Monthly Feature Article:
 Finding Your Perfect Stroke
By: Kris Goodrich
THE PERFECT STROKE
We watch swimming videos on YouTube, TikTok, and GoSwim of our favorite athletes and the beauty and perfection of their stroke. We research, chat with friends, hit up our coach and try to emulate the greats. This summer we watched the best swimmers in the world at the Olympic Games. But what makes them great and is it right for every swimmer? Is there a perfect stroke out there and how do you achieve it?
As a coach, I have had numerous swimmers come up to me or email me with a video and say ‘I want to swim like this’. Swimmers with knee problems that show me a video of Adam Peaty and ask why they don’t move like that when they kick. Swimmers who put their arms up in the air and their streamline looks like a cactus but don’t understand why their butterfly takes so much work. Just like everyone has a different fingerprint or signature, your swim stroke is different as well.
Olympic swimmers achieve their dreams for a reason. Their combination of technique, anatomy, training, attitude, and coaching make them successful at the highest level. You too, can use the same tools to perfect your own stroke to be the best possible for yourself.
ANATOMY & FLEXIBILITY
Both anatomy and flexibility play a huge part in a successful stroke. Longer arms, bigger feet, and hypermobile joints are something you are born with – they are not something you can train to improve. If you have small feet, extra time spent kicking could be a good focus of your workout. If you would like to improve your breaststroke but have limited hip mobility, adding yoga into your routine to improve your range of motion can help to make your kick more effective. Learning and understanding your strengths and limitations can help you to maximize or minimize certain parts of your stroke to be a better swimmer.
THE BASICS
Great swimmers do several things really well and they do them EVERY SINGLE TIME THEY SWIM! As a coach, one of my biggest frustrations is that the easy steps that make you faster and more efficient are often skipped by many swimmers just due to lack of focus.
First, great swimmers seek the path of least resistance through the water. They streamline off the wall every single time. They focus on good body position during and after breathing and work continuously to put their body in the best position possible. By minimizing resistance and drag, they go faster and farther through the water with every single stroke.
 Second, they find the path of most resistance, or have great feel for the water. That means that they know where and when to put emphasis on their kick or pull to move their body effectively through the water. An Olympian may take as few as 8 strokes freestyle per length while I have seen swimmers who take over 40! The more proficient swimmer looks like they’re putting no effort into their pull as they glide effortlessly through the water while the beginner swimmer looks like their spinning their wheels as their hands just slip uselessly through the water.
Third, they breathe. It seems so simple but where you breathe, how you breathe, and when you breathe make an amazing difference in your stroke. Even backstroke should have a breathing pattern as a lot of the time is spent with water over your face! Is your breath quick? Is it timed in the perfect spot for every stroke cycle? Are you holding your breath at all? When you are racing, do you have a race plan with a breathing pattern? Do you mess up your turn by breathing right before and right after the turn? Changing your breathing timing and patterns can have a huge impact on both your racing times and your efficiency.
Next time you are at a meet, take some time to watch a championship heat of a breaststroke race. If you look across all eight lanes, every single swimmer has a slightly different technique that works for them. What works for the swimmer in lane 5 might be a lot slower for the swimmer in lane 6, but as you look across the pool a little closer, you’ll notice that there are specific things that every one of them does well. They have a great kick, they lunge forward on every stroke, and they hit their line between every stroke. Even though the width of the kick, the angle of their undulation, or the direction of their pull may be slightly different, they all have worked to figure out how to do these things well working with their body. Each stroke, turn, or start has key components that are integral to peak performance. The technique path that you use may be different, but the end point is the same for every swimmer.
EFFORT
Not all top-level swimmers have anatomy that was designed for swimming. Elizabeth Beisel is a great example. She is small, doesn’t have a huge reach, and has small feet. What she did have was a desire to achieve her goals of both swimming in the Olympics and an Olympic medal. Her effort and refusal to listen to the people who told her she couldn’t do it were part of her mental toughness. Her perseverance in the pool paid off with a silver and a bronze medal at the Olympics. When you swim, do you do the same thing every day? When it gets hard do you sit out a set? If you are training for a specific event, are your workouts designed to overload you during the training period and then prep you for that event? Great effort comes from within and every swimmer has the potential to improve with focused effort and the understanding that it takes a lot of work to achieve your goals.
COACHING
 Not a single high-level swimmer has made it to the top tier of swimming without having a coach to guide them. Their coach is responsible for watching their technique and making sure it is the best it can be for their stroke. Their coach is watching from deck and sometimes underwater to see what corrections need to be made and adjusting their training program to work on those skills. Their coach is there on both the good days and the bad to help them press on to achieve their goals. Their coach knows what the focus of the stroke should be and how to adjust for their body to maximize their potential and also avoid injury. If you don’t have that feedback and depth of knowledge that a coach brings to the pool deck, it’s hard to get close to your perfect stroke.
THE PERFECT STROKE
No matter your anatomy, flexibility, training, or effort, each of has the same goal – to swim faster as well as more efficiently in the water. Learning your body and your limitations as well as finding a coach to help you will help you to achieve your ‘Perfect Stroke’. |
USMS Fall Fitness 1-Mile Swim Challenge: Congratulations to all our swimmers that completed the 2021 USMS Fall Fitness Challenge! Sheryl W, Michael M, Martha M, Sandy B, Candi G, Gloria R, Terry B-M, Carol S, Brice C, Diane B, Clisty K, Kara P, Becky J and Coach Jim! Unfortunately due to a snafu at Hartland pool the PM swimmers were unable to complete the challenge…I’m sure there will be an opportunity at some point for you to make it up! (thanks for your patience) Great job everyone!
Matt Wuchte
When I started swimming masters I jumped in with both feet and went to Nationals without even a dual meet under my belt. Patrick Sturdy was there, and we enjoyed an instant bond. He lets me make him the butt of all my jokes, and knows I still respect him and our friendship.
Then COVID hit. I still did not know many of you. MAC put together the virtual competition during the shut down. I began to slowly meet some of you. It was at this time that you started referring to me as that guy with the funny videos. This game was a fantastic outlet. I hope all of the coaches know that this helped many, myself included, through a dark time. It gave me the opportunity to meet all my new friends. For that I will always be grateful.
