Introduction

What is your race strategy? Out fast and just try to survive? Are you a closer who builds your race the whole way through? Or, are you the type to race without a strategy?

There is no arguing that records have been broken via a multitude of race strategies, or lack thereof, but one could argue that most swimmers train for races in a similar manner, and that is from an energy conservation standpoint.

One of the most demoralizing things to happen to a swimmer, or any athlete for that matter, is to be caught and ultimately beaten. Therefore, no swimmer is ever coached to fly and die, at least not at a shave and taper meet, and that makes sense. If executed accordingly, a race that has the proper distribution of energy and tighter split ranges is far more lethal than a race where energy is randomly distributed in bursts resulting in a wider gap between splits.

For example, at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Ian Thorpe (Australia) and Klete Keller (USA) both anchored their countries 4 x 200 LCM Freestyle Relays the night after they placed 1st and 4th in the individual 200 LCM Freestyle event, respectively.

On the relay, Thorpe dove in 1.48 seconds behind Keller and cut 0.98 seconds off that deficit in the first 50. However, his second 50 was 2.72 seconds slower than his first, an 11% increase, whereas in his individual event his second 50 was only 1.42 seconds slower than his first, a 6% increase.

Keller, on the other hand, split 1.84 seconds slower on his second 50 in the relay, a 7% increase, as opposed to only a 1.27 differential, or 5%, in his individual race.

As a result, Thorpe distributed too much energy in his first 50 and was never able to finish closing the gap on the Keller who anchored Team USA to victory.

My point, swimmers have to keep their composure, just like Will Ferrell said.

Split Analysis

Now I am not saying that nerves do not play a large factor in athletics. I am a huge believer in the mental “X” factor that allows for some of the most spectacular races to be performed given special circumstances, but I do believe that you cannot train, prepare, or depend on this “X” factor. Every time you dive in the water you should have the same strategy in mind that you spent the entire season training for, regardless of the circumstances. Come taper time, swimming is far more mental than physical and therefore you should trust that your strategy will produce the best time possible on that day.

So, what should be your race strategy? In keeping with the 200 strategy theme, but shifting focus to yards to correlate with the upcoming NCAA Championships, let us compare the 200 SCY race strategies of a long-axis and short-axis stroke.

Back in the day, my best event was the 200 SCY Butterfly, but I also swam the 200 SCY Freestyle occasionally, and the 200 SCY race strategy that I trained for, regardless of stroke, was:

1st 50 = Baseline
2nd 50 = Baseline + 1.5 seconds
3rd 50 = Baseline + 1.0 seconds
4th 50 = Baseline + 0.5 seconds

The math would tell you that this means, regardless of stroke, you were supposed to split your race evenly, front to back. However, diving deeper into the different split breakdowns across strokes tells us something different.

For this publication, I analyzed the top five finishers from each of the past five NCAA D1 Championships (2010-2014) which equates to a sample size of 25 unique swims for each event.

The full analysis is available in the appendix, but for now, let us look at a breakdown of the two following events:

Male SCY 200 Freestyle
Male SCY 200 Butterfly

Exhibit 1
Male 200 SCY Freestyle
Average time of the 25 unique swims

1st 50 = 21.70
2nd 50 = 23.42 (increase from 1st 50 = 1.72 seconds / 7.9%)
3rd 50 = 23.73 (increase from 1st 50 = 2.03 seconds / 9.4%)
4th 50 = 24.09 (increase from 1st 50 = 2.39 seconds / 11.0%)
Final Time = 1:32.94

Exhibit 2
Male 200 SCY Butterfly
Average time of the 25 unique swims

1st 50 = 22.90
2nd 50 = 25.90 (increase from 1st 50 = 3.00 seconds / 13.1%)
3rd 50 = 26.11 (increase from 1st 50 = 3.21 seconds / 14.0%)
4th 50 = 26.67 (increase from 1st 50 = 3.77 seconds / 16.5%)
Final Time = 1:41.58

Conclusion

Even the best swimmers in the country, for both long and short-axis strokes, do not descend their 50’s throughout a 200. In fact, they ascend their 50’s which is pretty interesting considering I have never heard a coach tell their swimmers the last 50 should be their slowest.

Additionally, if you back into the math of having a +1.5 second increase in the second 50 of a 200 based on the average increase for freestyle (7.8% increase) and butterfly (13.1% increase), that means:

for a 200 Freestyle, the first and second 50’s should be 18.99 and 20.49 seconds (7.9% increase) and,
for a 200 Butterfly, the first and second 50’s should be 11.45 and 12.95 seconds (13.4% increase), respectively.

Now we all know those splits are inconceivable! (’The Princess Bride’ fan in me cannot say that work without exclamation), so the moral of this case study is the importance of establishing a race strategy based on a relative percent basis, and not on absolute seconds.

As my dad used to say to me, “you have to swim in your own lane.” He also used to say that I should “swim like there is a shark in my lane”, but I think in this particular case the former makes a little more sense. Each swimmer is different, each stroke is different, and no two races are the same. So, regardless of skill level, you should be tailoring your race around your own ability, which is why a race strategy based on a relative percent basis makes more sense.

Understandably, the above percentages may not be right for everyone. For example, Ricky Berens took his American Record 1:31.31 200 SCY Freestyle out a little bit quicker than average, and ‘descended’ his next three 50’s (0.12 seconds delta between the three). But you are not Ricky Berens. If you want to piece together the perfect race, then I suggest you follow the masses and start with what, on average, some of the best swimmers in the country have been doing over the past four years. This could mean that you need to slow down your first 50 to make sure more is left in the tank at the end, or it could also mean you need to go out faster because if you always close strong then you did not properly distribute your energy to the earlier part of the race.

This baseline race strategy will serve as a platform of confidence for you when you dive in and the race becomes more mental than physical. Swimmers spend too many hours in the pool building confidence to leave their season up to chance come taper time.

Footnotes

Author: Elliot Meena

Published: April 21, 2014

Sources: Omega Timing, Swimming World Magazine

Notes:

SCY: Short-Course-Yards (i.e., a 25-yard pool)
LCM: Long-Course-Meters (i.e., a 50-meter pool)
Appendix (77 slides)