butterfly kick

I think you are trying to force a kick rather than letting it be a natural part of the undulation of your stroke. The one big kick you're using probably gives you some propulsion, but at the same time you are really bending your knees and I'm sure it's causing lots of drag. Essentially you've got a flat stroke. Check out this video of Mary T. Meagher if you want to see what I'm talking about re undulation: ‪Mary T. Meagher‬‏ - YouTube I think watching this can describe it better than any words can. Another comment I'd make is what's with the Superman position off the start and turn? You really need to lock your hands and put your forearms against your ears on the streamlines. You could have a really fast fly if you can get these things down. Not everyone can turn it over like you do, and you seem to be turning it over AND have an effective catch. Keep working on it!

It looks to me like you are bending at the knees too much with your kick.This is making your kick slow.If you kick more from the chest and hips and less from the knees you can kick faster and get the kicks timed with your pull.

I think you are trying to force a kick rather than letting it be a natural part of the undulation of your stroke. Exactly what Kirk said. Check out this video at USA Swimming: www.usaswimming.org/ViewMiscArticle.aspx ...and note this specific phrase: "Press down with the hips and it's more of a pulse with the body than a kick." I would recommend trying this drill. Based on your video, you need to bend at the hips more and less at the knees. The power from a kick comes from the core of the body. You're probably lucky to be doing fly for just 5 years and be where you're at. Good luck!

Wow, that's one of the best faulty butterfly I've seen. Future looks good! You're a good candidate for my no-arm fly drill... Fast version: ‪Butterfly Kick - NAD (No Arm Drill) Fast‬‏ - YouTube Slow version: ‪Fly DrillSide‬‏ - YouTube In all cases, it teaches you both kicks. That's the main difference between this kicking drill and any other fly kicking drills. This one makes a clear distinction between first and second kick. So it's one kick when you dive, one kick when you breathe. Now, your goal is to get to accelerate this as much as you can. You have a naturally high stroke rate at fly (by not giving the 2nd kick at all). If you decide to tackle on my no-arm drill, the goal is to get as close as possible to your naturally high full swim stroke rate. That's what I try during the fast execution (shown above) which resulted in a total 50meter done in 41sec I think... And that's another cool feature of this drill. When you master it, you can automatically perform most kicking mileage at this, leading your lane most of the time, cause it's fast. Bloooody fast. I'm faster at this than say, at free style kicking with a board. And it gets you to work very specific to your fly.

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. You might try some one-arm fly with the non-stroking arm either at your side or in front. Also think of bringing your arms, head and torso up and over, diving down into the water. Then when your arms are close to finishing the propulsive part of the stroke (close to your stomach or hips), bring your kick down. This can help rework the rhythm to what you'd see with stronger butterfliers. 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. It's pretty hard to explain via posting, at least for me, but I gave it a shot. The times you posted are pretty good for "doing it wrong," and I think once your rhythm is adjusted you'll see a fairly dramatic time drop with minimal amount of effort. :D

Thanks so much for these drills!! I've been having trouble on my fly, and I think this will help so much! Wow, that's one of the best faulty butterfly I've seen. Future looks good! You're a good candidate for my no-arm fly drill... Fast version: ‪Butterfly Kick - NAD (No Arm Drill) Fast‬‏ - YouTube Slow version: ‪Fly DrillSide‬‏ - YouTube In all cases, it teaches you both kicks. That's the main difference between this kicking drill and any other fly kicking drills. This one makes a clear distinction between first and second kick. So it's one kick when you dive, one kick when you breathe. Now, your goal is to get to accelerate this as much as you can. You have a naturally high stroke rate at fly (by not giving the 2nd kick at all). If you decide to tackle on my no-arm drill, the goal is to get as close as possible to your naturally high full swim stroke rate. That's what I try during the fast execution (shown above) which resulted in a total 50meter done in 41sec I think... And that's another cool feature of this drill. When you master it, you can automatically perform most kicking mileage at this, leading your lane most of the time, cause it's fast. Bloooody fast. I'm faster at this than say, at free style kicking with a board. And it gets you to work very specific to your fly.

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.

That Guy, you're everywhere! I approve this message.

Vive le Papillon! Here's a quote from this text above... That Guy But, over in lane 5 is That Guy. That Guy frustrates the hell out of you. He's no great swimmer. He's 15 years older than you. You can beat him soundly in any freestyle event under 500 yards. You've never seen him swim the 50 fly. Yet there he is, finishing the 200 fly. That Guy? Is he talking about *our* That Guy? My bad That Guy, you're everywhere!

It turned out I had subconsciously weakened my kick by bending my knees more than before - I am now kicking with straighter legs and have a much better position in the water again :bliss: I think this is true. The more you try to consciously use your legs to kick fly, the less effective it is. Fly kick seems to come from the stomach and the hips. The legs are just big long fins that flop around.