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?
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Former Member
I'm no Phelps (way too far from it) but when I "lope", even though it looks a bit like a limp (one arm, the left for me, pushes back stronger to allow
my body and right arm, to kind of lunge forward stronger/faster with my right arm entering further afield), the whole loping undulation produces a dolphin-like general body (well the best word is) "undulation". It is almost as if I'm trying to propel my body to dolphin its way out of the water (in free style) and dive in with my right-arm. I've noticed it works best (i.e., I feel faster) whenever I'm accelerating.
That's what I was thinking too. When I was messing around it seemed like I could exaggerate the undulation which is obviously gonna make you go farther. Even without exaggerating it, I still felt like I was doing more with my body. Seems like an undulating motion would be better than the side to side rolling.
I'm no Phelps (way too far from it) but when I "lope", even though it looks a bit like a limp (one arm, the left for me, pushes back stronger to allow
my body and right arm, to kind of lunge forward stronger/faster with my right arm entering further afield), the whole loping undulation produces a dolphin-like general body (well the best word is) "undulation". It is almost as if I'm trying to propel my body to dolphin its way out of the water (in free style) and dive in with my right-arm. I've noticed it works best (i.e., I feel faster) whenever I'm accelerating.
That's what I was thinking too. When I was messing around it seemed like I could exaggerate the undulation which is obviously gonna make you go farther. Even without exaggerating it, I still felt like I was doing more with my body. Seems like an undulating motion would be better than the side to side rolling.
