It's getting to the point where I hate swimming fly in practice because it hurts so bad when I get whacked in the hand. I remember this happening when I was a kid, too, but back then it was usually fine soon after. Now my hand bruises and it hurts for days afterward. Does anyone else have this problem? Is this something we just have to deal with when we get older?
I swim fly down the middle of the lane & go one-armed while passing someone. But I agree, doing 25's is ideal since you don't have to worry about other traffic. I keep my nails trimmed short. Even so, there is always body contact during workouts; I tend to hit other people the most when I'm doing backstroke. My outsweep sweeps the swimmer in the next lane over! It's all a part of the workout experience.
The worst is when you hit a fingernail hard against the lane line. It can hurt for up to a week. It is for that reason I don't swim fly unless I have a lane to myself. But if I have absolutely no choice, I break into one arm fly as I pass someone coming in the opposite direction. It is not ideal and completely throws my rhythm out and makes it twice as difficult because I have to regain that rhythm in someone elses wake, but it sure beats whacking your hand into somebody's head or jamming it into the lane line.
I hate swimming fly in a lane with other people and normally only do 25's if I have to. Like others have said, I do a 1 arm stroke while we pass and launch back to regular fly after.
I think we lose fat deposits in our hands as we age. My hands/wrists bruise and blood vessels pop whenever I get whacked these days. I've even bled a couple times. Maybe someone needs to design padded swim gloves.
I am usually the slower swimmer, however, when I swim fly in a lane that I am sharing, I do a small glide until we pass each other. Seems to do the trick for me.
Yes, I do the usual tricks: kick only when another swimming is approaching or single arm stroke, but eventually you're still going to have a mental lapse or not see someone in the next lane and smack them.
Not a flyer, and not a Brit, but I wonder if the British way of circling (cw in one lane, ccw in the next, so I am told) would lessen the chances of a pair of hands/heads whacking each other...
Not a flyer, and not a Brit, but I wonder if the British way of circling (cw in one lane, ccw in the next, so I am told) would lessen the chances of a pair of hands/heads whacking each other...
I think it would definitely help, but I tend to nail people swimming in my own lane more than those in adjacent lanes.
