Freestyle - Continuous Stroke

Sometimes we focus so much on length and balance, we forget to teach swimmers how to turn up the rate.

Why do it: Experimentation with rate and connection can help athletes learn how to sprint better.

How to do it: 1 - Start with regular, long, smooth freestyle. 2 - Now begin to shorten the amount of time the hand spends in full extension. This DOESN’T mean to SHORTEN the extension, just shorten the TIME that you’re IN extension. 3 - Almost immediately, allow the hand to fall into the catch position. 4 - The trick to this is to allow this to happen WITHOUT too much connection. Pay attention to the FORCE you place on each stroke… don’t sprint… yet.

How to do it really well (the fine points): Now take the stroke to speed. Set some goal times for 25s that are FASTER than your best 100 time. Force yourself to continue the arms moving, but now, with adding FORCE to each stroke. Repeat the 25s until you miss your goal time, reset, and try again.

An extended explanation of this set is available to our PRO subscribers at this link.