Ledeckys continuous propulsion combined with streamline

[SA]

her loping stroke is quite fascinating.
Watching how the pressure on the arms goes through the cycle you see there ia almost always pressure on the arms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEDHGczfDwI
When finishing the right arm the body is pushed up and starts to fall.
She absorbs the fall on a stable downward angled left arm, keeping pressure onder the arm during the fall while hardly pulling actively.
Gliding downhill for a moment in a long streamlined position, still getting a very short rest while keeping some propulsion. When the fall has ended and the body starts to bounce back she adds extra active pull to keep the momentum going and accelerating a bit again.

In fact, the energy that is used to push the body up is used to fill up the propulsion gap between left and right arm active backward pressure loads on the arms.
If you dont lift the body up, you cant glide downward on extension, so you are faced with a propulsion gap at that time in the cycle.
Only way to solve that is by a more windmilling timing, and/or extreme EVF action. Windmilling is less streamlined probably and extreme EVF isnt possible for everybody either.
The stable downward angle on the falling side is crucial to extract the most energy out of the fall I think.
If you just hold the arm horizontal all the fall energy is just going to waiste.
You can see that happening when a loper gets tired sometimes.

Its a neat idea to extract energy from the most effective part of the pull, and release that energy to keep forward momentum between the pulls.
The slow action-reaction  raise-fall of the body in the water makes that possible. Loping is most efficient at certain strokerates probably. Otherwise you have to support it with active undulation.

It also could just be a stroke flaw ofcourse, but we desperately try to explain it afterwards based on the great results swimming this way.
Most (or some) people cant help themselfes and have to have an explanation for everything..

[SA]

A smooth japanese loper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzS85R6KcGs#t=169.603056

He and Ledecky both have a sort of 4Bk, where a pretty big kick happens at the same side non breathing side extension.
That looks weird, especially in Ledeckys case.

They both have a different kicktiming as the normal 4BBK timing of Sun Yang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uncOBURz-6o

[SA]

Popov has a more kayaktiming combined with some lope. He can more easily recycle the energy back from his up and down movment by falling into his catching arm instead of falling flat on an outstretched arm in a more catchup timing.

highest point of body


Halfway the fall


End of fall.Start of bounce back.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecNe3Ztlkxw(4min 47)

[cottmiler]

SA, have you tried Thorpe's tapping the water behind the back drill yet?

[SA]

NOpe. Arent those highelbow gymnastics  more for poolswimmers with a good propulsiive 6BK?
I guess its a good exercise for rotational balance though, to make your your low arm is stable (wide) enough.

To find back the most efficient and smooth nonpopov loperaction of the internet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHq6oJfHmZA

[SA]

this guy seems pretty openminded about loping or any personal swim style
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxCftJH0bR0

no mention about falling effectively into your catch after pushing up the body, or that Ledecky doesnt need a big kick for her loping style though.

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