Purposes of Using Long Cords:

1. Improve stroke power and stroke quality. It is important to match the cord strength with the swimmer so they are capable of reaching the wall. The last 8-10 strokes are the ones that matter most as the swimmer has to ‘dig in’ and find better stroke quality and muscle engagement.
2. Improve Underwater ‘distance per undulation’ by using cords for 15 meter mark breakouts
3. Train ‘Over-racing’. Swimmers need to feel and respond to the process or racing above their own ‘race pace’. There are 2 ways to over-race: a) when the cord is fully stretched, the swimmer will be pulled faster than their race pace and focus on maintaining that pace for the entire 25 yard distance, b) when a coach pulls the swimmer the entire 25 yards on the cord.
4. Racing through the turn. There are several ways to use Long Cords to race through turns: a) 2 connected ½ cords stretched the full 25 yards to train the power, timing and precision of the last few strokes into a super fast, tight turn (ins/outs), or b) connecting ½ cord at mid-pool for the same effect as 1 25 yard cord set (but 2 swimmers can practice in tandem in this case).
5. Practicing tight turns without the obstruction of a wall. To practice ‘outs/ins’, our ½ length cords can be attached at the wall (dive block, lane line anchor, etc…) to add resistance as swimmers breakout at mid-pool and practice tight turns.
6. Coach Resisted Swimming. A coach can slowly feed out the tension of a 25 yard cord set to maintain constant resistance to a swimmer.
7. Underwater flutter kicking resistance. Train a faster, tighter, more powerful flutter kick.
8. Improve underwater Breaststroke pull out progression. This is ideal in both the ‘Assistive’ and ‘Resistive’ directions with the Long Cords.
9. Improve Breakout habits. Train swimmers to breakout with intensity.

Note: We highly recommend against having cord resistance that is ABOVE the level of the swimmer. TO save money, some teams just buy the hardest resistance cords and have swimmers ‘swim as far as you can’. But this does not train swimmers to find better power or technique. Cords should match the swimmer so (along with some changes to the tether length) that each swimmer can stretch the entire cord 25 yards.