By Olivier Poirier-Leroy on SwimSwam
Want to unleash more top-end speed in the pool? Here are some proven ways to add more horsepower to your 50 freestyle and see faster times on the clock.
The 50 freestyle is the Splash and Dash, the Grip and Rip, the Hurry and Scurry, the purest expression of precision and power in the water.
Behind the thundering kick and white water arm returns is the mastery of technique, coordination, and power. Getting faster isn’t just about sprinting harder—it’s about training like a high-grade smarty pants.
This means mastering sprint specific technique, building explosive power in and out of the water, and training the right way.
For the speed-obsessed, here are some proven strategies for squeezing more go-go from your freestyle.
Train sprint-specific mechanics
One of the biggest mistakes swimmers make when trying to improve sprint speeds is not training the specific technical and kinematic demands of the event.
Sprint freestyle is distinct from regular freestyle in a lot of important ways:
Higher stroke tempo. Sprint freestyle uses a high tempo to create lots and lots of power. For example, the men’s finalists at the Paris Olympics in the 50 freestyle hit stroke rates of 60-65 stroke per minute. This is way higher than the stroke rates in the 100 freestyle (~50) and the 200 freestyle (~40-45). Stroke timing. Your standard freestyle technique has a lopping, gliding arm action. This type of freestyle is highly efficient, but is not designed for top end speeds. Sprinters overlap strokes (achieving positive “Index of Coordination” scores) which contrasts significantly from the slight gallop seen at submax speeds (Seifert and Bardy, 2004). Different body roll. The body roll when sprinting differs from regular freestyle in several important ways. First, the increased tempo and timing of a sprint stroke mean there is increased shoulder roll velocity. The shoulders roll the same amount but do so much quicker. And secondly, the hips roll less (Andersen et al., 2020). This gives sprinters a more stable platform to twist the torso against and stabilizes the legs when kicking at full thrust.And that’s just the tip of the sprint vs. regular freestyle iceberg: Sprinters use a straighter arm during the catch and the pull phase. Glide less at hand entry. Use faster hands through the push phase. Return the arm with straight or scooped arms. And much more.
Combined, the sprinter’s freestyle technique is a different beast compared to your usual freestyle.
Add resisted sprints
Resisted sprint training via tools like chutes, tubing, power towers, and mesh netting like DragSox are an awesome way to build sprint freestyle speed!
Studies with swimmers doing sprint training with drag chutes saw boosts in freestyle velocity (Valkoumas et al., 2020). Resisted sprint training has also shown to out-perform unresisted sprint training in elite swimmers (Grznar et al., 2018).
The trick to this kind of training is to keep it short and oriented towards power. For example:
6x15m all out with a medium drag chute taking 90s rest between repetitions.There are lots of reasons to add resisted swimming to your workouts, from strengthening your stroke to increasing stroke coordination to using it for post-activation potentiation, but leveling up those top end speeds is the best reason of all.
Train the right energy systems
The 50 freestyle relies almost exclusively on the anaerobic alactic (phosphagen) and anaerobic lactic (glycolytic) systems to produce golden performances. The aerobic system plays a minor role during the event itself but is still important for recovery and repeat efforts.
Per Rodriguez and Mader (2011), here’s how the three systems work in the 50:
Phosphagen: 38% Glycolytic: 58% Aerobic: 4%Sprint training should address these energy systems.
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