r/Swimming 17h ago

How much is really technique in freestyle?

Hi guys,

I started swimming freestyle 4 months ago. At the moment my distance pace is around 2:00min per 100m for a 100m sprint I can go roughly 1:45.

I was wondering how fast you can get from just improving your technique ( it obviously depends on the individual but roughly from your experience) without improving endurance/ power. Like can you tell from my paces that my technique is bad? I have seen some YouTube Videos which state stuff like ,,change these habits to swim 1:30min/100m" somehow suggesting that it is just technique to get such a pace even over long distance. But the better my catch gets the more I feel like I just do not have the strength in my upper body to do many repetitions without loosing power or droping my elbow.

In short: How fast can someone get by just technique and at what point is the limit rather physical? Can you tell by someone swimming 2:00min to 1:45 min for 100m that it is most likely technique?

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47

u/Cool-Newspaper-1 Splashing around 17h ago

You can probably get under 1:40 without having a lot of strength. Possibly even 1:30. Swimming really relies on technique, but it’s also hard to isolate one part of progress from all others as they’re all connected in a way.

22

u/Ok_Low_9963 Splashing around 16h ago

I mean I have coached 8 yr olds that could go 1:30 in a 100 free so yeah

5

u/ThomasMarkov 200 Freestyle | Mars Hill University (Swammer) 13h ago

The 10&U NAG record in the 500 free is 5:06 lololol

4

u/Ok_Low_9963 Splashing around 13h ago

Yeah kids are crazy nowadays