How Many Strokes Should I Be Taking Per Length?

So many metrics go into good swimming. One that matters a lot to most swimmers is stroke count: how many strokes it takes a swimmer to swim the length of the pool.

Why is stroke count important? Even the most elite swimmers can miss a turn or can be long or short on a finish. Knowing what your best stroke count is won’t ever eliminate the possibility of those things happening, but it certainly lowers the risk. Figuring out your stroke count isn’t hard, but it takes some patience. You can apply this information to freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, and breaststroke.

Efficiency Versus Velocity

Stroke efficiency is that magical place where you have tremendous speed and can maintain it over the course of a race. How do you achieve that? Start with minimum stroke count swims swum at slow speeds. If you spin your arms, you might be faster (not necessarily as fast as you can go) but be exhausted because you’re burning a lot of energy and not creating the maximum amount of speed because of an ineffective stroke.

Here’s a three-step progression to help you discover your best stroke efficiency.

• Minimum stroke count. Pick a distance. Each time you move an arm counts as 1. How many strokes does it take you to go the length of the pool? Adjust and go as low as you can. This is good for you for a lot of reasons, including that you’ll really concentrate on a good catch and propulsive forces. Your minimum count is a good place to start. When you have it dialed in, note the time for the last several repeats. This will be your baseline.
• Descend. After you know your minimum stroke count, pick up speed while still counting your strokes. If you add a stroke here or there but are getting more speed, it’s probably that your hands are slipping a bit when you’re applying more power, but so long as you have gained in speed, that’s just fine.
• Spin. Now it’s time to go all the way to the place where you’re still doing stroke count but turning your arms over as fast as you can. This may add several strokes to your baseline count and when you look at your time and think about how much energy you spent, it might not be worth it, or you may have become so inefficient that you’re slower than when you descended. Doing this three-step progression will help you find your sweet spot between efficiency and velocity.

Stroke Count and Walls

Once you’ve found that happy place with how many strokes per length gives you the best speed for the energy you trade, it’s time to fine-tune getting to the wall at just the right time. Having a great stroke count is one thing, but the start, turns, and finish are often what separate the winner from everyone else.

Here’s how to make those adjustments.

• From a start to a turn. After your start, count your strokes for the length of the pool until your feet are on the wall for a turn. Is it the same or different? Odds are it’s different because of the initial velocity from the start. Repeat multiple times until you’re not too long and not too short at the turn. Play with different facets of your swim: Add or subtract a stroke, do a longer or shorter streamline, or do a better breakout. Remember to adjust one thing at a time so you know which one or which combination made the difference. Swim this exercise at speed, so you don’t have to think too much about it on the opening length of a race.
• Push to a turn. Just as from a start, the key is to find where you are relative to the wall at speed. Push off from the wall and swim at speed. Repeat several times and adjust again. Also, just like before, change only one thing at a time. You’re only going one or two lengths of the pool during this exercise, but get lots of rest to get the most out of it.
• Push to a finish. Who doesn’t remember the Phelps/Cavic finish? Stroke count and where the swimmers were in the stroke cycle, along with a near-perfect finish made a difference and made history. That final charge for the wall should be perfectly timed. The only way to do that is just like the above: Mess around with it a bit. That last stroke being right at the wall is what’s called arriving on time. Full extension and a solid touch. No gliding and no short strokes and never lift your head until after you touch.

Putting it All Together

Stroke count may change for each length of the pool depending on the length of the race. Elite breaststrokers swimming a 200 might have a stroke count of five for the first two lengths, then seven for the third, then nine for each successive 25. Does this mean there’s a loss of speed? Nope. It means that the fastest stroke count changed based on pull-out fatigue or any of more than a dozen other variables.

Many backstrokers rely on the stroke count from the flags to the wall, which is fine, but others also know wall-to-wall stroke counts and feel more confident in that metric. Breaststrokers and butterfliers are heavily reliant on stroke count because where they are in the stroke cycle in the turns and at the finish can make a huge difference. Is there a single best number of strokes? Hardly.

Swimmers come in different shapes and sizes with differences in fitness, strength, age, and ability. As each of these variables change, so will your stroke count. The only way to find out what works for you is to experiment a bit. You’ll find that making your turns and finishes more solid and not just a matter a luck is a huge confidence boost.