(N.B. this is not “what works for me”. This is about what I **do, **what happens, and maybe what I think is going on. I’m sure there is a list of things that, if I did them better or more or differently, would help me swim faster. I would not presume to say what I do works for me.)
A couple of ongoing threads had me thinking about my stroke, so I did just that at lunch time in the pool. I did a set of 15x100 scy on 1:30; started at 1:15, did a bunch at 1:12, then finished with a few at 1:09. That’s enough rest and not so fast for me to not lose what little stroke technique I have and to permit inspection of what I was doing mechanically. Perhaps some people might find something that they think can help them in here, if it applies to their particular circumstances.
In no particular priority order: I finish with my hand below my hip, maybe 6" short of fully extended. Pretty close to my leg, so it was easy to alter it just a bit to feel where it finished. I had thought I came up short on my right arm, but I’ve been working on it and maybe it paid off. I don’t think that finishing any further would help me go much faster, and it might make me slower (see 3.). Focusing on “which muscles are getting tired”, I was rather surprised. Not the triceps (that would have surprised me, too), not the lats. It was the deltoids that were most fatigued. Why is this? See 3. I take a lot of strokes per length (like 19 or 20); part of that is lousy streamlining into and off the wall. I don’t do “glide”, probably due to a lack of shoulder flexibility. I suspect also that many triathletes glide waaay too much, especially considering typical low leg position and lack of effective kick. My arm recovery seems fast. Really fast. I noted that my hand really drives into the water on entry, and goes straight forward. I think this is good. My roll is sufficient to clear my shoulder during recovery. My upper arm is only about 45* from horizontal; I suspect due to that inflexibility (if I rolled more, my opposite arm would drop too much during the reach). I don’t kick much at all. 2 beat crossover with little propulsive effect. My legs are close to the surface, as my foot breaks the surface with only marginal extra kicking effort. I just can’t see lots of kicking help a triathlete in a race; in practice, it might help to learn correct body position, but even then it doesn’t seem like something you’d just lose once you had it. I haven’t done kick sets in 18 years. My hand entry is in line with my shoulders, not in line with my head or worse. It’s pretty far out in front on entry, not near my ear or whatever. A triathlete friend I swim with (who is a drop-dead fast runner) has a delay in one arm entry; if he loses :0.05 per stroke from this, that’s like 4 seconds per 100, or 2:30 for an IM swim. Add in the effort needed to complete the reach rather than letting it carry through from momentum, and he’s giving up free speed.
While driving home afterwards, I think there’s one simple thing that everyone who wants to be a good swimmer needs. At some point, you have to swim a lot. High frequency, high intensity, with attention to correct form, for years. The earlier you do it in life, and the longer you do it, the better you’ll be, the less you’ll have to put in later to maintain the technique, and the easier it’ll be to regain any swim fitness after a layoff. I did this from age 26 to about 32. Had I swum at a younger age, it probably would be less work to maintain my technique from year to year. If you don’t, then swimming will likely be a struggle, dreaded and unsatisfying. Just like in running and biking, it’s possible to get that “high” when it all falls into place.