The most important-- the single most important thing to improve power. It's hard to pick just one. If I had like one bit of advice to give you, the kick starts. So right at your chest level down is where the kick starts. That's where all your power's going to be coming from. Honestly, from chest level up should be still-- as still as you can be. If you watch video of Lochte doing it versus Michael, Michael's upper body is completely still. I think he's just a little more flexible than your average human and average swimmer to be honest. Lochte has a little bit more motion in his arms, which is fine if you watch both of them. Look how both those and you'll see what I'm talking about. It's fine to have movement as long as you're not trying to have movement from the chest up. It's like a whip. So pretend that from chest level up is like the whip handle and chest level down is the actual whip. So the handle is going to be perfectly straight and then actual whip itself is going to be doing all the movements. So that is what I would say is the most important thing and the best piece of advice that I have. Think about keeping your upper body still and activating from chest down for the kick itself.

All right, James, geez, you even got all the times in there, so I'll put them in order. I would say the third would be the short course meter. Yeah, I mean, I got room to improve on that one for sure. And then the 2104 long course and then probably the 17-6 short course. None of them are perfect races. If I were to do them now with the information I have, I mean, I have opportunities long course, of course, but that's why I'm always making changes, looking for new ways to improve. But I think as you worded the best executed was short course and then long course and then short course meters. I think short course was the best. My stroke was the most fluid. I think it was. If you go back and watch that race, I think my long course was a little bit choppy. I don't know if I went-- is that a 2104 I went in Tokyo? I don't know what that one's-- I think I tied it. I think I went that 2019 worlds in Tokyo. But if you're talking about the Tokyo time, I thought that 2019 was actually a better swim. Same time but I think it was a better, more fluid swim. Tokyo was a little bit choppy, a little bit bouncy. And then short course meter, I just need a little more time with short meters. And it was also with ISL coming off of other races. It's a pretty brutal schedule with ISL, so definitely a lot more tired for that one. But yeah, I think that's how I would rate them.

I don't know the best. I know what works for me. So I can't really answer for everybody else. But I breathe every two. I got to give a nod to the women as well because I've seen girls somehow do 100 free breathing every four. If I did that, I'd pass out. So I'm not sure how-- I'm not sure how girls are able to do that. It blows my mind every time. But a lot of guys I know breathe every two just to get oxygen. It's a really painful event so you've got to be taking in air the whole time. So yeah, every two for me. I've seen some girls do every four. And then usually off the start and the turn, I'm not breathing the first three strokes. So every two besides off the start and off the turn.

Now this is a great question. Yeah, there's-- I mean, I got a lot. I got tons. I got tons. But two that come to mind are 2017 Worlds-- so it was like my breakout year, whatever. I don't really believe in those things, but breakout year. It's what everyone else calls it. I went on, that was like, I'd won first my first World Championship medal in 2017. First World's team, first World Championship medal, first-- a lot of firsts for everything. I won seven golds at that World Championships. But what nobody talks about, my first event was 50 fly. And I actually-- I didn't even medal. I finished fourth and I was top seed. So I guess, yeah. That in and of itself, yeah, maybe a failure. I don't know. But from what I learned is being top seed, how to approach walking out, taking my time, knowing that this is my race. So even just learning from that event and using that information, moving forward with the meet, was huge for me in 2017. So I think that. I could have thrown the meet away after finishing fourth in an event that I was projected to win. So I wouldn't consider it a failure. Right after I finished? Yeah. Finished fourth, boo. But I learned from it. And I think that helped make the rest of my meet absolutely great and fantastic. So 2017 is one. And then my 2018 year was just horrible, just bad. I'd just turned pro, just signed with an agent, just signed with Speedo, just signed with a lawyer. So a lot of pressure that I was not used to handling, to be honest. A lot of outside stressors besides swimming, so 2018 was just bad. I just swim very poorly. And what I learned from that-- so, yeah. Maybe it's considered a failure. I don't know. But what I learned from that was I don't want that to happen again. So fast forward to next year in 2019, at 2019 Worlds, and that was actually the fastest swim meet I've ever swum in my life. So I won best times in everything. Some of the times I still haven't gone faster then. So yeah, 2019 was one of the fastest meets I had. And the year prior was one of the worst meets I've had. So as long as you're learning from your failures, I don't think you can be considered a failure.

I mean, I've had a lot. The biggest thing, sometimes you just got to grit your teeth, put your head down, and shut up and swim. You're going to have practices like that. I think my most recent one I had was-- I mean, I've had a couple, but the biggest one this year was sometime during Christmas training. I think it was December 16. Yeah. It's fresh. It's fresh in my mind. December 16. It was a long course practice, and it was just aerobic. And I was cramping the whole two hours. As soon as I dove in, I was cramping. So I didn't miss anything. If I would cramp, I'd just grit my teeth, sink down to the bottom of the pool, stretch it out, and then keep going. I mean, I got lapped so many times, but that's just one of those practices like I'm talking about where my body was not there. And it was laughable. I was still having a good time, which I think was important, but my goal that practice was to finish a practice. I wasn't fast. I was terrible. I was so bad. I mean, every time I pushed off the wall, cramp. But worked through it, grit my teeth, and just finished the workout. Sometimes you have to have that mindset of just absolutely barreling through it. So that one, as of recently, was physically my most painful, and it was not fast at all. So and I've had some that are extremely painful, but I'm also going fast. We had a short course practice sometime in February, and it was fast aerobic 150s on really short interval. Basically descend 1 to 3 to all out. And that was one where I mean, I was hurting. It hurt so bad, but I was flying. So you'll have practices like that, where the speed's still there. And you'll have some, like the one December 16, where the speed is not there, both of which I think are appropriate and both of which I think are going to make you better.

So great question, by the way. So for me personally, I do a more powerful drawn out dolphin kick, starting at the-- you know what? I used to say starting at the chest like here, but now, I heard someone say-- Coach Steve-- someone say starting at the shoulders. And I like that so much more. So I'm changing it now. If you hear me say shoulders instead of chest talking about underwater, that's from Coach Steve. So starting at the shoulders down I have a very drawn out kick and a really big whip action. So my tempo is not that high compared to the people I'm racing against for my events I think. So it depends what works for each individual. I think the best way to figure out what your tempo is, put a tempo trainer on-- super cheap little device that beeps. And then start ripping some fast 25s at that set tempo and find out what 25s are fastest for you. So if I just spam underwater, I can push tempo. Your boy can rip tempo for underwater, but it's not as fast as going at my normal set tempo. So up to the individual. For me personally, powerful deep kick, not the spam.