Produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Braden Keith.
After voicing some frustration of being stuck in outside lanes for most of the meet, Michael Phelps got his inside lane in the B-Final of the men’s 200 IM as the 9th qualifier. He took advantage of the fortuitous placing to drop a big chunk of time from prelims and win the heat in 2:00.25.
I am also puzzled at why people think that MP will do textile World bests at the age of 30. There’s nothing wrong with supporting your swimming hero, but providing some evidence for wild predictions would be a good start. Hacketts comeback is nothing short of stunning. However, the evidence that he gives us is that you slow down when you are the other side of 30
A few thoughts:
1) Like others are saying, it might be good to look at the way he’s training. When you’re young, recovery happens on its own, so the training can be centered on work. As people age, I think it’s important to make sure the training facilitates adequate recovery. It’s different for everyone, but obviously Phelps has a freakish ability to recover, which is, in my opinion, why he’s had more success than other world class athletes with Bowman. Bowman himself admits to being a grinder, if your body can recover enough day-to-day to handle it, you’re gonna get great results. Still, Phelps is a lot of things, but he isn’t a highlander. It may be time to adjust.… Read more »
Phelps nowadays reminds me a bit of Agnel last year: frustrated and tired in meets, showing poor technique, etc. I think that the workload was too much for Agnel at North Baltimore and that got to his mental state. Clearly Phelps’ confidence also took a hit, although I don’t know whether he is working out too much or too little. My best guess is that hitting 30 is tough for anyone who is not a 50 m free specialist.
Hackett showed he can get back to his best events.. but even Hackett dropped the 1500m which is very taxing.. with the 200 fly/400 IM those 3 are probably the hardest events as you get older..
Also Phelps may put some good results, but I think it is too much optimism thinking he will go textile bests at this time of the career, especially going 47 mid 100 free by now.. If he matches sub-51 fly it will be amazing, enough to win gold, but maybe Crocker textile will be intact..
I hope Bob knows what he ‘s doing with Michael in training . He is not 22 years old anymore . He has shown last year he has still got what it takes on Fly and free and 200 IM .
Nathan did a 48.85 on 100 free and he is a specialist on the sprint – in this period , it’s fine . That just shows that this is a transit period before summer for many swimmers .
Michael , u will get your legs back , i am with u on that . Good luck
This interview reminds me of his interview right after the 400 IM at the London Olympics. He was totally frustrated and confused about his performance. Then he came back later that day and nailed the leadoff on the 400 free relay. He (or maybe it’s Bowman) seems to know how to flip the psychological switch from negative/brutal to motivated. The “legs not connected to the body” line sounds like a classic fatigue symptom, particularly if he’s killing his legs in the weight room. He’ll turn both of these into positives.
Sorry SWIMDOC , in London , Michael was second in the 400 free just after Nathan but surely he nailed that 100 free / It was one of the most impresive 100 free split he ever did on a relay ( with the one in 2008 and 2010 Pan Pacs ) .
Swimming is an incredibly complex sport. You stop or reduce training for a while and your technique goes all to hell. I am sure he is exaggerating here, but what he said about his legs feeling disconnected from the upper body and his dolphin kick feeling weak impressed me. This is the same guy that took dolphin kick to another level. If this happens to one of the most talented swimmers in the history of the sport, imagine what happens to the others! I have new respect for those who make successful “comebacks”.
I think that, perhaps for the first time in his career, Phelps is really frustrated. I’d say confused about his performances in Charlotte.
But what is Bowman’s opinion about what happened in Charlotte?
Why Phelps was incredibly slow in his underwaters, why was struggling so bad in the 200 fly after 130 m nonetheless he had trained in the last 6 months, according Phelps words, for that event?
Why his recovery after every race was so difficult, nonetheless having trained more yardage that in the past should aid an easier recovery after every race?
No interviews from Bowman?
He sounds like he is fatigued, and worried that his age is causing him problems. Training hard is all good and well when you are 22, but Bob might have to modify MP’s workload in order to get the best out of him this year. Doing the same routine as 2009 is probably counter-productive. They have plenty of time to figure it out before Olympic Trials next year. This years Nationals is a great place to test himself with very little pressure. He will probably swim well, and then make small adjustments for next year.
I hope he gets a little perspective, talks to Bob, and realizes it wasn’t ALL bad. Being honest with yourself is good as long as you’re being constructive and figuring out what needs to happen to improve, but saying everything is crap doesn’t help. I thought he had set goals and was committed to doing everything possible to achieve them. Sure, just giving up on the 200 IM gets rid of your problem – you never have to lose if you don’t try. Champions turn setbacks into opportunities to learn and improve!
Danjohnrob,
all depends in his level of training right now.If he is doing several thousand meters day plus weights, he cant complain.Top swimmers are always complaining about something. Cielo was doing his training during week, and was whining about don’t cracking sub 22 in 50free.
DDias: That’s what I meant when I said it wasn’t ALL bad. If he’s all broken down he can’t expect improvement in the overall time, so he needs to focus on improving aspects of the race, like start or turns or splitting the race a certain way or certain aspects of his stroke that he’s working on. This “I’m on the sidelines” stuff will get him exactly nowhere; either you’re committed 100% to whatever or you might as well retire because you’ll fail IMO.