will all land in different places because of arm length, strength, and aerobic conditioning. A high stroke rate also burns energy faster. His recommendation is to build aerobic capacity first, then add speed gradually while counting strokes to see what it costs you, until you discover your own sweet spot.

Answer:

Here's the deal. The first priority is always distance per stroke. You want to go as far as you can with every single stroke to the other side. Once you've got a baseline of how many strokes you need to get to the other wall, you start applying a little bit of speed, and what happens to your distance per stroke? It actually diminishes just a little bit. So depending on where you are in your journey, if you're a young athlete with really short arms, or an adult like myself with longer arms and a different level of strength, that distance per stroke and your stroke rate are going to change. And just know this: if you've got a very high stroke rate, you're going to burn your energy a lot faster. So somebody who has trained every single day for years, their stroke rate and endurance and their ability to hold that stroke rate for a longer period is going to be different than a recreational swimmer, an open water swimmer, or a beginner. I recommend you focus on distance per stroke, and once you build up your aerobic capacity, start sprinkling in just a little bit of speed and count your strokes to see how many it took to go ten, fifteen, or twenty percent faster. As you go along, you're going to find this sweet spot.