These are my observations on the techique of Michael Phelps, the 1st " Modern swimmer" for all 4 strokes. He is swimming using the most " cutting edge " of techniques on all 4 strokes.
Free: Looks like 'Popov', same stroke rythym, " Gallop" in stroke, Bent arm recovery, Shoulder shifting forward ( not dropping shoulder) and underwater phases of pull show principles of " Australian Crawl". He also has a very smooth Hand entry, hand almost flat.
Back: Head lies lower in the water, eyes looking up, very still head. Just like 'Krazyleburg'. Shoulder shifted back, horizontal to the water on entry - catch, no dropped shoulder here.
***: Head held in ' neutral ' position, eyes looking at a fixed point ahead, Head does not shift position. His head does not 'bob' up and down, which is 'old style'.
Fly: Head position "same as above" does not 'raise head up and jut chin forward' ( Old style). Hand entry wider than shoulder, immediate catch and into the pull, timing characteristics of "front end fly".
To sum up, Phelps swims all 4 strokes using the best technique shown by World beaters. Free as Popov, Back as Krazyleburg etc. He will dominate his events until someone comes along who is also using " best technique" in each stroke.
Who is coaching Phelps? This is a coach who is ensuring that he is "up to date " with latest technique and is learning from the best so that " His swimmer can be the best". That I Admire !
Former Member
I finally got back in the pool today after 7 days enforced break due to the Flu.
I tried out some of the key technique points shown by Phelps. I already use the head positioning mentioned earlier. The new tip for me was in Fly to have the hand entry wider than the shoulders. Previously I my hands had always entered at the width of the shoulders and then I moved the hands out and down into the 'catch' position.
With a wider hand entry, like Phelps, what happened was that I could direct the palms backward and just pull straight back almost immediately. This seemed to be easier, time is not wasted getting your hands into the catch position and the pull instead of: "pull out, back and in under chest" and then extend and release, became " pull back, in under chest and then extend and release.
This seemed to be more powerful and the recovery was easier as you move your hands a shorter distance from "release, exit, to entry". My older method also seemed harder on the shoulders. I have always thought that my fly should be faster than it is and I may have found a way to speed up. Time will tell !
I also worked on the free arm recovery to try to develop the same Rhythym shown by Phelps and Popov. This to me appears as if they are "galloping". I think that this is done by "quick shoulder shifting forward" to initiate recovery, this is descibed on: www.zoomers.net/new-bestrecovery.htm . I see that the advantage here is that recovery takes less muscle force, is very fast and as it starts with a fast acceleration and slows down for the entry it gives the benefits of a "soft hand entry."
I found that this also worked pretty well for me, so look out at my next meet and thank you Michael Phelps & Popov !
Well, he's slender but I think he has one of the perfect builts for swimming. His muscles are as flexible as a rubber band. He has a lot of what I called flubber-those swimmer muscles we all get from doing miles and miles of swimming that when you shake them their like the flubber in the all Disney movie it makes you very flexible like a rubber band.
As you point out Phelps is "slender" so I think a better term is lean, especially compared to Thorpe. Without his body suit on Thorpe looks "soft" compared to Phelps.
While Phelps "lastest" world record at Nationals in the 200 IM got a lot of press it was his 200 back that impressed me the most. His backstroke is the most technically perfect backstroke I've ever seen in person (I have seen Rouse, Krazyelburg, Peirsol, Welsh, Rick Carey and Dave Berkoff swim. I've not personally seen Roland Mattes but did see him on video). Too bad the Olympic schedule will not allow him to challenge Peirsol and others in this stroke.
Instead I'm willing to bet that Phelps will select the 200 free as his fifth event and that he will win the gold in this event at Athens.
PS: The first Olympic event is exactly one year away (Saturday August 14th).
For those who may be interested, the Baltimore Sun has recently published a number of articles about Michael Phelps, as recently as yesterday. In addition, many of these articles are accompanied by some marvellous pictures, too. Click here if you wish to go to the Sunpaper's website. When you get there, just look for the sports links and then click on "Olympics." To the Sun's credit, many of these articles give a good local interest perspective.
The article has a major flaw,few third world countries were representive in swimming at the worlds. Most swimming countries are US, Australia, the European countries-western and eastern , Japan and China with a few from Latin countries. In the case of China, the country that is closest to being third world among the top swimming powers, the women swimmers outnumbered the men swimmers. Title 9 can't be blame for the sport not being as popular among boys. Also, the sport tends to be popular among non-hispanic whites and asians more than hispanics or blacks.l It tends to be more popular among people in the upper-middle class which tend to be more white or asian. I'm not saying that there not upper-middle class blacks or hispanics but they on average have less income. In the large states, blacks and hispanics make up a big chunk of the population, so Mr Phelps can't help in that department. But among white males and some other males he might influence them to try swimming..
