The blue collar thing seems kind of lame. Sure, some folks have to work less than you, but, that doesn't make you special. Shut up and do better if you think you can, otherwise, you sound like a bitter whiner. Some folks have it better than others. Life ain't fair.
i dont think its a secret that phelps really didnt like his time at michigan, and only went there to follow his coach. also, i think phelps has been honest about when he is working hard and when he isnt.
clary seems to forget that phelps was pretty "blue collar" himself, swimming as a high schooler in north baltimore in a single parent household. pretty sure he worked hard to get there... though everyone knows phelps has gone through cycles of being committed and not committed. also, when you are in an olympic sport without seasons that matter in the other three years, im sure it would be difficult to get motivated every morning.
pretty self-serving, bitter, and lacking self awareness...
Everyone knows the only way to get Phelps motivated is to crap on him.
Little pu$$y bi*ch is going to retire after London, so everyone say good bye to the retard of the pool with his learning dishabiwidy.
Just another loser heard from.
Why didn't he go call Phelps out at the OT?
You know the answer.
coach d wrote:
Just another loser heard from.
Why didn't he go call Phelps out at the OT?
You know the answer.
Yep. I'm fairly certain Phelps worked as hard as anyone prior to the 04' and 08' games.
Let's face it, he's a genetic FREAK. Of course he didn't/doesn't have to work as hard.
Do you think Secretariat just out worked every horse in history?
That dude comes off as a whiny little b*tch.
Perhaps someone with exceptional talent can get a college scholarship without a tremendous amount of hard work and dedication. Maybe they could even qualify for the Olympic Trials, while being pretty lazy. But you don't win as many gold medals as Michael Phelps has without putting some real work in.
Clary is almost universally disliked by his fellow elites. Calling out the GOAT won't change that a bit.
Junk Master wrote:
Let's face it, he's a genetic FREAK. Of course he didn't/doesn't have to work as hard.
Do you think Secretariat just out worked every horse in history?
YES! Talent is an illusion. What makes one great is HARD WORK. If you are getting your ass whooped by someone it is because they want it more than you.
THAT'S WHAT MADE THIS COUNTRY GREAT!!!!!!!!!
I think the article is great. People like sports, particularly running, because we assume that these greats possess great traits that got them there.
People want to be Jordan, Pre, etc.
Hopefully we admire them for more than picking their parents well.
rojo wrote:
I think the article is great. People like sports, particularly running, because we assume that these greats possess great traits that got them there.
People want to be Jordan, Pre, etc.
Hopefully we admire them for more than picking their parents well.
Please don't delete this post, because it's completely true.
I know for a FACT that Tyler Clary is not some blue collar god. He has no right calling out Phelps on any level. I personally witnessed Tyler Clary smoke 3 straight blunts with a small group of gentlemen. His reasoning: marijuana is apparently only a banned substance for certain competitions (Olympics/World Champs/etc). Otherwise, smoking is fully allowed.
Now, I'm not against smoking bud, per se (even for elite athletes), but smoking blunts is just flat out bad for you--there's no way it can benefit a swimmer. Chemicals in blunt papers paralyze the alveoli, producing phlegmy backups the next day, or few days if you're smoking several blunts.
There's no way a guy who I saw completely inebriate himself with cases of beer and 8ths of pot is the hardest working swimmer in the world. And if you're not the hardest working, you have no right calling out a guy for not working the hardest...particularly if he's Michael freaking Phelps.
I've talked to Tyler Clary at least several times in my life--total douchebag. The only reason nobody's taken a picture of Tyler Clary smoking pot (a la Phelps) is because nobody knows who the hell he is. My bet is he doesn't medal.
I think the point you're getting at, Rojo, is that Phelps isn't a hard worker. And by his own subsequent comparison, Tyler Clary is a hard worker. But I wouldn't take Tyler Clary's word for much.
This is all true.
"Power flows to the one who knows how,desire alone is not enough"-Megatron
Double Dog wrote:
Clary should work on his arm and leg speed velocity in the pool before criticizing Michael Phelps. Obviously Phelps works pretty hard because talent alone wouldn't be enough to beat the world's best swimmers and set world records so many times.
I would say he needs to work first on his hand and foot speed...then the arm and leg speed will follow.
No one wins as many gold medals as he has without working hard. Yeah, maybe he had times where he slacked off but when it comes time to seriously train for big ass events (olympics/worlds), he drops it like it's hot.
I think it's naive to think someone doesn't have to work hard and can be a freaking powerhouse at the olympics. Genetics is not going to get you there alone. You still have to match that with the work.
It's obvious that the very best are always a combo of talent and training.
Although I'm not a swimmer, I know swimming--coaches and athletes. It is unbelievably technical. You WILL slow down if your technique is off.
Nobody has perfect natural technique, not even Phelps. When races are won and lost in 100ths of a second, every top swimmer must do absolutely everything they can to perfect technique. It would be very much easier for Phelps to lose by .01 than to win by .01--that .02 difference is due to training.
Plus, who cares if an elite slacks off, if they are winning? It's all part of who they are. Take a look at Bolt--when he was running 9.6x and 9.5x and partying, it was all good, because he was winning.
But now, when he's running 9.7x and 9.8x and partying, and NOT winning, it's not all good.
But Phelps is still winning, regardless of what he's been doing. He will need to improve by the time the Games roll around, but that improvement is almost certain.
Plus, overtraining is a HUGE component of swimming. Swimmers used to swim ungodly distances every day, leading to all sorts of fatigue-related and injury-related problems. They still swim a lot, but not quite the insane amounts that they used to. Phelps taking some time off has likely contributed to his self-preservation, as has his less-than-100% effort during the training he has been doing.
Top swimmers train HARD. Even this guy Clary, if he downs beer and does pot, so what--he is probably still in the pool 6 hours a day, plus dryland and massage and physio. When you're doing that kind of insane training, you deserve the beer and pot. Although it may affect your alveoli in the short-term, it is probably beneficial in the long-term, to keep you balanced, along with the gaming that a lot of these athletes like to do.
Then you have the hard-core guys like Gay. It takes a special kind of person to keep that intensity of focus, that single-mindedness. For some like MJ it is arises from being a narcissistic and overcompensating control freak, but for some like Gay, it arises from what I think is a sort of desperation, a feeling of gravity and deadly seriousness.
Whatever. All I know is that Phelps is, literally, the best the world has ever seen in terms of performance, which is what medals are awarded for. You don't have to like him, but if you are a swimmer, you have to respect his times.
Phelps is well known for having lost motivation over the years, but getting it all back and more. He trains 80,000 meters per week, twice a day, often at altitude, and now lifts 3 times per week as well.
http://www.muscleprodigy.com/michael-phelps-workout-and-diet-arcl-1142.html
I'm pretty sure we've all had times where we've taken a few months off, or not trained as hard as we could. The guy's heading into his third olympics, still swimming world-leading times, and has a track record of coming up big in championships. Not sure I can get too excited that he has sometimes taken it easy, especially since he's admitted this himself. The down times might have helped prolong his career, although that's impossible to know. Weird thing for a guy to do, call out the greatest in your sport, at the tail end of his career. Can't see much upside-- you lose to him, you look like a fool. You win, well, you're the young up-and-comer getting the master at the end of his career, but people will focus more on your trash-talking than the result, since the story of young gun beating old stalwart isn't as fun (or novel) for the press as the trash-talking aspect.
Everyone says he trained harder than anyone on the planet up until the last olympics. After he broke the medals record he supposedly did chill out quite a bit. It sounds like he was coasting on past hard work and talent more than being lazy.