Butterfly, me, and Phelps

Today, swimming swiming was a wash. Too many people at the pool. By the time it cleared out I didn't have enough time to do a full set. So, I decided to spend my shortened time to try to swim like Phelps. I had just watched a Butterfly video. I did a few laps normally (at speed), a few like Phelps (my version - at speed), and a few normally again. The Phelps versions of my 50 yard butterfly were 2 seconds faster: 28 seconds vs. 30 seconds. I was laughing pretty hard when I saw the times. All I really changed was the depth of my body wave. In the video Phelps has this gigantic body wave. His head is about 3 feet underwater at the lowest point of his arc. I also found that in attempting to have the same size arc (I bet I was doing a 2 foot arc) that I had to breath every stoke like he does to keep the momentum up. I also found that I was able to have a larger kick going underwater that deep. It was pretty cool. Thought I'd share. I'm hoping that if I can hone it or get to a place where I'm comfortable with this new style that I'll be able to drop even more time. We'll see. Normally I'm a huge skeptic, but I'm always up for trying new things. Sometimes they work, and this is one of those times. Pretty amazing.