By Olivier Poirier-Leroy on SwimSwam
A high stroke rate is part of what makes sprint freestyle so… sprinty.
The fast arm turnover creates heaps of white water and helps swimmers propel themselves down the pool at greased-up-tech-suit speeds.
But stroke rate isn’t the whole story with elite sprinters—you need to be able to hold water as well.
That’s what this sprint set is all about.
Fast arms that displace lots of water.
Grab some resistance (drag chute, resistance tubing, etc), a tempo trainer to lock in your stroke rate, and overload the pull.
The goal: Lock in your stroke rate and hold lots of water while doing it.
The Broken Power 50s Set
After a thorough warm-up and a relevant pre-set:
5 rounds:
3×12 strokes all-out with heavy resistance on 2:00 (match race tempo with a FINIS Tempo Trainer) Take the number of strokes in your 50 freestyle and divide by 3 (e.g. 36 strokes / 3 = 12 strokes). That’s the number of strokes to take. Each round is essentially a broken 50. Extra minute rest 25 fast off the blocks 5:00 between roundsWhy This Set Rocks
Short bursts of resisted sprinting are one of the best ways to improve speed in the water. Even at lower intensities, brief reps of tethered/resisted swimming can significantly improve stroke length (Skorulski et al., 2026). Matching race tempo on the resisted efforts makes it tougher to keep that turnover going—perfect for building the coordination and power required to make race tempo feel easier by comparison. Practicing fast, repeatable chunks of your goal performance teach your body the coordination, power output, and intensity you want on race day. Rehearse it enough and race speed starts to feel mighty familiar! The 25 fast off the blocks will feel great, too. The resisted sprints create a potentiation effect before you drop the resistance and get after it. Go full recovery mode between rounds. The goal is to keep power output high and to stay on your tempo. Rest on the wall or lightly swim it out.Sprinting like a champ requires swimmers to get their turnover going. But things really start to move once they can pair that turnover while putting serious force into the water.
Use the broken 50s to overload that combo, then take the resistance off and let ‘er rip.
Happy sprinting!
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 Blueprint here.
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