The Lope

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? Kyra, I could be wrong but ... It is a bad habit, it obviously works for Phelps as does breathing every stroke on fly. Neither of which I would advocate. Loping can lead to a severe stroke imbalance and make you far more inefficient in the water. As soon as I see it (unless it's on a REALLY strong swimmer) I start having them alternate breathe ... It can make the non breathing side arm slip ... it can mess with your tempo ... Phelps' is a result of his underwater kicks and he has enough power to do it well (obviously)

I love the Scottish announcer in the Athens vid. I kept expecting him to say something like "Phelps has been setting world records since he was a wee bairn." :) After watching the two videos the thing that struck me the most about the difference in Phelps' stroke is how high his elbows are now on his recovery. I'm guessing he's doing this to get his arms into a higher elbow position on the catch (EVF, if you will). I think Phelps has always loped, though. Maybe it's more pronounced now. Honestly, I think swimmers should strive for a symmetrical stroke, but there's nothing wrong with loping for those who succeed with it. Yes, you need to be careful about what's going on with your shoulder and not leaning on it to much, but I don't think there's any evidence I know of suggesting lopers are more prone to injury. I think the proof is in the pudding that you can swim very fast with a loping stroke. There have been lots of great swimmers with this kind of stroke.

Back in the days I read Usenet regularly, there was a guy who posted a lot in rec.sport.swimming about loping. His theory was that loping is actually beneficial and postulated the lope allows swimmers to "ride their own bow wave." It was an interesting theory. Not sure I buy it, but he really did spend a considerable amount of time thinking about this. A Google search of rec.sport.swimming would probably return a lot of hits on "loping."

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

Back in the days I read Usenet regularly, there was a guy who posted a lot in rec.sport.swimming about loping. His theory was that loping is actually beneficial and postulated the lope allows swimmers to "ride their own bow wave." Maybe the asymmetry allows him to take in more air when he breathes? Skip

I don't think Phelps went out and said "Bob, I want to develop a lope in my stroke. Horses do it, so maybe I should follow suit." I find myself swimming with a lope at times when I drive one arm forward stronger than the other. It seems to conserve energy and take me further with less energy expended. My guess would be that Phelps drives forward more strongly with one arm than the other which produces the side effect of swimming with a lope.

I find myself swimming with a lope at times when I drive one arm forward stronger than the other. It seems to conserve energy and take me further with less energy expended. That's why I was curious. I tried it the other when I was just messing around and it felt like I was going farther with less effort, which is why I was surprised to find out it was bad. I'm sure Phelps didn't go up and say Bob Lope my Stroke, but if it is so bad, then why did Bowman allow it to become so pronounced rather than trying to balance out his stroke. Keep the ideas coming...love to hear 'em.

www.youtube.com/watch ---here's Phelps just recently in the 200 free in Melbourne. (It's in Japanese, but they sound really excited.) But notice his very distinct lope. www.youtube.com/watch ---here's the 200 free from Athens. Phelps is lopeless in Lane 3. It seems like a really big difference to be such a bad habit.

Wasn't Janet Evans a big loper? Far too much is made of this "ideal" stroke and form. I would say that if something works well for you then do it. Don't worry about what the so called experts say.

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