Open Water Source has observed over the years how the fastest and the most accomplished open water swimmers have a relatively fast arm stroke turnover.

Their turnover ranges from 73 strokes per minute for Philip Rush for over 28 hours in his English Channel three-way swim and Penny Dean’s spm pace in the mid-80s during her channel records swims to 97 for Eva Fabian on her world 5K championship in Canada last year.

We look at top athletes, whether they are triathletes or competitive open water swimmers, and their arms are simply moving fast. This ability is parrt aerobic capacity, part strength and part efficiency of movement.

Along these lines, Adam Radford wrote an insightful analysis on arm stroke turnover for TriZone.

It was an enjoyable and thought-provoking analysis that is consistent with observations of the world’s fastest athletes in the open water.

Stroke count chart above is courtesy of Adam Radford.



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