I am doing the 200 fly for the first time. RUH OH!!!

200 Fly: Take it out relaxed, I'd say approx. 3-4 seconds slower than your 100 time, just to be conservative. From the start of the race, pick a breathing pattern and stick with it. This is one way I keep myself from thinking about other things (like ouchy). I try to maintain a 2 up, 1 down breathing cycle throughout the race. I find that if I go to breathing every stroke, my body position starts to get more and more vertical as the race goes on. That stroke with head down helps to maintain my hips up at the surface. As for the 200 *** and 200 Back: Build them. I did this last December in SCM and actually had some fun doing it. I took them out EXTREMELY slow, and built each one. My 200 *** actually ended up being my fastest of the season that way as well! Good enough for a TT. :) And remember that in backstroke, it's very leg driven, so the legs will hurt for sure. I personally think the 200 Back is one of the hardest events out there when done correctly. Good luck, and hopefully the 200 Fly is near the beginning of the event order for you. I usually get stuck doing it near the end of most meets. :bouncing:

As a flyer of note ,all the above is true. Have you done some 200 flys in practice? It feels much better the 2nd half if you take it easy the 1st 100.

Totally agree with this advice. I also use a 2 up, 1 down pattern. You will want to start breathing every stroke, but if you're like most people breathing every stroke will just drop your hips and slow you down more. Also avoid breathing off the walls. This is another mental thing. You will want to, but that really kills your momentum. I do switch to breathing every stroke at some point in the race, but when I do that I also force myself to kick harder so that I don't go vertical. Totally agree about breathing off walls. Just don't.

I haven't tried the other 200s, but everyone told me to take out the first part of the 200 fly really really easy, and I think that's definitely the way to go. Going out five seconds slower on the first 100 will save you ten seconds of struggle on the back half. It's a long, rough race no matter what, but it's a lot more fun when you can still breathe on the last length.

All suggestions, strategies, condolences... are welcome! My suggestion ... No 200 Fly

I'll be at the meet so see you there(I'm not going to Greensboro so it's my taper meet.) Since you are swimming the 200 BR also I have one word of advice for the 200 fly-"butterfrog." You can start out fly but if you find you went out too fast or have a good BR kick switch to butterfrog,it beats going vertical.

First of all - swim it fast, and have fun! :D I did my first ever 200 fly a few weeks back, and I found this post in the butterfly lane very helpful. All of the helps above are great, too. It was hard for me to resist doing some one-arm fly around the 125 mark, but I made it through and I am sure you will, too. Having some friends there to cheer you on will make it easier. :cheerleader:

First of all - swim it fast, and have fun! :D I did my first ever 200 fly a few weeks back, and I found this post in the butterfly lane very helpful. All of the helps above are great, too. It was hard for me to resist doing some one-arm fly around the 125 mark, but I made it through and I am sure you will, too. Having some friends there to cheer you on will make it easier. :cheerleader: I'm glad that post was helpful for you! Now in regards to dropping down to one-arm fly, I think a better mitigation for swimming with a piano on your back is to drop down to DPS fly (where you take 3 or more dolphin kicks per stroke) since it won't get you DQ'd. :angel:

Is it a taper meet or train through? SHAVE, you're a hairy dude Correct splitting is critical Tip 345 Correct Splitting Tip 266 how to correctly split & incorrectly split a 200 (revisited) Tip 74 How to Correctly Split the 200 *** and 200 Fly Tip 12 Correct Splitting 2 fly: EASY SPEED SDKs but not many, maybe 4 or 5 off your dive & off your turns like 2 or 3 Swim your first 50 relaxed and smooth, maybe around 85% effort Breathe every stroke Save your legs, do small kicks I have a sprint fly where I do 2 kicks per stroke and an easy speed fly where I do one kick per stroke keep your hips high your goal is for your last 3 50's to be very close to do this you must do your 1st 50 correctly you want to feel OK at the 100 & decent at the 150 on your last 50: do more SDKs & sprint Wear a speedy suit

From the start of the race, pick a breathing pattern and stick with it. Totally agree with this advice. I also use a 2 up, 1 down pattern. You will want to start breathing every stroke, but if you're like most people breathing every stroke will just drop your hips and slow you down more. Also avoid breathing off the walls. This is another mental thing. You will want to, but that really kills your momentum.