When you start feeling fatigue in your race (or while ‘just swimming’) you are urged to slow down. At some point you finally must give in. But when you do what is changing in your stroke to slow you down?
SPL x Tempo = Pace (the inverse of the Speed Equation = SL x SR)
When you to slow down from fatigue what changed in this equation for you? What does your brain want to hold on to when the going gets tough? What does it want to let go control of? Are you loyal to holding stroke length and sacrifice tempo? Or do you sacrifice stroke length and hold on to tempo? Or neither? Or “I don’t know!“?
Test Swim
Here is a test you can conduct to check your level of development for pace control. This test swim will challenge your ability to hold Pace (= a certain SPL x Tempo combination) at some point during the test swim.
For this test swim you will need to count strokes on every lap and use a Tempo Trainer to help you hold tempo precisely.
You may pick an SPL N that is within your comfortable conditioned SPL range and a comfortably fast Tempo T you can hold with that SPL, but doubtful whether you can hold it the whole test swim.
For example, Roberto has a conditioned SPL range of 18-20 strokes (in a 25m pool). He is going to assign himself to do this test swim with 19 SPL. And, from experience using a Tempo Trainer he knows he has a comfortable center Tempo of 1.32 (meaning he could hold this tempo all day), and the fast-end boundary of his comfortable tempo range is about 1.25 (which he can just hold for about 200m without feeling like his stroke quality gets out of control). So, Roberto will set his parameters at 19 SPL x 1.25 second tempo.
You may set up a test swim like this, and adjust the distance of each repeat to suit yourself:
4x to 8x 100 meters with 6 nasal breath rest between each. Do as many as you need to in order to start feeling considerable stress on your ability to hold SPL x Tempo together.
Your assignment is to do your best to hold both SPL x Tempo consistently, over every single length of the test swim. But this is not the purpose of the test. You want to find a failure point in your ability to hold that SPL x Tempo combo – that point where you begin to feel it is too difficult to hold both SPL and Tempo at the same time. Then you will observe in your own body which one your brain is more loyal to – holding SPL and give up Tempo (let is slow down), or hold Tempo and give up SPL (add strokes). Making observations at this failure point is the purpose of the test.
The observations to make:
- Which did I feel more loyal to under pressure (in the habit sense)- SPL or Tempo?
- How did it start to fail? Did I feel like I was losing strength to hold that stroke length? Or did my arms start to feel sluggish and I couldn’t move them through the stroke cycle as fast?
- What did my attention do in reaction? What did I try to do to compensate for fatigue? What did I focus on? What commands did I give to certain parts of my body?
Here is an arbitrary grading system:
- A – maintaining both SPL and Tempo (holding pace)
- B – maintaining SPL N but allowing Tempo to slip <0.05 seconds (dropping pace less than 1 sec/25m)
- C – holding Tempo, but allowing SPL to slip to N+1 (dropping pace by over 1 sec/25m)
- D – holding Tempo, but allowing SPL to slip to >N+1 (dropping pace by more than 2 sec/25m)
- F – losing control over both SPL (any amount) and Tempo (dropping pace a lot!)
Grade yourself on each repeat. Stop when you get a D or F on a repeat.
Note: You could have allowed SPL to slip to N+1, but increased (speed up) Tempo T – ~0.06 seconds to compensate and maintain pace, but this would have changed two variables at once and then taken you away from the purpose of this test swim. I want to acknowledge that as a legitimate ‘holding-pace’ solution, but one that does not apply to this test scenario. If you can do that already (intentionally) then you need a more challenging test for your skills.
Analysis
You may notice in this grading system that maintaining SPL is given higher value than maintaining Tempo. It is based on this understanding: that what counts for more in a tough race is your ability to maintain consistent traction on the water (= stroke length), not how fast you can spin your wheels. Tempo is important, but secondary to stroke length. Tempo is a function of stroke length, not a replacement for lack of control over it. Only those who first have control over stroke length can expect to go faster if they increase tempo, even a little bit. Meanwhile, those without control over stroke length take the advice to up the tempo, then find they don’t go faster yet get tired even more quickly. The difference between the two is the ability to preserve stroke length as tempo increases. And to minimize heart rate increase, the swimmer has to hold that stroke length with finesse rather than by adding more power – an uncommon but necessary approach. If you practice tempo increases before you have practiced stroke length control, don’t be surprised when you don’t get faster.
