I watched Phelps 400 IM on nbcolympics.com — no TV at home — on Sunday morning. Here’s what I saw:

Fly – His head never nods even slightly. After the breath he simply lets gravity return his head to the water. Many swimmers “help” gravity by driving or nodding the head down – notice Cseh in Lane 5, which diverts momentum from forward to up-and-down. Lifting the chin to breathe can cause the hips to drop, increasing drag and forcing the legs to work harder to counter that. If the head nods downward after breathing, it would cause him to dive, rather than land with his momentum traveling forward. It takes a considerable burst of energy to clear the surface with head, both arms and much of the upper torso during the breath. You naturally want the momentum which results to land forward.

Phelp’s stable head position allows him to breathe every stroke, providing more oxygen than his rivals who skip breaths in order to regain balance lost to excess head movement.

Also notice how Phelps’s hands land – outside his shoulders, turned out and softly. Landing this way allows him to both “catch water and himself” at the same moment. This landing keeps his hands and forearms near the surface as gravity sinks his chest. He avoids diving, yet his sinking chest lifts his hips to the surface. This loads the torso muscles providing the spring-action that will power his head, arms and upper torso clear of the water on his next stroke.

Back – His head is deep — with calm water wrapping close around his goggles – and very stable. He rotates just enough to barely clear each shoulder from the water. This amount of rotation allows him to minimize drag, tap power from core rotation, while still swimming at a stroke rate that produces record-breaking speed. Also notice how little splash he creates.

Breast – Again notice the stability of his head position. Same benefits as on Fly.

Free – He keeps the top of his head low and his “laser beam” forward (i.e. head and spine aligned) at all times, especially while breathing.

I couldn’t find other finals available in the nbcolympics video archive so I’ll look for those on youtube.