just started swimming with a tempo trainer, in order to improve my turnover which is too slow. currently i do 16-17 strokes when swimming in a SCY pool, and when yardage gets longer or faster, it drops down to 18-19 and even 20.
my question is: what should be my turnover goal pace with the tempo trainer? right now my easy DPS swims are done on 1:20-1:25 sec/per stroke. I guess the shorter the swim/race, the quicker the turnover? should i aim for 0.9 sec or is it too fast? what drills should i do?
i’m not a great swimmer and my technique is ok but certainly not perfect. my focus this season is on running but i will do few olympics and possibly a 1/2 IM towards mid september so i will need to do a fair amount of speed in my swims.
c’mon swimmers, help me get faster!
you should probably be somewhere between about 1.5 and 2.0 seconds per cycle (both arms). Stroke rate is dependent on a lot of variables, there is no one “perfect” cadence, but i will say you should be turning over significantly faster than 1.2 sec per stroke.
I’ve just adapted a six-beat kick (the previous one wasn’t symmetrical at all and just produced drag) and to help get it “ingrained,” a swim coach advised me to set a tempo trainer on an interval so that I kick on each beep. Works really well, and to change the stroke rate, I’ll just change the kick cadence. Right now it is set at .35 sec, and I’ll try to settle at the most efficient rate using the “swim golf” method (Triathlon coach Rick Strauss introduced me to this terminology – google him). To get your interval per kick, (assuming a 6 beat kick), use the formula: kick interval in sec = 60 divided by (desired stroke rate per min)(3). For example, for a stroke rate of 50/min, the kick interval would be .4 seconds.
To start, I was told to play with it and see what’s comfortable. For me, 1:00 (for each hand’s entry) is just right for warm up pace, .9 works for a medium pace, and .8 is when I’m working. I’m not a fast swimmer, fwiw. I have also read that .75 is a good goal for quick turnover - which agrees with the previous poster’s 1:5 - 2:00 for both hands. I haven’t done any sets paced on setting the TT’s pace and holding it yet, but I can see how it would be an effective tool in intervals. When you get to the later, tired intervals, you have to work to hold the pace that felt right at the start of the set.
I hope I’m not out of line here, but at 16-17 strokes for SCY would you not be better off setting the tempo trainer slower so that you can get those strokes per length down? Once you’re comfortable at fewer strokes per length, then work on the speed aspect.
I feel obliged to steal someone else’s sig. line of “take everything I say with a pinch of salt” as I may be the last person you should take swim advice from!
My coach says aim for between 1.7-2 secs per stroke (both arms). He coaches to international standard and says most of the best swimmers have that rating.
Before getting me to work on this he got me working on DPS so in long sets I was doing about 14-17 strokes per length in a 25m pool with no flip turns. Swimming with the ratings I quote above feels like a really fast turnover compared to what I’m used to and the strokes per length is a bit higher,but overall my times over longer sets (400m+) have improved quite a bit with the higher rating.