Phelps

Originally posted by swimmieAvsFan check out the thread ande started (American Short Course Championships)- that's where i got the links... and... having seen michael phelps swim in person (lucky enough to catch the swim with stars when they stopped here!), i can say that even though breaststroke is his weakest stroke, he could still beat the snot out of a lot of breaststrokers! ;) The link got me no where.

Rob, Michigan Masters has not signed him up. Our LMSC has started a grant program for college swimmers either attending or graduating college swimmers for a free membership for 1 year. He would be a candidate for the program. I met Michael in 2003 at the USAS Convention in San Diego after the awards banquet where he collected both the Swimmer of the Year and Performance of the year USA swimming awards. He was signing autographs and there were several masters swimmers in a line to greet him. He asked what organization we were from and we said Masters. He replied great skit. He said someday he would like his Mom or maybe his sisters to get back into swimming if they had the time and interest. Someone asked if he would join soon and he smiled and didn't honor us with an answer. I think right now he has bigger fish to fry. Being a volunteer assistant coach, student, and swimmer plus his professional and community service priorties makes it a tough almost impossible recruit. Plus right now he is part of a super team with the new addition of "Big Ben" Michaelson to the Club Wolverine team. Just think if they could change the rules and have the workout groups that swim with the University be part of the NCAA Championship we would see Michigan as a possible favorate along with Texas too. This is just a dream to add to the rukus of the super team thread. Some of these club teams could outscore the university teams. I am looking forward to seeing how he does this weekend along with the other swimmers as well. He has become very popular here in Michigan with everything he does reported by the media. Two days ago he was written up in the Detroit Free Press sports section on the meet this weekend. Back last month when he swam exibition at both the Northwestern and Indiana meets they had the largest crowds they have had for back to back meets. The Indiana meet had 1400 swimmers and was a very close meet won by U of M. That day there was a snow strorm and people still showed up hours before the meet started. I think the team responded well to the support given by the crowd. I had a friend that was at the Mongolian Barbecue for dinner one night and in walks Phelps with the Vanderkaay brothers and the place went silent and everyone looked at him as he was being seated. The Vanderkaay's looked like his body guards. He has also been seen at other places with his coach Bob Bowman. He has said in interviews that people seem to recognize him more in Ann Arbor than in Baltimore. Another swimmer I am interested in seeing how he does this weekend is Klete Keller. Rumor has it that he gained 30 to 40 pounds after the Olympics when he took a 5 month break and he reported to training overweight and out of shape. I don't know if this is true but these guys are so young they can take the weight off easily plus he still has that VO2 max development that shouldn't make his swims that bad. If a masters swimmer did that, they would have to think about the body fat they carry at meets and in contrast to this sloppy body shape we would need to be slim and strong. Someone said that to me but I can't remember who. The one person in all of this I would like to see in masters is Bob Bowman. Just recently he has taken up running and has gotten in better shape. I know most coaches don't swim but run instead with the exception of Eddie Reese and Ron Johnson. I suppose they would have to do it when they would get the time. I know I read somewhere that Eddie gets support from the Texas team when he works out. Plus Bob could be the student/pupil and Michael the coach/mentor. Michael did give a private lesson to Matt, host of the Today Show during the Olympics and taught him how to do a flip turn and he had been been trying for years with out success.