The importance of stroke length control is painfully apparent in this famous (or infamous, depending on who you were rooting for) 2008 Olympic Men’s 400m Relay Race where the French squad was overtaken and blown away by the American squad. After the third leg France had the race in the bag, but inferior stroke control on the part of the final French swimmer, against superior stroke control on the part of the final American swimmer flipped the results. You can see that speeding up tempo did not save the French swimmer – he actually slowed down, while the American was speeding up using a visibly slower tempo. Superior loyalty to (a well chosen) stroke length is the way I would describe the cause of this result.
Under-developed swimmers (the ones that lose to the best) are chiefly identified by their loss of stroke length toward the end of a race, not by their tempo (whether high, low, or erratic). Tempo only has meaning when it is connected to a steady stroke length. (Take any aqua-aerobics class, have them spin their arms as fast as they can and watch how fast they move through the water as a result!) Adapting to faster tempo is relatively easy to do (with a neurologically effective approach) while developing optimal stroke length – by superior form, rather than by additional power – and then ‘hard-wiring’ it into the muscle memory is much harder to do. The final part of is to combine the two, stroke length and tempo. However, at nearly any pool you may visit the ubiquitous bias of swimmers (and less-than-elite coaches) is to focus so much on (easy-to-learn-and-hold) tempo work, and neglect (hard-to-learn-and-hold) stroke length control work. Now that I’ve pointed out the irrational bias, you have a chance to work against it to your swimming benefit.
This test above is meant to help you see what you are currently wired to be loyal to: when the going gets tougher than you can handle is your brain hardwired to remain loyal to holding stroke length? Or loyal to holding tempo? Or neither?
A highly developed swimmer will feel energy resources getting strained (like anyone), then double her concentration upon the points in her body position and stroke movements that she knows are most vulnerable to degradation under stress. By this she will delay the speed-reducing effects of fatigue. Then she will make a calculated (and trained for) shift her SPL x Tempo combination to a precise trade-off (for example from ‘N x T’ to ‘N+1 x T-0.06’) to further delay speed-reducing effects of fatigue. The basis of her control over pace is her control over stroke length. Tempo is adjusted in relation to it and her energy supply. If she trained for even splits, she will adjust the combinations (like gears on her tri bike) so that she can maintain pace as muscles fatigue, or as conditions (in open-water, for example) change. If she has trained for negative splits she will start the race with a carefully calculated pace combination so that when she is ready to crank up the speed, she makes her pre-planned (i.e. trained-for) shift – she will either hold stroke length while increasing tempo (more likely), or lengthen stroke and hold tempo steady (harder to do, but possible).
Meanwhile, her under-developed competitors will feel fatigue, lose body position and stroke control, lose stroke length because of it, feel the speed drop, then start cranking up tempo in a futile attempt to compensate, which will deplete energy faster, which triggers more lose of control, which will shorten stroke length further, which will trigger the swimmer to crank up tempo even more. The vicious negative spiral.
This is how we might describe what we saw in Sun Yang’s 2011 World Championships WR 1500m Race (and the subsequent WRs), compared to the swimmers who dropped way, way behind at the end. No one thought he was even close to world-record pace until he unleashed the energy he conserved in the first 14oo meters from an exquisitely maintained SPL x Tempo combination.
***
Let’s think about the results of your test swim a bit more.
If you’ve set your starting SPL x Tempo just right you should be able to do the first 1 to 3 of these 100m repeats at Grade A level. But at some point in the series things will start to feel tough. Conditions are changing inside the body. Two main areas to notice: 1) power supply is getting restricted (feeling tired, then feeling exhausted), and 2) attention is getting strained (not knowing what to focus on, not knowing how to counter the exhaustion).
