Over the last weekend I competed in 50m and 100m LCM butterfly.
I can swim the events, but I am just not able to keep my stroke together and remain at a reasonable speed (I would say fast, but even when sprinting it takes me about 36 secs per 50m SCM). I then deteriorate into 'survival' fly, where my hips drop and the priority is breathing on each stroke.
On the 50m, I started to struggle over the last 10m, which lost me a few seconds. On the 100m, I went out a bit slower, but by the time I got to the second 50m I was really struggling. This meant it took me around 55 secs to do the second 50m.
I've done a lot of fly in training recently, so I didn't expect it to be so tough.
In contrast, I did the 100m freestyle, and kept my intensity near maximum throughout, so I'm not sure why fly would be so different?
I do all of my training in a 25m pool, so do I really need to get to a 50m pool to get used to longcourse?
Is part of the problem oxygen debt? I seem to have trouble breathing properly on fly, as I am normally rushing to get my head back down after a very short breath.
I saw in the archives a topic about fly endurance. It suggested working on sets of 25m, then 50m, then 75m until doing 6x75m at a good pace. Another suggestion is doing 8x25m fly and decreasing the rest with each workout. My coach suggested doing 20x25m of 6 stroke fly followed by easy freestyle into the wall. That doesn't seem to be working for me, because it seems to be teaching me to swim 6 strokes then relax.
Would you recommend one of the above training methods or another one?
Is land training essential for conditioning to the level required, as most of my training is pool based right now?
Sorry for the long topic, with lots of questions. Hopefully, I will find some help here or just pointed towards some articles/training methods that work.
Thanks for the advice.
It seems my plan of doing repeats off 1 min/each 25m (so, 50m is done off 2 mins etc.) may be a bit too easy. But I'm going to make it a long term goal to keep training towards the 200m fly, so I can adjust the rest/distance as I improve. Whatever I do, I will aim to hold about 20 secs/25m swim time, as that's roughly what I can do when holding a good stroke without going all out.
I may add in longcourse training too, or train towards a longer distance than 200scm, like a 250m or 300m.
I was about where you are a year or so ago, swimming a lot of 25's on a minute. I tried to do a set of at least 8x25 every day, even if I had to squeeze it in after our coached workout (my coach used to joke about how I was swimming fly for my warm down). I've gradually worked it down to 25's on 0:40.
I've also worn my Zoomers a lot to let me do some longer sets before my stroke starts to break down.
I have the advantage of swimming long course 3 days/week for a good part of the year. I like it because it really forces you to find a sustainable rhythm, whereas in SCY, a strong turn and good underwaters can help to offset stroke weaknesses.
I'll also stretch out my glide a bit more when swimming distance butterfly. One drill I was taught was to add another kick after your arm entry to help establish a good body position before you start your arm pull.
You also have to be careful not to "dive" too much on your entry, which increases drag significantly. I was guilty of that, not realizing how much I was doing it until I saw an underwater video of my stroke.
Just my $0.02
Good luck with your training.
Thanks for the advice.
It seems my plan of doing repeats off 1 min/each 25m (so, 50m is done off 2 mins etc.) may be a bit too easy. But I'm going to make it a long term goal to keep training towards the 200m fly, so I can adjust the rest/distance as I improve. Whatever I do, I will aim to hold about 20 secs/25m swim time, as that's roughly what I can do when holding a good stroke without going all out.
I may add in longcourse training too, or train towards a longer distance than 200scm, like a 250m or 300m.
I was about where you are a year or so ago, swimming a lot of 25's on a minute. I tried to do a set of at least 8x25 every day, even if I had to squeeze it in after our coached workout (my coach used to joke about how I was swimming fly for my warm down). I've gradually worked it down to 25's on 0:40.
I've also worn my Zoomers a lot to let me do some longer sets before my stroke starts to break down.
I have the advantage of swimming long course 3 days/week for a good part of the year. I like it because it really forces you to find a sustainable rhythm, whereas in SCY, a strong turn and good underwaters can help to offset stroke weaknesses.
I'll also stretch out my glide a bit more when swimming distance butterfly. One drill I was taught was to add another kick after your arm entry to help establish a good body position before you start your arm pull.
You also have to be careful not to "dive" too much on your entry, which increases drag significantly. I was guilty of that, not realizing how much I was doing it until I saw an underwater video of my stroke.
Just my $0.02
Good luck with your training.
