Just like running, your speed is the product of stroke rate and your distance per stroke (stride rate and stride length for running). 14-16 strokes per length is very good - too good in fact for the pace you seem to be going. This makes me think that either you are about 7 ft tall and just have an enormous reach, or you are perhaps holding your glide too long and losing energy (stroke rate is too low). I know - stroke count, stroke count, stroke count... but you can be taking too few strokes if you are holding your glide so long that you slow down significantly between each stroke, in which case you are speding too much energy of each stroke accelerating back up to speed. Do you feel surges of momentum with each stroke? If so you might want to increase your stroke rate slightly and see if that helps.

Congrats on your progress, and remember it's not really fair to yourself to compare with anyone else. Some of us here have been swimming competitively for 5 - 20 years, some people have bodies that are more optimized for swimming (flotation, body length, shoulder flexibility, hand and foot size, among others, all effect swimming), and some have put in hundreds of thousands of yards of technique work. It all adds up, just have faith that as you are improving, you will continue to improve. It's great that you're taking the time to work on your technique, that is the surest path to getting where you want to go!

My mantra for swimming fast is "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, therefore slow is fast". I try to swim powerfully but smoothly to increase speed. Merely increasing the rotation of the arms and kicking of the legs is often an exercise in frustration and struggle.

Is this in the pool that you posted a video of before? Are you sure that it's a 25m pool? I thought when I watched that video before that it was probably a 20 yard pool as it looked very short. Even with your stroke in the video, with very little glide, it was only taking you 15 strokes per length. That's how many a strong swimmer takes in a 25m pool with a *lot* of glide, so I'd be surprised if your pool is 25m, given the information you've supplied here. If you are indeed taking 15 strokes per length in a 25m pool, but swimming 2:00 per 100, you're probably either kicking a lot more than you should be, or overextending your glide to the point that you're bleeding off speed.

Regardless, the road to swimming speed is still technique and then working on power with good form. If you can post another video here of your technique now that you've been working on it with drills, folks here can probably help you refine some more. If you can get a coach to look at your form in real life, that's probably your best bet, because it's hard to do technique work on your own when you can't see what you're doing.

This is exactly the type of thing I'm trying to avoid

Its not the same pool. I'm in a pool at Gold's gym now, but I'm not 100% sure its a 25 yard pool. I am gliding quite a bit, though, so that could be the cause. I do feel surges forward as I start into my stroke.

I think this is very likely the case. I'll measure the pool though, to be sure. I'll see if I can get another video together. I really want to get a coach though. How much should I expect to pay for decent coaching, and how often should I expect to meet with a coach?

I really appreciate everyone's help. I've never been a good swimmer, and almost didn't graduate from the boy scouts because of it. So now its really important to me to become a good swimmer. It may be time to get an in person coach.

"10x" = ten times
100 = 100 yds or meters
with 20 secs between each 100

once the 10 repeats are done, rest for 1 min before starting your next workout set (whatever that may be)

the 20 secs is just an example, you may find you need more or less, but the main idea is to be methodical about the workout so that you can challenge yourself incrementally and measurably

Great! You're hired! The gas from SLC to Eugene is going to kill me though.

I tried the intervals, and speeding up my stroke. Not having really done a lot of short intervals like 100s, I don't know how much improvement this is, but I was able to do like 1:30 for my first couple, then it dropped to about 1:40, and by the end was like 1:47 with one or two that were in the 1:50s. This is a with a minute rest, though, between sets.

I checked with my gym, and they claim its 25m, so hopefully they're telling the truth.

Do I want kind of a rolling feeling, or a pull->glide->pull->glide type of thing? I usually have the pull->glide thing happening, but upping my stroke count makes it feel a little more motorish.

Well it was an email from the manager of the gym. He seemed pretty sure. I guess I could bring a measuring tape to make sure.

I'll start doing top of the minute style intervals. I like that idea.

If they have the typical 2x4 acoustical grid ceiling, just do backstroke for a while, count the tiles, and do the math. Most acoustic tile ceilings are 24"x48". Or walk it off and measure your stride to compare.

You'll be close enough to tell if it's close to 25yds or not...