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?
I'm not a physicist, but I'm skeptical of this "riding the bow wave"
idea. For one thing, to ride the wave I think you'd have to be ahead
of it (think of body surfing). For another, the energy required to
get high enough in the water to "ride" the wave seems like it would be
exorbitant and would be directed at raising you out of the water
instead of propelling you forward. Finally, the wave you produce
moves away from you to either side, not in front of you where you
can "catch" it. I don't think there's much there to ride. The only
positive thing I can think of is that the wave you produce creates a
trough behind it allowing you to breathe without getting your mouth as
far out of the water (less rotation needed to breath). I seem to
recall something on the Total Immersion freestyle DVD about "riding the
wave" (he didn't like it either), but I loaned mine out so I can't confirm that.
Skip
I'm not a physicist, but I'm skeptical of this "riding the bow wave"
idea. For one thing, to ride the wave I think you'd have to be ahead
of it (think of body surfing). For another, the energy required to
get high enough in the water to "ride" the wave seems like it would be
exorbitant and would be directed at raising you out of the water
instead of propelling you forward. Finally, the wave you produce
moves away from you to either side, not in front of you where you
can "catch" it. I don't think there's much there to ride. The only
positive thing I can think of is that the wave you produce creates a
trough behind it allowing you to breathe without getting your mouth as
far out of the water (less rotation needed to breath). I seem to
recall something on the Total Immersion freestyle DVD about "riding the
wave" (he didn't like it either), but I loaned mine out so I can't confirm that.
Skip
