Remember when Tiger Woods “struggled” while he was improving his golf swing? There was actual talk of whether or not he could surpass Nicklaus in his quest of winning the most Majors. Then he perfected said stroke and went out and won 4 straight Major Championships. The talk of him messing with what was a good thing subsided.

Enter Michael Phelps. The bong-toking swimming sensation announced that he is tinkering with his freestyle stroke. Actually, freestyle is not a stroke; it is an event that allows you to swim any stroke you want. The most common stroke used in the event is the crawl. So Michael Phelps is actually going to change how he crawls in the water.

How does the fastest swimmer in the world do such a thing? And why does he do such a thing? Let’s tackle the latter first:

Michael Phelps has dominated at almost every level of his sport, in many different events. We know this not only by the 8 gold medals he won in Beijing, but by the all the world records that he holds as well. Ah, I said almost. There are two events that he has yet to really master, and they happen to be the 50 and 100 meter freestyle (Crawl) events. These are the rock star events of swimming. For those that follow the Olympics, you all know who Gary Hall, Jr is because he was a staple in that event. Matt Biondi and Alexander Popov were the names that everyone knew before. Even though these were the only events these guys dominated, they were the best known male swimmers prior to Phelps. These events are pure sprints where you get to show off your machismo. Yes, in the swim world, the 200 meter free is considered a sprint event, but not quite like 50 and 100. Phelps wants to show that he can do it all.

Now, the how: Not completely sure how he will accomplish this. Phelps has one the of the longest, most powerful strokes I have ever seen (be mature!). However, to be successful in a sprinting event, he will have to shorten it up, and speed it up. I am definitely not sold on this being successful by the time he swims in Charlotte. His natural talent alone will probably give him a decent time in the events, but to think there will be a dramatic change would be completely unrealistic, especially since this will be his first competition since the Olympics. Not only that, Phelps did take a long lay-off off from practicing. For everyday you miss in the pool, it takes 2 days to get back to where you were in your conditioning.

Nonetheless, this should be something to keep an eye on, as the best the world has ever seen looks to improve on his greatness.

Popularity: 2% [?]