For our next technique series, I decided to change things up a bit. Instead of talking about one specific piece of the pie, let’s look at the pie as a whole.
Most swimmers, as they progress with the sport, start gaining an understanding of their Distance Per Stroke (DPS) and Stroke Rate (SR). Manipulating these two numbers can have a significant impact on a swimmer’s race and their stroke efficiency. With a regular coaching stopwatch, anyone can get their calculated stroke rate swimming metrics. Now, with many new iPhone apps and software programs, it’s very easy to get your estimated DPS.
If you haven’t heard of these terms before, here are the definitions:
Stroke Rate (SR): the time it takes to complete one full stroke, often measured in strokes per minute.
Distance Per Stroke (DPS): the distance traveled (in meters or yards) from each individual stroke.
Keep in mind when talking about Freestyle and Backstroke, DPS and SR deal with individual arm strokes (right versus left). While Butterfly and Breaststroke—both arms move at the same time, so their DPS and SR is calculated with both arms. There is no right arm or left arm DPS or SR for the Butterfly and Breaststroke strokes.
It is an inverse relationship. The faster you turn your arms over, the lower your DPS will be. If you increase your Distance Per Stroke, your stroke rate swimming goes down. The goal for each swimmer is to find their balance between a good DPS and a high SR.
The Last week, I posted a video on my Instagram account (@theafish1) analyzing Caeleb Dressel’s split at the SEC Championships, where he swam a blazing 17.86 in a 50 Free on a 200 Free relay. The video (watched over 30,000 times) showed Dressel maintaining an average SR of 0.46 seconds (about 130 strokes per minute) while keeping an average DPS of 0.92 yards..
Check it out (view in Full Screen if metrics are blurry):
The first thing that came to my mind is the fact that he spent the majority of his race underwater. And it’s true: Caeleb spent 26.45 yards underwater—over 50% of his race. But, beyond that—what is so impressive is the fact he swam with an average SR of 0.46 seconds (converts to 130 strokes per minute) and kept an average DPS of 0.92 yards.
To put that in perspective, Ryan Held split a 18.15 at the 2017 ACC championships. Held held an average SR of 0.46 (converting to 130 stroke per minute) and held a 0.88 DPS. See below:
So while Caeleb and Held had similar SR’s, Caeleb traveled 0.04 yards further each stroke than Held. So if they both swam against each other with the same metrics above (keeping their stroke count the same and not including underwaters), Caeleb would beat Held by 1.13 seconds in 50 yard Free of straight swimming. That is the power of DPS.
Bringing us back to the beginning of this post. It is ideal for you (and your swimmers) to find their balance with SR and DPS. Being great at one of this metrics is not good enough. So while Held was only out-split by Dressel by 0.29 seconds, it was due to Held’s underwater capability that he was even close to Dressel’s split.
Next week, we will explore the benefits of staying underwater longer. This can help improve your races more than you might think.
[CLICK HERE] to read Part II of this series!
Until next time,
-Abbie Fish
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