There was just a press release today that Michael Phelps will swim 7 individual events at the World Championship Trials setting himself up to possibly swim 10 events in Montreal. The change in schedule from Long Beach is dropping the 200 Fly and adding the 400 Free and 100 Free. If he finishes first or second in the 100, 200, and 400 Free, and the 200 Back, 100 Fly, 200 IM, and 400 IM he makes it in 7 events. If he finishes in the top 6 in the 100 or 200 Free he qualifies for those relays. If he finishes first or second in the 100 Free or 100 Fly he has a shot at the Medley Relay. If they have the same format of prelims, semi finals, and finals he could be swimming 19 times in Montreal excluding relays. Because of the format in Indy, he will swim 14 times which is down from 17 times from Long Beach. The first day he will swim the 400 Free and the 400 IM both prelims and finals. I noticed that his seed time in the 400 Free is slower than the one in the 400 IM from the heats posted on the USA Swimming site. Must need that extra rest. Don't we have a rule that states if someone has a seed time slower than the historical swim that the Meet Director can put that individual in a faster heat. Isn't that what they call the no sand bag rule. After that he swims an event a day except day 4 where he will swim the 100 Free and 200 IM. No one has ever won yet attemped to do this many events in a Trials of any sort that I can remember. Most people can't even qualify for this many events. I wonder if he can qualify for all seven let alone win all 7. What are the chances of him winning not any? His toughest competition appears to be the 100 Fly, 200 Back, and 100 Free. I am looking forward to seeing him swim the 400 Free and seeing if he can challenge the American Record. I also noticed that Natalie Coughlin has entered 4 events which makes her eligible to swim 7 events with relays included if she qualifies. She is swimming the 100 Free, 200 Free, 100 Back, and 100 Fly. It will be interesting to see how shw handles these muti events.

Jason: Thanks for the link and don't let those "old" guys beat you. Bob

He has said in interviews that people seem to recognize him more in Ann Arbor than in Baltimore. Well, it is Ann Arbor right a bit of a smaller town. And, we saw Michael swim every day. Someone mentioned they saw Michael swim once. Working out at the same place, I couldn't count the number of times I saw him swim. Nice kid though, any town would be glad to have a world famous nice kid like him.

USS World Champs Psyche Sheet Phelps is seeded with his 500 yard free time. At 4:12, it's definitely not a "sandbag" time, but rather just a way to get him a little more rest in prelims. USS encourages people to enter using cut times from a conforming course (long course here), but does not require it. I also believe that once the Olympic Trial cuts have been set, people making them have the option to enter a real time, or just enter national events at the trial cut. It'd be nice to have to make that choice! I second Bob's motion for coming to the NE meet. I'm just kicking myself because I realize that I'm going to be swimming in many of the heats with Mike Ross & Jim Harvey, so I won't get to watch anything but their kick as they go by!

Originally posted by Frank Thompson Don't we have a rule that states if someone has a seed time slower than the historical swim that the Meet Director can put that individual in a faster heat. Isn't that what they call the no sand bag rule. We had a similar issue come up in New England a couple of years ago. We concluded that the meet director does have the discretion to change a seed time if it appears grossly incorrect and would result in a non-competitive heat. The situation was that some very fast swimmers put in very slow seed times to have more rest between events. We utlimately decided that since we didn't include this provisio in our meet literature we wouldn't enforce that year. That is now standard language in our official championship meet information. Most seed times in USA swimming are taken from the swimmers database and usually are based on lifetime best times. I wonder if Phelps times are mistakes, not unusual, and will be corrected before the official pysche sheet is published (usually several days before the competition begins, that is, early next week). BTW, for those interested you can still enter the 2005 NE SCY Championship, albeit with payment of a $16 late fee. This meet will feature 700+ swimmers and based on some of the seed times will also feature some very fast swimming. Expect a real mano-to-mano showdown between Mike Ross and Jim Harvey in the 35-39 age group...51 high for a 100 IM anyone?

Can anyone post a link to the psyche sheets. I'd like to see who I'm going to watch swim! Thanks!

When entering a LCM meet they usually have qualifying times for a 400 fr LCM and an equivalent time for a 500 SCY. Think about it this way, when you swim SC you swim the 500 when you swim LC you swim a 400. Phelps isn't sandbagging, he is entering his 500 time because that is the time you use when entering a LCM meet with a SCY time. Look at psyche sheet again and you'll notice he's about 10 seconds ahead of the next guy using a SCY time. His time is less than 4 seconds off of Dolan's record, which is going to be a tough one to beat.