Asian records and world-class techniques show: those who adjust their pace in the pool and work on their glide phase swim more efficiently.
When you swim your laps in the pool, you often dream of the perfect, effortless movement of the pros. A look at current top performances in swimming shows that behind the records lies, above all, an extremely fine feel for rhythm, stroke length and the right race tactics. At the Asian Games in the Tokyo Aquatics Centre, athletes like the only 13-year-old Chinese swimmer Yu Zidi, who set a new record over 200 metres butterfly in 2:05.08 minutes, or the 31-year-old veteran Xu Jiayu over 100 metres backstroke, demonstrated how important consistency and technical precision are. The 35-year-old Japanese swimmer Satomi Suzuki also proved over 50 metres breaststroke with a time of 29.91 seconds that even at an advanced age, you can still achieve personal bests through technical development.
According to a report by SWIM.DE, breaststroke in particular shows how much the technique depends on the distance. Top athletes like Adam Peaty have perfected a style with an extremely high cadence, explosive kick and a very short glide phase for short sprint distances (50 and 100 metres). Here, the goal is to keep the speed high without interruption.
For recreational athletes, however, this hectic style is usually the wrong approach on longer distances. If you have longer distances or the 200 metres in mind, you must rely on stroke length. This means: after the kick, you need to keep your body as stretched and low-drag as possible, gliding through the water before the next arm stroke begins. A rhythm that is too fast only wastes energy unnecessarily here. The role model for this long, stable body position and the perfect timing between breathing, kick and glide phase is, for example, the top German breaststroke swimmer Marco Koch.
The fact that patience in the water pays off is also shown by looking at international races. At the Asian Games, the Japanese swimmer Misa Okuzono secured the bronze medal over 200 metres butterfly, even though six competitors had started faster than her over the first 100 metres. Through a consistent and controlled second half of the race, she was able to work her way to the front in the end. For your own training, this means: do not blow all your energy on the first metres, but choose a steady pace.
You do not always have a free lane to yourself in the indoor pool. When the pool is overcrowded, the structure of the training often suffers. According to SWIM.DE, it is advisable in such situations to adjust your goals flexibly. Instead of trying in frustration to force hard intervals or sprints against the traffic, you should switch to longer distances.
Your takeaway: Adjust your stroke length and your rhythm to the distance and use crowded lanes in a relaxed way to train your basic endurance.
This article was generated automatically with AI from the sources listed above and has not been editorially reviewed.