SWOLF is an effectivity metric that may assist swimmers enhance approach and efficiency. Learn on to discover ways to use it for swimming success.
Swimmers know that swimming quick means swimming effectively. Whether or not you’re a newbie or an elite swimmer seeking to maximize efficiency on race day, a extra environment friendly stroke conserves power and maximizes pace.
One metric for measuring the purpose of final effectivity is SWOLF, an information level that tallies your stroke depend and splits to present you a rating.
On this article, we’ll dive into what SWOLF is, why you need to use it as a part of your coaching, some suggestions for bettering your rating, and gadgets and apps for monitoring this metric.
Let’s dive proper in.
What’s SWOLF?
SWOLF is a portmanteau that mixes “swimming” and “golf.” It combines stroke depend and time, supplying you with a rating.
The decrease the rating, the extra environment friendly and quick you might be swimming.
The formulation for SWOLF is straightforward and as follows:
SWOLF = Time to swim a lap (seconds) + Strokes to swim a lap.
For instance, should you swim 25-yards in 15 seconds and take 12 strokes, you’ve earned your self a SWOLF rating of 27.
However should you can swim that very same 25-yards in 15 seconds and 11 strokes, you’ve decreased the rating to 26 and demonstrated better swimming effectivity.
The wonderful thing about SWOLF is that it provides you two variables to regulate to seek out that candy spot the place you swim most effectively.
Advantages of Monitoring SWOLF
The advantages of monitoring SWOLF embrace encouraging better effectivity within the water, determine stroke weaknesses, added motivation, and improved race technique.
Larger effectivity
The greats within the pool, whether or not we’re speaking about Katie Ledecky, Michael Phelps, or Caeleb Dressel, all make it look simple as they haul throughout the size of the swimming pool at Mach-5.
SWOLF is a superb metric to get your effectivity on, serving to you keep aware of swimming with a protracted and fluid stroke each time you hit the water.
Approach can usually fall to the wayside (or in our case, the pool gutter), as a swim exercise progresses, and having a transparent metric like SWOLF may also help swimmers stay targeted on swimming lengthy and powerful always.
Higher swimming approach
SWOLF scores assist you to keep targeted on swimming with superior approach. Hitting these goal numbers means each lap, stroke and push-off are performed to precision.
A decent streamline. A clear break-out. Sturdy underwater kicking. Ending every stroke. Full catch.
A SWOLF rating gained’t robotically repair unhealthy swimming approach, however it may be the coach you want in your ear, reminding you to hit that elbow restoration and have interaction the core for a hydrodynamic physique place when swimming.
Added motivation
SWOLF is a superb instance of a metric that can be utilized to observe enchancment and progress within the water, particularly whenever you look again at your scores originally of the season.
The fact of swimming is that you just aren’t going to go a private finest time every time you dive into the water. Even in-practice bests will be exhausting to return by. Which might depart swimmers wanting for extra motivation because the season drags on.
Whilst you gained’t all the time be capable to hit these high speeds or swim to a brand new in-practice finest, you’ll be able to all the time hit these stroke counts.
Improved racing
Environment friendly swimming isn’t nearly making issues look “simple” within the pool. It’s about managing effort with the intention to end races like a champion.
Utilizing SWOLF monitoring throughout high-intensity efforts can educate you methods to keep a gentle tempo, whether or not that’s for a distance occasion or so that you just aren’t spinning your wheels originally of a race and hitting a wall midway by means of.
SWOLF can be utilized as a instrument for fine-tuning race technique, supplying you with a transparent thought of how completely different stroke charges and stroke lengths influence pace and energy.
Ideas for Enhancing SWOLF Scores
Able to up your SWOLF sport (by reducing it, clearly)? Listed here are some high suggestions for higher SWOLF scores.
Depend your strokes.
Counting your strokes is a ability each swimmer ought to grasp, whether or not or not you employ a swim watch or another kind of waterproof health tracker.
Not solely does stroke counting assist you to give attention to effectivity whereas swimming, but it surely additionally helps you keep current and reduces among the inevitable thoughts wandering from circling the black line.
Over time, you should have clear expectations of what number of strokes you need to take at various ranges of effort.
For instance, when sprinting a 50m freestyle, chances are you’ll take 34 strokes. When swimming at a cruise, DPS tempo, it might be 30 strokes.
These are belongings you study and may use to gauge efficiency as you change into proficient at counting strokes.
Give attention to wonderful physique place.
If there’s one approach tip that cuts throughout all strokes and distances, it’s a excessive physique place within the water.
Have interaction the core, prolong absolutely with the lats, shoulders, and arms on the high of the pull, and attempt to swim “downhill” to maintain the hips excessive and drag profile low.
