Everyone who watched coverage of the World Championships this year no doubt noticed Michael Phelps new distinct lope in his freestyle. I know a lot of other swimmers do this too, and their freaking fast, so this morning I asked my coach about it. She looked at me quizzically and said it's a very bad habit to have and if you don't do it naturally just forget about it.
But, Phelps didn't have this very obvious lope up to now, and he just broke 5 world records with it. So it doesn't seem like it can be that bad. I'm not to prove my coach wrong, I'm just curious.
So if anybody knows anything, please share. Why does it make some fast and for others it could be considered a bad habit? What's the trick to learning it? If it is a bad habit, why did Phelps bother to pronounce it?
www.youtube.com/watch ... notice his very distinct lope.
www.youtube.com/watch ... Athens ... lopeless ...
It seems like a really big difference to be such a bad habit.
I watched the race in the worlds a few times the other day. It seems to me that Van den Hoogenband was faster between the walls in the first 150 but that Phelps killed him on the turns. On the fourth 50 Phelps obviously had more gas in his tank and pulled away. I'm not an elite swimmer though, so maybe I missed something. Did anyone else get that impression? If that was truly the case maybe the lope in his stroke wasn't all that helpful.
Skip Montanaro
www.youtube.com/watch ... notice his very distinct lope.
www.youtube.com/watch ... Athens ... lopeless ...
It seems like a really big difference to be such a bad habit.
I watched the race in the worlds a few times the other day. It seems to me that Van den Hoogenband was faster between the walls in the first 150 but that Phelps killed him on the turns. On the fourth 50 Phelps obviously had more gas in his tank and pulled away. I'm not an elite swimmer though, so maybe I missed something. Did anyone else get that impression? If that was truly the case maybe the lope in his stroke wasn't all that helpful.
Skip Montanaro
