New ideas: At Rio, a swimming wonder

We often hear phrases like ‘learn so that you can unlearn’ and ‘think out of the box’. Ryan Steven Lochte does exactly that.

Lochte, an American 12-time Olympic medallist and holder of records, ranks  just behind Michael Phelps. He participates in both individual and team events and while specialising in backstroke, he also is a freestyle and butterfly swimmer.

Most people use ‘freestyle’ and ‘frontstroke’ synonymously and wrongly so. Freestyle is the name of the competition in which you can swim any one of the strokes (frontstroke, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly stroke). ‘Frontstroke’ is the style most often adopted in freestyle competitions and hence the misnomer. Most swimmers continuously employ the attributes of the stroke which they decide on for the competition. But it IS a ‘freestyle’ competition which means you are free to use any style, including one created by you, and Lochte has one. He did not confine himself to what people traditionally understood of the competition. He kicks himself free of preconceived notions and kicks hard to incorporate elements of other swim strokes — to shear a second off his record time, in a sport with slim margins. Because swimmers don’t just glide through the competitions. The Olympics motto being ‘faster, higher, stronger’ and it’s no surprise that participants push themselves constantly to achieve perfection itself. But it’s not only about strength. More often than not, it’s about the right technique being employed.

Lochte specialises in the backstroke and is noted for the speed and distance that he achieves while kicking underwater. Instead of staying with just the ‘frontstroke’ for the entire duration of the race and turning onto his front after the tumble turn and swimming close to the surface of the water like all other swimmer do during the frontstroke, he has figured a way to improve speed. Using the front stroke, he approaches the wall at top speed creating his best momentum and he pushes off the wall like a basketball player jumps off the floor. He does this tumble turn or a flip turn but instead of then turning onto his front, he stays on his back underwater, much lower than the other swimmers. This is similar to the flip turn during the backstroke. Staying five feet underwater and below the others helps him avoid the turbulence created by other swimmers on the surface which would slow his swimming. The water below is a solid undisturbed mass which he could leverage with each kick.

While on his back and five feet under water, he uses the undulating movement (the dolphin movement) and his underwater kick, as it is his strongest technique, to gain speed. So he keeps or gains speed underwater after the tumble turn till he is required by Rules to emerge at before 15 metres.

This is permissible as the competition is freestyle which means he can use any stroke. Since the undulating movement is characteristic of a butterfly stroke or is used in a flip turn after a backstroke, he has essentially combined elements of different strokes to achieve higher speeds. This combination though, might not be allowed in the medleys.