By Olivier Poirier-Leroy on SwimSwam
Stroke rate gets a lot of the attention in sprint freestyle, but how much water swimmers can hold with each stroke is where the chlorinated rubber meets the road.
Sprint freestyle is all about spitting up tons of white water, putting out enough power to crash out the pool’s stadium lights, and of course, spinning those arms about as fast as the shoulder sockets can handle.
More turnover, more stroke rate, more speed.
Simple enough.
But that laser-focus on turnover can mean swimmers are letting a lot of speed spill off into the gutter if they aren’t also holding lots of water.
Here’s why stroke length is so crucial for fast freestyle sprinting, how elites balance stroke rate and stroke length, and how to hold more water at higher tempos.
Let’s get to sprinting.
Why Stroke Rate Isn’t Enough in the Splash and Dash
Stroke length is one of the defining characteristics of swimming excellence in the pool—we see a swimmer cover the length of the pool with a single-digit number of strokes and think, oh—hey, that’s a good swimmer!
In the sprints, that connection is not as obvious, because stroke length at max velocity is naturally shorter than middle- and distance-freestyle.
For example, at the Paris Olympics, finalists in the 50 free had the shortest stroke length of all freestyle events. They traded stroke length with a big jump in stroke rate for added propulsion (figures are m/stroke cycle):
50 free 100 free 200 free 400 free Men 2.076 2.341 2.587 2.49 Women 1.967 2.122 2.267 2.203Average finalists’ meters per stroke cycle, Paris 2024 Olympics
This can make it easy to underestimate how important stroke length really is for sprinters.
A study (Staunton et al., 2025) analyzing finalists across all freestyle distances at the 2019 European Championships found that in the 50 free, stroke length had the strongest relationship with swimming speed—stronger than in longer events, and much more than stroke rate.
Which makes sense: At the elite level, stroke rate is high from lane one to lane eight. Everyone’s revving the RPMs near redline. What separates the truly elite is how well they maintain stroke length at elevated tempos.
For sprint freestylers, the goal isn’t choosing stroke rate or stroke length.
It’s maintaining force per stroke as stroke rate climbs.
The Elite Twist (and What Stroke Length Actually Means)
Before you decide to apply your “long and slow” stroke on your 50 or sprint sets, there’s an important nuance to remember.
Elite sprinters in the Staunton study weren’t swimming up and down the pool with long, lazy strokes like they were doing warm-down. They did something much harder—they kept a high stroke rate and held onto their stroke length.
And this is where swimmers get tripped up.
They hear “stroke length” and “sprinty-sprinty fast-fast” in the same sentence, and the first instinct is to try and to make the stroke longer.
This leads to:
More rolling of the hips Gliding out further at the hand entry Less power in the press Adding a gallop to the stroke to buy more distanceAll of which turns your sprint stroke into a distance stroke (not ideal).
Elite sprint freestyle isn’t about making the stroke longer—it’s about holding more water at speed.
And this is done while:
Using the reduced entry and glide of sprint technique Maintaining a reduced hip roll and increased shoulder roll velocity Pressing hard into the catch Maintaining an overlapping arm timing to stay in propulsionThose are two very different approaches, and confusing them will make you slower, not faster.
How to Hold More Water When Sprinting
Here’s how to load each stroke with more force and more length:
Use tempo and stroke count constraints
To improve your ability to hold water and apply force to it, try doing short reps of maximal effort freestyle with a lower stroke count (i.e. 25 fast with 11 strokes instead of 12 strokes).
Or use a lower stroke rate as a constraint—set the Tempo Trainer to 55 instead of 57 and try to sprint with the lower turnover.
Both will force your body to reorganize in a way that emphasizes holding more water.
Resisted sprints to boost force
Resisted sprint swim training is one of the “must haves” for getting faster. Swimmers apply more force to overcome drag, which improves their ability to do so when unbuckling the drag chute, power tower, or half-dozen sponges tow-roped behind you.
It’s also generally effective.
A study found that resisted sprint swim training significantly outperformed regular unresisted sprint training for increasing swim velocity with elite swimmers (Matusz et al., 2018).
Strength training plus resisted swimming
Pair strength training with resisted sprint training for even better results. A meta-analysis (Wang et al., 2025) of dryland interventions found this combo to work best for improving swim velocity and sprint performance.
Build strength in the gym, apply newfound strength to the stroke in resisted swimming, convert to real swimming velocity.
Master sprint mechanics
Technique work hits different in sprint freestyle—this type of freestyle is choppier, messier, and has more bursts of acceleration and deceleration compared to your standard middle/distance freestyle stroke.
But even though it doesn’t look as smooth, mechanics are still essential!
Use the right stroke coordination, a strong press at the front, hook into the catch, orient the hand backward quickly, and accelerate the hand past the shoulder.
The better your technique, the more force you can apply.
The Bottom Line
Sprint freestyle is challenging for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that swimmers often focus on tempo at the expense of stroke length. Elite sprinters master both.
So go get that tempo. But make sure there is lots of force application happening with each stroke, too.
The swimmers that do this are the ones who rule the pool when the bright lights are on, and it’s “rip and grip” o’clock.
ABOUT OLIVIER POIRIER-LEROY
Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national level swimmer, 2x Olympic Trials qualifier, and author of several books for swimmers, including YourSwimBook, Conquer the Pool, The Dolphin Kick Manual, and most recently, The 50 Freestyle Blueprint.
The book is a beastly 220+ pages of evidence-based insights and practical tips for improving freestyle sprint speed.
It details everything from how to master stroke rate, technique, build a thundering freestyle kick, improve your start and underwaters, and much more.
The 50 Freestyle Blueprint also includes 20 sprint sets to get you started and a bonus guide on how to master the 100 freestyle to complete your sprint preparation.
Learn more about The 50 Freestyle Guide today.
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