What most swimmers assume has happened is just #1 – “I am just getting tired therefore I can’t swim as fast any more.” The premature and often erroneous assumption is: “Oh, I just need to train harder and build up more power and endurance so I don’t feel tired so quickly.” What ‘I can’t swim as fast anymore’ actually means in physics is: my SPL and/or Tempo collapsed. But I propose that #2 is actually the primary failure, not #1. I argue that this perceived energy- failure point can be postponed a lot longer than a swimmer realizes, if he trains his attention to recognize what is prone to fail in the stroke and train specifically to postpone that failure, and even rise above it.
I suspect that more often than realized, the beginning of the fatigue-inducing problem is that the swimmer has lost attention, and therefore lost control over some part of the body position and stroke control that is vulnerable to degradation, which immediately provokes higher drag, which immediately provokes higher rate of energy loss, which immediately makes the swimmer notice himself slowing down with no ability to resist, which immediately distracts his mind from resuming concentration on those parts of the body position and stroke that started to degrade and cause more drag. Only by breaking the negative cycle at the point of attention loss, can the swimmer regain composure and control over drag increase/energy loss cycle, to delay or even avoid the speed-reducing effects of fatigue.
The fact is, at some point in the test swim (or, in the race) energy supply will diminish, and the swimmer must carry on with a stroke that fits within that lower-energy condition. The question is then: how are you going to compose the stroke with less energy available now? What will you preserve? What will you sacrifice to fit within the budget? Have you ever even thought about this before in this way?
An under-developed swimmer, when less energy is available, will just let the stroke collapse how ever it collapses by default and apply more effort in less productive directions (the land-mammal instincts take over under stress!). However, at the point you can no longer resist the slow-down, you can and should train to sacrifice certain less-valuable-for-speed parts of the stroke cycle in order to conserve energy and fit the stroke within the smaller budget. Regardless of your level of fitness, if you are aiming to race at the peak of your current potential you are going to enter this lower-energy zone during your event. Why not learn to manage your stroke within that zone better and get more out of it?
So, the purpose of this test swim is to get you to practice noticing what is happening in your brain and body so you know what you need to train for. You think, you plan, then you train for it in practice so you don’t have to think about it during the race – this is what it means to build your aquatic mammal instinct. By deliberate practice it will become an easily triggered response (if not totally automatic) and allow you to keep your brain focused on making higher order decisions when your competitors can’t. Being aware of what is happening in your body, then understanding why, is the first step on the path to improving your abilities – in this case, to improving your ability to hold a consistent pace over your entire race distance, even when fatigue sets in. At peak performance you will not avoid fatigue, but you can train to have a superior response to it than your competitors do.
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Hello Coach
I like your scientific approach to swimming. However, this time, the science behind your recommendation is not clear.
Why would a lower SPL and longer tempo (keeping the same pace), be more efficient than the opposite trade off?
I can think of several answers to either side of this question. Can you point to any reference?
On a more personal note. I can complete (with some struggle) one pool in 18 strokes, but the tempo I would need to complete 200 meters would be impossibly long. Instead, I shorten the tempo to 1.2 sec. and increase my SPL to 25. I work on reducing SPL from that starting condition. To maintain this pace even at 20 SPL, I would need to lengthen the tempo to 1.46 sec. At this tempo, bilateral breathing is difficult for me.
What would be your suggestion?
Please note that I would like, at least some of my swimming to be longer than 25 meters,
Hi Isaac,
On your first question…
I really appreciate it when someone asks a question like this – if I haven’t made it clear it is good to know about it, and I take seriously the possibility I could have gotten something wrong in my own understanding. So I do review my own thinking at each challenge.
The first thing I try to be repeatedly clear about – each swimmer needs to aim for an optimal stroke length, not the longest stroke length. This is what we are after. However, you will see how I often advocate for a longer stroke because, by far, most less-than-elite swimmers we see (including high level triathletes) are using what we would regard as shorter-than-optimal length strokes, which suggests they are suffering from excess drag. We use our Height/SPL Index (on our Resources page) to estimate where a swimmer should be.
But only through experimentation (and some understanding how we may detect signs of a more suitable stroke length before our brain finds it easy to produce that SL) do we come to some assurance of what is really best personally.
