"... When Phelps returns to the pool in May at the Charlotte UltraSwim, he says he plans to debut a new freestyle technique, ..."
"I'm not saying anything until we unveil it. It's a significant change. You'll be able to tell exactly what I did as soon as I take my first stroke.
I'm going to try it this year. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, I'll go back to the old stroke." ..."
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In you go to Charlotte to see it please upload fan videos!
3 comments:
I am a little confused as to why a guy who can swim the 100 free in 47.51 and the 200 free in 1:42.96 would need to change his stroke!! I will be very interested to see what he does.
"You'll be able to tell exactly what I did as soon as I take my first stroke."
My guess would be straight-arm recovery, but I don't think that would be suitable for the 200.
I think Steve is right, and Phelps shifts over to more of an Eamonn Sullivan-like stroke, but that he only uses it for the 100 (and eventually, possibly the 50), not for his 200. I think he'd actually benefit from changing his 100 fly stroke into more of a sprint stroke as well. Right now he uses the exact same stroke as he uses for the 200 fly, with his hands going a bit wide at the catch, and breathing every stroke. Bowman's rationale for having him breath every stroke is that it keeps his rhythm constant, but I think he'd be more competitive if he had a more Cavic-like stroke, pulling straight through with less of a keyhole pattern, and breathing maybe every other stroke. He certainly has the conditioning for it.
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