Goswim.com has a drill up that goes over the "loping" freestyle that we're seeing so many sprinters doing. I'd be curious to hear what other posters think about this style. I've spent the last year working on swimming straight and smooth so this seems contrary to that, but one look at that 4x100 free and you can't argue with loping results. Is this something that your average masters swimmer can accomplish? Or is this strictly for the elite?
www.goswim.tv/.../freestyle---loper-drill.html
The stroke in that clip looks illegal to me. The rules of freestyle require that part of the body is breaking the surface at all times, whereas that clip shows the swimmer becoming completely submerged at some points in the stroke.
He seems to be explicitly advocating this illegal aspect of the technique:
"The goal here is to try to maximize the time you spend UNDER WATER. In simple terms, we all know we travel farther and faster UNDER water, so lets give it a shot on freestyle, in between strokes."