SWOLF scores are in the end a measure of how a lot drag you’ll be able to scale back whereas swimming quick, and optimum physique place within the water is key to creating that occur.
Hold push-offs constant.
One sneaky little trick swimmers will pull (creator included) to shave a stroke or two off SWOLF scores is to increase their underwaters by including a dolphin kick or two into the breakouts.
Positive, technically this reduces your SWOLF rating, but it surely simply means it’s important to set a brand new baseline.
Be constant along with your push-offs and dolphin kicks to present your self essentially the most correct metrics doable to trace enchancment and progress.
Use your core.
Reducing your SWOLF rating requires a powerful core.
Why?
As a result of the core is the facility station of the physique for swimmers, exerting energy by means of the limbs by means of each part of the stroke cycle.
Whether or not you are attempting to stability your physique within the water, catch extra water, hit simply the precise hip roll, or keep a good streamline when pushing off, a powerful core is crucial.
Including core workout routines like planks, aspect plank, rollouts, and fowl canines to your coaching routine will improve energy and pace, scale back harm danger, and assist you to preserve your stroke collectively on the finish of a tough foremost set or within the ultimate 5m of a good race.
Don’t neglect to kick.
The pulling movement will get many of the consideration within the pool. And with good purpose. Research have discovered that the pull contributes to 85-90% of propulsion when swimming.
However a powerful kick does extra than simply fill out the final 10-15% of velocity; it additionally helps swimmers keep a better physique place within the water, rising effectivity (Gourgoulis et al., 2014).
Additionally, when swimming at full pace, the kick turns into much more essential.
A research (Morouço et al., 2015) with national-level swimmers discovered that when doing all-out tethered swimming, the kick contributed to 29.7% (males) and 33.4% (females) of complete propulsion.
Construct up these legs. They may assist arrange a stronger pull, enhance physique place, and offer you a greater SWOLF rating.
Tips on how to Observe SWOLF Scores
Monitoring SWOLF will be performed utilizing your mind and reminiscence or one of many many swim-tracking gadgets and wearables in the marketplace.
Tech has come to the swim pool lately, from custom-gasket swim goggles to heads-up shows inside goggle lenses. Wearables have additionally gotten a LOT higher, with many now spitting out reams of information from DPS to GPS to precise splits to coronary heart fee.
Due to the detailed reporting, slim watch casing, and easy-to-see screens, the swim watch has change into an important swim monitoring instrument which can be utilized to trace and retailer SWOLF scores.
Units and apps that observe SWOLF embrace:
Garmin watches – Garmin watches are synonymous with multi-sport coaching because of rugged design, lengthy battery life and detailed monitoring. Most of Garmin’s watches, together with the Forerunner, Fenix, and naturally, the Garmin Swim 2, come commonplace with swim monitoring, together with SWOLF metrics.
Apple Watch – The Exercise App on Apple Watches tracks SWOLF scores (click on on “present extra” subsequent to Auto Units to see it). Third-party swim apps like MySwimPro and Swim.com additionally observe SWOLF.
FORM Swim Goggles – The FORM Goggles are a game-changer in swim coaching, with a heads-up show for real-time monitoring of swim exercises. The dashboard on the show will be figured to indicate your SWOLF scores and is on the market post-swim within the app, too.
Swimmers also can go the old-school route and use their mind and reminiscence to trace SWOLF scores.
Clearly, limitations abound on this occasion, so doing this must be restricted to a very powerful repetitions in your swim exercise.
Wrapping Issues Up
Swimming sooner requires quite a lot of issues to occur. Correct hand entry. Excessive elbow. Hip roll—however not an excessive amount of hip roll. A lot so, that swimming correctly can really feel like you are attempting to do 43.5 issues directly.
Lowering your swimming to a metric like a SWOLF rating is a good way to sharpen your give attention to the issues that matter most and conserving issues easy within the water.
Strive enjoying round with SWOLF at your subsequent swim apply. Experiment with it at completely different speeds and discover that candy spot in your stroke and swimming the place you swim quickest.
Swim effectively. Swim quick.
ABOUT OLIVIER POIRIER-LEROY
Olivier Poirier-Leroy is a former national-level swimmer, creator, swim coach, and licensed private coach. He’s the creator of YourSwimBook, a ten-month logbook for aggressive swimmers.
He’s additionally the creator of the just lately printed psychological coaching workbook for aggressive swimmers, Conquer the Pool: The Swimmer’s Final Information to a Excessive-Efficiency Mindset.
It combines sport psychology analysis, worksheets, anecdotes, and examples of Olympians previous and current to present swimmers every part they should conquer the psychological aspect of the game.
Able to take your mindset to the following degree within the pool?
Click on right here to study extra about Conquer the Pool.
