Originally published Jan 15th
During an episode of “Bama Cuts” released last August, 23-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps preached the importance of preparation and paying attention to the small details while answering questions from University of Alabama football players.
Phelps also offered advice on his athletic recovery, training mindset, his favorite gold medal, and how he avoided complacency at his peak, all as he received a haircut inside the Crimson Tide’s football facilities.
On the topic of preparation, Phelps began by discussing how he views his body almost like a Ferrari.
“I don’t know how y’all are with recovery, cold tub, eating… that’s basically, for me, the reason why I had a chance to do what I did,” he said. “I did all those small things right. Whether it’s taking care of yourself here, or when you’re away. Sleeping, hydrating at home — all those things you need to do perfectly or correctly, so when you’re asking your body here to do what it needs to, it’s a no-brainer. I look at my body almost like a Ferrari: If you’re not putting the right gasoline in your Ferrari, you’re not going to move. You’re definitely not going to move.”
Phelps touched on his mindset during practices, where he tried to clear his head of external distractions in order to focus fully on training.
“When I’m at the pool for those two hours, those three hours, whatever it might be, everything else is checked at the door,” he said. “If I just failed a test, if I just got dumped by my girlfriend, whatever just happened, that’s out. I can’t think about that when I’m here. This is my time to take one step forward. That’s even on the days when I don’t feel great — physically, emotionally, whatever that may be. How can I take one step forward?
“So I guess my one thing I would challenge each and every one of you to do is look at the things that you can control on an everyday basis,” he added. “There’s a ton, but there’s also a ton that is out of our control, too. But if we focus on what is in our control — If I’m getting eight hours of sleep everyday, drinking the right amount of water everyday, eating the right amount of calories, eating the right calories, stretching before practice, in the training room before and after practice — everything else is going to naturally happen as it should.”
After Alabama’s championship loss to Georgia last year, the Crimson Tide put a participation trophy on display in the cafeteria as motivation. Phelps was a fan of that move, noting how remembers his losses more than his victories.
“I love how you have that trophy in the dining hall,” the five-time Olympian said. “That would piss me off, that would motivate me, because I don’t want that to ever happen again. You should take that, and turn that.
“I remember my losses more than I remember my victories,” he added. “I can go back and tell you exactly how everyone felt.”
Anytime Phelps is asked what was going through his mind on the blocks before a race, the answer is a bit anticlimactic: nothing. It’s a testament to his dogged preparation that he was so locked in “on auto-pilot” for most of his career.
“My biggest thing throughout my whole career was preparation, preparation, preparation,” he said. “If I’m not prepared, then I’m not going to be able to feel comfortable and relaxed in that moment. I’ll be freaking out about it. Everyone is always like, ‘What do think about when you dive off the blocks?’ Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Because if you’re thinking about it, then you’re not focused on the task at hand. For me, if I hadn’t done the work, I can’t expect the results. Those are typically when I had my losses. I was on auto-pilot most of my career for meets because we were so adamant about doing the small things. Greats do things when others don’t want to do them. That’s the difference between good and great, right?”
Phelps quipped that he’s an expert on small details as someone who has won a race by less than a hundredth of a second.
“When those big lights come on and that one piece is missing, and I’m saying coming from somebody who was working in hundredths of a second — literally won a race by less than that — if you’re off by that one little bit, someone else will win and someone else will take your spot,” he said. “It really comes back to how bad you want it and what are you willing to control on and off the field.”
Toward the end of the discussion, Phelps talked about how life has changed since retirement and what the COVID-19 pandemic was like for him.
“It’s night-and-day different,” he said of the transition from professional athlete to retired athlete. “I don’t want to say it’s all been perfect. Obviously it has ups and downs — not having that normal routine that you’ve had your entire life, something’s missing. I am very fortunate to have the job that I do now that I’m so passionate about, so I think that does help me. But the first few years were challenging. Going through COVID, the pandemic, that was brutal. For me, I just basically tried to get through one day at a time. Like, what can I control in those given days? Can I get a workout in, am I sleeping enough, eating enough? Am I getting everything that I need to be me, so I can be the best dad, the best husband, the best friend I can be?”
Later in the conversation, Phelps revealed that six years of preparation went into getting ready for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
“For me to get ready for the 2008 Olympics, we started preparing in 2002,” he said. “We started swimming four to five individual races at every single meet, plus the three relays, in 2002. It took us six years to perfect it. There was no blueprint to try to win eight gold medals. So think about that, and when I say that, don’t be afraid to literally shoot for the stars and dream as big as you possibly can. One of my favorite songs always has been “Sky’s the Limit” by Biggie, just because it’s true. That is the limit. If somebody tells you that you can’t do it, prove them wrong.”
Of the 28 Olympic medals that Phelps won over the course of his career, he said his favorite was his first. He was then asked how he avoided complacency at his peak.
“The best week of my career was 2008, winning eight gold medals and setting seven world records,” Phelps said as Alabama players laughed at his casual delivery. “Well I wanted eight. I wanted eight and eight. If I would have gone 8-for-8 in ’08… but I only won eight golds, seven world records in ‘08. Me talking like that, it’s because every little bit mattered. I wanted to be the absolutely best in anything that I touched. Whether that was the 100 butterfly, or 200 IM, or 400 IM, I wanted to be the best ever. So yeah, that’s the obsession.”
Alabama ended up missing the College Football Playoff for just the second time in its nine-year history, but Phelps didn’t miss it. He made an appearance on the sidelines with Michigan, where he trained and studied for four years under then-head coach Bob Bowman.
@bradgallitv Michael Phelps gave Michigan a pregame pep talk at the College Football Playoff. #Michigan #CFP #FiestaBowl #MichaelPhelps
Swimming continues to get faster. If MP was back in his prime, training today with the ASU pro group under Bowman, is there anything we know now that could have made him even faster than he was at his peak?
I don’t know if he’s ever discussed how his fanaticism about training and winning is related to his mental health issues.
They are related. He’s spoken about how he didn’t know who he was besides being a swimmer. Well, that’s what happens if all you do is train, obsess about “all the small details” and totally focus of winning.
He never completed college, so no career beyond his fame and speaking about mental health. And motivational speeches.
His story is a cautionary tale. Don’t do what he did unless you want to risk your mental health in pursuit of gold medals galore.
What an intelligent guy. “the greats do things that other people don’t want to.” Enough said.