butterfly kick

Also, even though there are two kicks, you might think of it as having a big kick and a smaller kick. In your video you're emphasizing the small kick. I think the big kick should occur when your at or near the end of the propulsive phase of the arm stroke (again, when your hands are about to leave the water for the recovery phase. That, although it may be hard to believe, largely varies from person to person. Ernest Maglischo even went as far as qualifying the first kick as being the most propulsive one for most swimmers. His rational here, and it is certainly a valid one, is that the first kick occurs during a dead phase upper body wise. Until you take a solid catch, you're left solely with the propulsion provided by this first kick. On the other hand, the second kick occurs in the same time as the final arm/hand push. That probably explains why some fly swimmers have a lot of success going big on first, and small on second. You see it more often with longer distance specialists (ie, 200m), 400m IM etc... Therefore I wouldn't qualify the two fly kicks as a big and a small one, or a small followed by a big one (because it varies). Qualifying them as being the first and second kick is clear and leaves no room for mistake. I think the reason why we came to believe that the second kick is generally bigger than the first is that the second normally splashes much more. From what I can see, the timing of the kick and stroke look off. By this I mean you're "stroking and kicking at the same time," it's kinda hard to explain but what happens is that the "ideal" rhythm is broken by this type of fly. In fact, he's displaying an arm stroke rate that is a bit too fast compared to his undulation rate. Therefore he's on time (timing wise) for the first kick which occurs pretty much when it should (upon hand entry) but his high arm stroke rate leaves no room for the second kick to occur. In short, he needs to learn to undulate at high velocity in order to be able to sneak the second kick in. Thanks so much for these drills!! I've been having trouble on my fly, and I think this will help so much! It's a fun and relaxing drill. Try it slow at first and come back if you have any question (or complaint?) :) Here's another execution (a slow one) of the same drill as recorded by Lindsay (a member on this site). May be little cleaner than my older slow execution. Near the end, I add a few full fly cycles just to show the similarity (in timing). Maybe one last thing, obviously the fact that this drill uses the same exact timing as if you were swimming the full fly opens the door to creative combinations (e.g. doing 15m drill / 10m fly, or 4 cycles drill 4 cycles fly, could be 4 cycles drill breathing every cycle then 4 cycles fly not breathing at all etc....). Could also intergrate the SDK, e.g. 15m SDK followed by 10m drill etc... endless possibilities; so much so that it even allows for increasing the volume done at fly considerably. Just try the 15m drill /10m full combination. You'll end up putting together sets in excess of 200m without getting challenged that much. All that time working on timing, breathing, kicking(with first kick vs second kick distinction), undulation and streamlining. ‪Charles demonstrates no-arm butterfly‬‏ - YouTube @funkyfish, if you looked at the execution, since it's a streamlining exercise you can actually clearly see the impact on forward propulsion of the first vs the second kick. The first one has it's importance as it's the one allowing for maintaining the speed upon hand/arm entry.

Also, even though there are two kicks, you might think of it as having a big kick and a smaller kick. In your video you're emphasizing the small kick. I think the big kick should occur when your at or near the end of the propulsive phase of the arm stroke (again, when your hands are about to leave the water for the recovery phase. That, although it may be hard to believe, largely varies from person to person. Ernest Maglischo even went as far as qualifying the first kick as being the most propulsive one for most swimmers. His rational here, and it is certainly a valid one, is that the first kick occurs during a dead phase upper body wise. Until you take a solid catch, you're left solely with the propulsion provided by this first kick. On the other hand, the second kick occurs in the same time as the final arm/hand push. That probably explains why some fly swimmers have a lot of success going big on first, and small on second. You see it more often with longer distance specialists (ie, 200m), 400m IM etc... Therefore I wouldn't qualify the two fly kicks as a big and a small one, or a small followed by a big one (because it varies). Qualifying them as being the first and second kick is clear and leaves no room for mistake. I think the reason why we came to believe that the second kick is generally bigger than the first is that the second normally splashes much more. From what I can see, the timing of the kick and stroke look off. By this I mean you're "stroking and kicking at the same time," it's kinda hard to explain but what happens is that the "ideal" rhythm is broken by this type of fly. In fact, he's displaying an arm stroke rate that is a bit too fast compared to his undulation rate. Therefore he's on time (timing wise) for the first kick which occurs pretty much when it should (upon hand entry) but his high arm stroke rate leaves no room for the second kick to occur. In short, he needs to learn to undulate at high velocity in order to be able to sneak the second kick in. Thanks so much for these drills!! I've been having trouble on my fly, and I think this will help so much! It's a fun and relaxing drill. Try it slow at first and come back if you have any question (or complaint?) :) Here's another execution (a slow one) of the same drill as recorded by Lindsay (a member on this site). May be little cleaner than my older slow execution. Near the end, I add a few full fly cycles just to show the similarity (in timing). Maybe one last thing, obviously the fact that this drill uses the same exact timing as if you were swimming the full fly opens the door to creative combinations (e.g. doing 15m drill / 10m fly, or 4 cycles drill 4 cycles fly, could be 4 cycles drill breathing every cycle then 4 cycles fly not breathing at all etc....). Could also intergrate the SDK, e.g. 15m SDK followed by 10m drill etc... endless possibilities; so much so that it even allows for increasing the volume done at fly considerably. Just try the 15m drill /10m full combination. You'll end up putting together sets in excess of 200m without getting challenged that much. All that time working on timing, breathing, kicking(with first kick vs second kick distinction), undulation and streamlining. ‪Charles demonstrates no-arm butterfly‬‏ - YouTube @funkyfish, if you looked at the execution, since it's a streamlining exercise you can actually clearly see the impact on forward propulsion of the first vs the second kick. The first one has it's importance as it's the one allowing for maintaining the speed upon hand/arm entry.