My swim instructor suggested that someone 5'3 might have a stroke count in the low 20s while someone 6'0 might expect to have one in the high teens for 25 m. (Not elite swimmers, but what we can aim for in the clinic). I thought that was interesting. It makes sense that a shorter person would have a higher stroke rate (technique being equal).
Found an interesting set of stats, though:
Female Anthropometric Parameters
Age
Anthropometric data for female swimmers are presented in table 7. The average age in all female swim strokes is 18.6 ± 2.6 years. The youngest female Olympic Trials qualifiers are distance swimmers – 17.4 ± 2.8 years, the oldest are breastrokers – 19.6 ± 2.1 years. But the difference in age between events is statistically non-significant.
Height and weight
The average height and weight for females is 173.0 ± 5.5 cm and 65.6 ± 6.6 KG, respectively. Freestyle sprinters are the tallest (174.7 ± 4.5 cm) and lightest (64.4 ± 6.4 KG) between events. The lowest height is for flyers and IM swimmers - 171.1 ± 6.9 cm and 171.5 ± 5.3, respectively. Differences between swim strokes in weight and height parameters are statistically non-significant.
The relationship between body weight and height is expressed in ratio:
weight/height2
This ratio is called body mass index (BMI). The BMI is the lowest for freestyle sprinters. The BMI is close related to the total body fatness and finds wide use in studies. Backstrokers have higher weight (70.8 ± 5.9 KG) and the height is close to other events (174.3 ± 4.9 cm). They have the highest BMI.
Sitting height
Sitting height reflects a length of trunk. The average of this parameter is 90.5 ± 3.7 cm. There are significant differences between events. Female backstrokers have significant higher sitting height (longer trunk) than IM swimmers – 93.3 ± 2.1 cm and 88.8 ± 4.0 cm, respectively. Differences between other swim events are statistically non-significant.
The relationship between sitting height and height provides an estimate of trunk length and relative leg length. It can be evaluated as ratio:
sitting height/height x 100
By subtraction the remaining percentage is accounted to the leg length. The highest sitting height/height ratio is for backstrokers, the lowest for IM-ers. It means that females backstrokers have relative longer trunk and shorter legs in comparison with IM-ers.
Source of this according to the above quote is:
http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/Deskt…