After resisting my coach's suggestion to learn butterfrog, I am finally relenting and taking the advice of King Frog, Nadine Day, and my team's relay coach, Donna Hooe. I can swim a legal butterfly forever (well, 2,000 yards non-stop that I know of), but it's slow. I would like to improve my times on both 200 fly and 400 IM, so my goal is to learn a legal (and good!) butterfrog.
I saw instant positive improvements in my stroke count and 200-pace, 25-yard split. What used to be a 10-stroke 25 yard butterfly is now 8 strokes, and my time at 200 pace dropped almost two seconds. I have only practiced this for a few hundred yards, so I have a long way to go to getting it right!
First of all, the undulation is missing, and I need to get the feel for it. I also notice that I'm not getting completely around on recovery and my wrists are bending on entry. In time, I'm sure I can work these out.
Is this butterfrog legal? What suggestions do you have on how to improve? King Frog, I would especially appreciate your feedback as always! :agree:
Topside- http://youtu.be/0yVfdN5CcXY
Thanks flyers and frogs!
Terry doesn't use the fly kick, according to him, because he feels his lower back is to stiff to have any benefit. He was demonstrating butterfrog to a group of us and was asked that question about the fly kick.
Thanks, Wookiee, I appreciate you solving that puzzle for me. It makes sense now!
What does he mean by "sneaky breath?" When I try the butterfly, I usually wind up horizontal and with a mouth full of water after about four strokes. He also has a pretty narrow fly kick and I wonder mine has so little power because I'm taking it too wide and not snapping hard enough.
Elaine, I have to say, you are amazing. You inspire me. And Bruce is a treasure.
What I think he means by "sneaky breath" is to not lift your head up to breath. Check out a video of Michael Phelps swimming fly and you will see that he juts his jaw forward to get a breath rather than lifting his head up. He gets a quick breath and gets his head right back down. If you lift your head up, it will push the rest of your body to go lower in the water. As a result, your body will have a vertical tilt rather than staying horizontal.
If you can get somebody to shoot video of your fly and post it, we can help you out here on the forums with some tips on how to improve it.
Meanwhile, my "treasure" :angel: shot more video of my fly today, and I'm hoping it's improvement over the previous posted video. By the way, Bruce says "thanks" and appreciated your compliment. :D I agree with you, of course! As for me being "amazing," I don't know about that, but if you think so, thanks! :blush:
Here's my new (hopefully improved) version of butterfrog:
http://youtu.be/PHXfVMUTNAM
Terry doesn't use the fly kick, according to him, because he feels his lower back is to stiff to have any benefit. He was demonstrating butterfrog to a group of us and was asked that question about the fly kick.
Thanks, Wookiee, I appreciate you solving that puzzle for me. It makes sense now!
What does he mean by "sneaky breath?" When I try the butterfly, I usually wind up horizontal and with a mouth full of water after about four strokes. He also has a pretty narrow fly kick and I wonder mine has so little power because I'm taking it too wide and not snapping hard enough.
Elaine, I have to say, you are amazing. You inspire me. And Bruce is a treasure.
What I think he means by "sneaky breath" is to not lift your head up to breath. Check out a video of Michael Phelps swimming fly and you will see that he juts his jaw forward to get a breath rather than lifting his head up. He gets a quick breath and gets his head right back down. If you lift your head up, it will push the rest of your body to go lower in the water. As a result, your body will have a vertical tilt rather than staying horizontal.
If you can get somebody to shoot video of your fly and post it, we can help you out here on the forums with some tips on how to improve it.
Meanwhile, my "treasure" :angel: shot more video of my fly today, and I'm hoping it's improvement over the previous posted video. By the way, Bruce says "thanks" and appreciated your compliment. :D I agree with you, of course! As for me being "amazing," I don't know about that, but if you think so, thanks! :blush:
Here's my new (hopefully improved) version of butterfrog:
http://youtu.be/PHXfVMUTNAM
