Olympic observations

[lloyddinma]

Originally Posted by Zenturtle

The asymmetric or loping stroke usage depends on the distance swum.
We have talked about this loping stroke stuff in the past without any real clear conclusion.

You will find the most lopers in the 200/400 m race distance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9usmHbuYWc

Something is mental too I think. Like a monotonous tribal dance thats makes people go on and on far longer than they would do without the music and without getting into that trance, zone or whatever you want to call it.

Some of it also could be linked to buoyance bounce rhythms that work together (or not) with strokerates.
.

There is a lot of mystery surrounding rythm. Breathing is one instantiation of it. It is one of the most effective ways to access the subconscious to accomplish feats. If you take one of those Yoga classes, you easily see this

[Danny]

Still looking to see who is swimming asymmetrically, and just finished watching the men's 1500m. Paltrinieri has a style similar in many ways to Ledecky. He almost crosses the center line when he spears on his non-breathing side. The silver medalist Jaeger is also pretty asymmetric.

[s.sciame]

Oh yes! So, after years analyzing Sun Yang's stroke, what can we learn from Gregorio Paltrinieri?

Salvo

[Zenturtle]

Nothing! ha ha...

I wonder how fast he can swim without any leg kick at all.. He has already ditched one leg...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obl8y_4KEYs
If he then adds a 6BK at the end on anaerobic reserve tank, he possibly can achieve a world record ;-)

Italy must be Happy!

[s.sciame]

Originally Posted by Zenturtle

Nothing! ha ha...

I wonder how fast he can swim without any leg kick at all.. He has already ditched one leg...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obl8y_4KEYs
If he then adds a 6BK at the end on anaerobic reserve tank, he possibly can achieve a world record ;-)

Italy must be Happy!

As for the world record he said that it will come, he already feels it. I don't think he'll need to add the kick, he has to split the distance more evenly. Tonight he was mainly focused on the gold medal so he wanted to go out fast and open the gap as soon as possible to discourage the others (which worked and, who knows, maybe helped Gabriele Detti as well). In a less critical race he will probably hold back a bit more in the first 200m and finish faster than he did tonight, in the end it's a matter of 2s on 14 and a half minutes...

Salvo

[Streak]

I just watched the woman's 10km event won in 1:56:32.
Their brutal tempo was amazing over this distance.
Lots of splashing made it hard to see if any of them were following a TI type stroke.

[Zenturtle]

I wish that someone could explain me better why this loping works so well for some people.
Paul Biedernamann, having the world record in the 200m freestyle for a long time now, has an even more extreme lope than Phelps, but is swimming faster with a bad start and inferior underwaters. His pure swimspeed is just higher than Phelps pure swimspeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jQmsHOnw2Y
I have read somewhere that swimmers usually have a pretty big asymmetry in body force.Swinning this way only enhances that on and on offcourse, but nobody is loping in the 50 m events, so it has to do also someting with rhythm.
The rhythm when adding breathing in the 200m compared to no breathing in the 50m also has something to do with it probably.

Stroke counts for the last 3 lenghts:

Biedermann...............Phelps
1m95, 93 kg..............1m93, 88 kg
32............................26.
34............................29
36............................31
The longer strokes from the smaller guy (Phelps ;-)) didnt make it happen.

Biedermann was helped a bit by his suit though
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/othe...ng/8172910.stm
which was slightly more high tech than Phelps LZR fast suit.
http://www.everymantri.com/everyman_...-swimming.html

And what about Ian Thorpes full body suit?


Some good footage of Ledecky in Rio. Paltrinieris one leg kick is becoming popular.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAGXNs0MXzI