I am tempted to write a bunch more here, but I risk wasting time if I haven’t understood you accurately, or I may have the info you need elsewhere. Maybe you can take a look at these posts to see if I address the questions:
https://mediterraswim.com/2014/03/01/metrics-101-stroke-length/
https://mediterraswim.com/2014/03/05/metrics-101-aim-for-stroke-length-ease/
https://mediterraswim.com/2014/03/09/metrics-101-spl-development-process/
If not, send me another set of questions and I will make up for the gap in explanations (or correct myself).
I am going to delay answering the second question until tomorrow (time to put the kids to bed!).
Hello Coach
Thanks for your response. I read the articles for the second time (first, when they were published), and gained new insights. However they did not provide a direct answer to my question.
“Is a longer stroke more efficient?”
More efficient = Less energy expended for the same pace
I agree with you that eventually, my question will be answered by my own body, and that your articles provide a good path to get there. However, being an ex-engineer, I can’t avoid engaging my brain.
To clarify, let me describe three scenarios, and a rephrase of my question.
1. An accomplished swimmer (not necessary Sun Yang) swims at a good SPL and tempo.
2. He increases the tempo by 10% and decreases his SPL to maintain the same pace as before (an endless pool would help).
3. He decreases the tempo by 10% and increases his SPL to maintain the same pace.
Question: Which of the three scenarios would be most/least efficient, and why?
Is that a useful question to pursue?
Hi Isaac,
You pushed my answer button (which I am happy to have pushed!) and now I am going to deliver a response in another blog post. I actually had the first one planned before you wrote your first comment, and now it seems even more timely. Then I will follow up with a second post a little later which will include your questions and my thoughts on it. Both are written, but I like to space them out by a few days if I can.
I am glad you insist, or cannot resist using your engineer brain to think about these things. And I really want folks like you to hold me accountable to offer solid, satisfying answers. Teaching/writing as much about my own process of learning and refinement in understanding also.
Hi Isaac, I will respond to the second part here in the comment section. If your instinct is to produce faster tempo by increasing power (which is the instinct for virtually every human swimmer who has not been taught there is an alternative) then you can understandably feel a barrier at a certain tempo. But you can realize that power is not going to solve this goal/problem.
If you shorten your stroke too much, then you will be short-changing how much momentum you can glean off of each stroke. The longer your vessel the easier it slides. Shorten it and your vessel doesn’t glide as far for each unit of force. There is a careful balance there we are trying to strike between an SPL that is getting a decent return on your wingspan (55-70% of wingspan is our estimate) for each stroke. Too long of a stroke and you get high acceleration/deceleration curves – a lot of strain on the shoulders.
First, you can use different bi-lateral breathing patterns to get a more suitable average breathing cycle at any tempo – like 2-3-2-3. Or 3-4-3-4. At anaerobic threshold I will be using 2 breath cycle (and switch to the other side occasionally).
Second, there is a way to adapt to faster tempos – at least to adapt to faster tempos than you realize you could reach, with relatively minimal increase on HR. At some point, depending on your current condition and the speed you want to achieve, you will have to add more power, but this process of adaptation allows your to develop precision as you go so that you will actually be able to maintain controlled SPL as you increase Tempo. Think of it like how a martial artist would train so that time slows down and his opponent appears to be moving in slow motion. Or how a major league baseball player would train in a batting cage to handle progressively faster and faster balls flying at him. We train in a way that allows you to build this kind of control over your stroke at higher tempos. But with the unique complications of doing it in water (and without dangerous things flying at our faces!).
Either way you go, work down in tempo at 25 SPL, or work down in tempo at 18 SPL and you will hit a muscle control barrier at some tempo, if you do it by increasing power. You’ll need a different approach eventually. So, for 200m sprint work, I suggest you aim for an SPL within the high side of your Green Zone (on the Height/SPL Index in our Resources page).
When you read this essay https://mediterraswim.com/2014/05/12/metrics-103-pace-construction/ did it make any sense? I need some feedback. It seems clear (though not simple) in my head, but I don’t know if I am making it easier to understand or not in typing. It’s one thing to stand next to someone in the pool and teach this directly to one’s nervous system, but another to teach it through text.
