TROY, N.Y. -- While we see an American success story whenever Olympic swimmers grab the gold or shatter world records, one RPI professor sees a way to make them even faster.

"There are some at USA swimming who don't want any of this to get out," said fluid mechanics professor, Tim Wei.

He measures the flow and force of water around swimmers like Megan Jendrick - who won gold in 2000 and finished 5th in the 100 meter breaststroke in Beijing.

"We're the only country in the world doing this," he said.

It's a complicated process. Wei takes video of a swimmer in a special pool with small bubbles. As the swimmer kicks, computers track the movement of the particles and then figure out how much force the swimmer has created. That way they know what they have to do to improve.

"This is really about giving coaches a rigorous knowledge base to know why they're doing what they're doing and know why it works or why something doesn't work," Wei said.

He showed America's top coaches his research, and they say it's made an impact.

Wei said one coach "changed the breaststroke kick of all his swimmers, and Ariana Kukors shaved three seconds off her 100 meter breaststroke time."

All the graphs and charts tell Wei that quick, shorter dolphin kicks make a swimmer faster. Kicking back straighter in the breaststroke and creating a longer freestyle stroke are both ways to speed up.

"They look at all the top swimmers. They get their elbow up high in the water and basically pull right through," Wei demonstrated.

So for Olympians, that advice and research can make a difference. For those who just want to have fun, Wei says you probably need a coach, because the difference is in the details, and many of the details are - once again - top secret.

Wei said, "It's not something we're going to share specifically to every country."

So the next time you see U.S. swimmers win, you might say it's more than a stroke of good luck behind it all.