Ever wondered what the fastest butterflier in the history of swimming looks like from an underwater view? Thanks to Chris Lundie’s team at TakeItLive, including cameraman John Schaefer, now you can see.
What this video, taken on Friday morning at the Santa Clara Grand Prix in the 100 fly, shows is that Phelps’ butterfly stroke is not a straight-back, double-armed freestyle that a lot of sprint butterfliers use. There is an “S” curve to it, though perhaps not as pronounced as many of us learned when we were age groupers.
Check out the video above, and watch tonight as Phelps looks to continue to swim well at the Santa Clara Grand Prix, with finals starting at 5PM Pacific Time.
Phelps qualified third in the 100 freestyle with a time of 49.99 and had the fastest time of the morning in the 100 butterfly at 52.57: the race shown in the video above.
His ankles are so flexible!
Here’s an interesting tidbit re: path of hands during pull.
Russell Mark seems to think the path of the hands is related to the depth of the press, rather than sprint or distance. He analyzed footage of the best flyers in the U.S. and world and the only correlation was that people with a deeper press tended to bring the hands closer together through the power phase (“keyhole” shape), while people with a shallower press tended to pull back in a straighter line. He says there are 200 flyers pulling straight back and 50 flyers pressing deep and bringing the hands in close, so it doesn’t seem to be a power vs. efficiency feature, just the natural result of the… Read more »
Mary T was totally amazing, but she peaked in 1981 at age 16 and couldn’t break her own records after that despite swimming two more Olympics, while Phelps continued to win gold and break records in both flies (among other events) from 01′-’12, from age 15 through 27. What was shocking about Mary T was how much she broke the records by, how much she dominated in her prime, and how long her records lasted. Hard to compare two such amazing swimmers from different genders and eras, but I give the nod to Phelps, especially since he has dominated both flies for so long despite dominating two to three other individual events.
Everybody is entitled to their opinion, and I respect yours and revere Phelps; howver, just as it’s hard to say who is the best athlete comparing all sports, it’s hard to compare male and female athletes. First, women’s bodies change, often in ways that make it difficult (not impossible and not for all women, but for many) for them to keep lowering their times, when they leave their teenage years behind. Also, doping has made a MUCH bigger impact upon women’s swimming than men’s swimming, skewing the results at major meets from the mid 70’s through the 90’s. Mary T, for example, would have been MUCH more dominant if it were not for systematic doping in eastern European countries.
Sea Creature!
What I always find so impressive, and difficult to teach young people, is the amount of propulsion he gets from the upward thrust of his fly kick!
Yes…
Gary Hall, Sr. explains in his great video series that there are 4 kicks in a butterfly stroke cycle:
2 downkicks, and 2 upkicks.
Greatest MALE butterflier ever.
I’m pretty sure Mary T. has a case for greatest butterflier ever.
Ehh, Phelps showed incredible dominance in a time of waaaaay more specialization. World Record at 15 years of age for a male is unprecedented and a mark that will last for decades. 5 time world champ in the 200, 2 time champ in the olympics. 3 olympic and world champ in the 100 with a workload that makes Mary T. look tame. Phelps is the greatest flier ever IMO because he dominated the stroke while he was swimming up to 6 more events at the same meet
It’s not world’s best butterflier with caveats, it’s world’s best butterflier. That said, if you want to go with that, if it weren’t for East Germans and a flash-in-the-pan doped Romanian who swam under the Ceaucescu regime (you’ll never be able to convince me that Tamara Costache was clean), Mary T would have won 6 golds and a bronze at the 1986 World Championships in Madrid (gold 200 free, 100/200 fly, 4×100 fr, 4×100 mr, 4×200 fr, bronze in the 100 free), becoming the most decorated female swimmer in a single Worlds or Olympics, and it’s a record that would still stand to this day. She would have beaten Missy Franklin to six golds by 27 years. Remember, Worlds were… Read more »
I don’t think Josh is discrediting Phelps in any way, and he has some valid points about Mary T. Have you watched any of her racing videos on YouTube? She was amazing, and her records would probably still stand today if she had been “rubber wrapped” (As GoldMedalMel puts it, LOL!), known how much dolphins off the wall can help, and swam in higher tech pools.
I think it’s most appropriate to say Michael is the most dominant and versatile long course swimmer in history, that his best stroke is fly, and that he is the best male fly swimmer ever.
A: Like nobody else in the world.