In an email, send me your height (or wingspan) if you know it, your age, and any other relevant factors to your swimming physiology, and I will send you a few more thoughts about how you might approach your goal.
And the thing to add that I just remembered. If you go back to 25 SPL (easier) then work down in Tempo, then try to move down in SPL at that higher tempo – it’s like trying to do road reconstruction during rush hour. You’ll essentially be firing more powerful signal, more frequently down the circuits that you will then be trying to overhaul to lengthen the stroke again. So, to keep using the analogy, clear the traffic (quiet the signals with lower tempo), re-arrange the road (imprint the longer stroke), then release traffic and gradually ramp it up under the new road arrangement.
Or maybe that is a goofy analogy. Can’t help it. My father was a civil engineer building bridges and highways and I spent many years working for him until I started my own company- I did spend some time in engineering school too but decided on another path.
Thank you Coach
To my surprise, I noticed that your articles, similar to meditation instruction, provide me with new insights on every subsequent reading. With your permission, here is a summary of my current understanding
1. The key is mindfulness
2. It’s about reducing drag, not reducing SPL
3. All the rest is implementation detail. Be patient.
I now realize that impatience is the motivator for my questions. Yet, I believe that I could be more patient if I really understood why that “sweet spot” is more efficient (analogies don’t do the job). I will wait for your upcoming articles to learn more.
If I may add one related question. In one article, you recommended changing the SL in relation to the distance being swam. Shorter SL for short distances. I would like to know the logic behind this.
“Metrics 103- Pace construction” was clear, rational, and not too difficult. It is exactly what I needed to hear. Following it is another matter. As I practice, I find it hard to tell whether the one-count improvement on this lap, came from pushing harder, or from keeping my head low while breathing. But that’s where point number one above comes in, doesn’t it?
Why use shorter SL for shorter distances?
Higher tempo tends to burn energy at a higher rate. So, both from understanding the thermodynamics of the scenario and from watching how humans tend to modify stroke length to deal with the speed/energy demands of different distance races we can see that longer stroke + slower tempo tends to distribute energy better for longer distances, while shorter stroke + higher tempo tends to get more speed, at higher expense, but can afford it on short distances. By applying more power per stroke, or applying power more frequently, the swimmer can maintain a higher average speed (and flatter acceleration/deceleration curve), but it comes at the cost of a higher rate of energy burn.
A faster tempo stroke also means that time for each stroke is compressed and the swimmer has to fit a whole stroke cycle into that smaller amount of time – and this inevitably means he must shorten the path of the arm movement (accidentally or deliberately) and this inevitably means the stroke length shortens. Hopefully, you can envision how that happens because it would take several paragraphs to break down the sections of the stroke cycle and point out the most likely spots where a swimmer will shorten his stroke pathway and thereby shorten the stroke length.
In order to lengthen the stroke, or to travel the distance of SL faster the swimmer has two options:
1) increase power
2) decrease drag
The swimmer can shorten his stroke by reducing power, or by increasing drag. And vice versa.
So, what we are looking for is the optimal stroke length for each event and its energy budget. Short races allow us to burn fuel at a higher rate so we can use more expensive ways to generate speed. Longer races require us to spread out energy further so we have to limit the fuel burn rate and trade off in speed. It is common sense that we should do all we can to reduce unnecessary water resistance so we don’t have to crank up so much power to create the same amount of speed. If you want solid scientific backup on this read Jane Cappaert’s study of the 1992 Olympics sprinters which found (to the surprise of the researchers, apparently) that the swimmers of the Final Round were using an average of 16% LESS power than the swimmers who did not pass the Preliminary Rounds. The best swimmers in the world are not the most powerful, they are the ones who swim with the least drag. A longer stroke (by less drag) is a strong indicator of efficiency. A longer (than average) stroke and preventing stroke length decay toward the end of the race is one of the strongest indicators of who will win races.
