With his upcoming move to Tempe, Arizona with coach Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps will be moving away from his childhood stomping grounds, the Meadowbrook Aquatic Center, in Baltimore, Maryland. This weekend, he competed at Meadowbrook for the last time before his move at the 2015 NBAC Mid-Summer Classic.
After prelims on Monday, he posted a picture of himself to Instagram on the blocks before his 100 freestyle. Prelims was held in their indoor six lane pool, which can be seen in the picture below, and finals was then moved to the 10 lane outdoor pool.
As reported by SwimSwam’s Loretta Race:
As a follow-up swim to his prelims clocking of 50.80 in the 100m freestyle, Michael Phelps, went on to register a 49.66 in finals to ultimately win the event at Meadowbrook Aquatic Center. The swims went down at the NBAC Mid-Summer Classic, one of the 22-time Olympic medalist’s final tuneups before his target meet, the U.S. Summer National Championships.
Whereas Phelps swam prelims indoors in a 6-lane pool, the final was moved outdoors and in a 10-laner. The video above was submitted by Noah Yanchulis.
It was the ideal distance when he was younger, yes. But even then, his success was based more on turns and underwaters than on his stroke. Even Bob Bowman acknowledged this.
@Luigi: I respect every opinion, but I think it’s quite clear that Phelps’ stroke is very different from Andrew’ stroke.
I like a lot the low ratio of strokes in Phelps’ freestyle, above all in 200 free that is the ideal distance for Phelps freestyle.
The 100 free remains too short for him.
I know I am going to get downvotes for this, but I never particularly liked his freestyle technique … and, now that I think about it, his stroke on the non-breathing side looks a little bit like Michael Andrew’s stroke discussed in another thread 😀
Well, on second thought, maybe not. His elbow is higher. But I still don’t like it 😀
I like Phelps’ freestyle technique, and I think his freestyle looked much better or should I say “prettier” than Michael Andrew’s freestyle & some of the other elite freestylers I knew. He’s known for his long & strong stroke in the freestyle which made him stand out whenever he swims it. Has Phelps changed his free stroke recently?
His stroke in this video looked quite different from his previous 100 free in the past. Hopefully, through this new technique, he will find the speed that’s needed for a sprinter and put the hammer down at Nats. I believe Phelps can do it.
Looked like he blew past 15 on the start. Awkward approach into the turn too. Possibly a 48 low at nats next month.
Probably not. He said in an interview at Santa Clara that he isn’t doing the 100 free because the event doesn’t work for his program.