Here is another way to describe our strategy – what we are aiming for in TI is to first ruthlessly remove all excess drag from the stroke which will, by default, bring the swimmer to an optimal stroke length (not an extreme long stroke), then build power on top of that minimalist stroke discipline. Adding more power will inevitably cause us to shorten the stroke a bit (as water resistance builds up exponentially against velocity), but if our starting point is at this minimal-drag SPL, and we are ultra-sensitive about any changes that produce unnecessary drag, then we are in good position to convert more of that additional power into forward motion and less into turbulence and waste.
Hi Mat,
I had a pleasant surprise today. I actually measured the pool breadth I usually swim. I had thought it to be 10 m but it is actually 13 m (43 feet divided by 3.28)
Allowing for a 3 m glide, I have been swimming 10 m with 7 strokes regularly for several months – with intense focus and optimum effort (not trying too hard nor too easy). When numerous repetitions did not help me better 7 strokes (that is, achieve a stroke count of 6) , I stopped mechanical repeats.
By the way, my height is 175 cm and for my height, 7.2 is optimum number of strokes for 10 m and 6.4 is the minimum as per the TI chart).
Instead of repeats, I started focusing on balance and core body rotation drills to master balance and core body rotation. “Balance and core body rotation lead to easy speed” I had read in TI literature and I was actually trying it out.
For about 2 weeks (15-20 hrs in the pool), I did 10 m each of superman glide, torpedo, body dolphin, skate (alternating sides) and laser lead rotation (alternating sides). This was followed by 10 m of whole stroke with fist gloves, easy swimming without counting strokes. I focused on “ease” rather than “effort” to improve my stroke count.
I then went offshore where I work and had 2 weeks of sedentary work (absolutely no physical exercise and absolutely no swimming). I was mentally engaged with swimming issues (mainly through your blog) for about an hour or two every day.
On my return, I swam without fist gloves and without the tempo trainer, only counting strokes. I swam 10 m effortlessly with 7 strokes, not once but about 10 times (with a brief “active rest” of floating on my back in between repeats). While my stroke count of 7 for 10 m had been regular (but did not feel entirely effortless or easy) in the past, this time around, it felt effortless and easy each time. Further, once – only once, though – I swam 10 m with an effortless and easy six strokes. I breathe every third stroke. When I took my second breath, my head was at the wall (not my hand). (Does that count as 5.5? 🙂 )
In any case, what was remarkable was the “ease” with which the stroke counts of 7 and once of 6 had been achieved. Would you attribute this to the balance and rotation drills I focused on? If so, should I continue this pattern of practice – drill:whole stroke 5:1?
Also, I have an option of swimming pool breadth (10 m) or the pool length (20 m). So far, I have preferred to swim highly focused short repeats (10 m). My target stroke length now is 6 for 10 m and my strategy is not to swim longer and harder but focus more on mastery of balance, streamline, patient hands and core body rotation. When I tried, I could swim about 30-35 m fairly easily,
ie: without exhaustion. Since my body is not used to distances of more than 10 m yet, I felt inclined and paused for some active rest (floating on my back) after 30 m.
Should I add one 30 m length to each pool session and will it serve any useful purpose (other than improving stamina and fitness)? Or shall I continue my short, highly focused repeats of 10 m focusing on mastery of balance and core body rotation?
Regards,
Ashok
Hi Ashok,
In the early stages you might do far more drill work that whole stroke, and gradually reverse the ratio over time. How to do that? Spend about 80% of your time working on imprinting what is within your abilities when focusing carefully, then spend about 20% of your time working around your limits of control and strength. Step over them just a little to stretch and stress your system (in a good way) and your limits will expand gradually. Drills are meant to slow down time and make concentration easier – so when it starts to feel too easy, you need to increase the challenge a bit.
And consider what your expectation of what ‘feel ready for more’ is suppose to be like. We do not want to make big leaps over our limits and practice continual failure, but we do want to work up to those limits and a little bit over that line each week so that we do experience some failures in order to find out specifically where our weak spots are. So, there is a danger of going too easy too much and of going too hard. The art of Flow State is setting just the right amount of challenge.
By doing longer distances you have two limits to consider: 1) your limits of strength and stamina, and 2) your limits of attention. Which ever one is weaker is the limit you set (recommended in this initial training stage). Bring the weaker one up (through that stretching process) to the other and then work on them together.