I decided to learn butterfly this week(so far I have been swimming freestyle and breaststroke).I watched a ton of videos of butterfly and know the basics of that stroke.However, I was wondering if some people here remember their first time trying to swim it and how soon after you first tried it you figured it out, because I don't seem to coordinate all the movements right and my effort is pretyy much over once i throw my hands over the water for the first time(that's when i lose my kick).I thought maybe I should do it in phases, so I would like to see if someone could suggest some separate drills or something that would gradually lead to a better feel of the entire stroke.
Thanks a lot.
Parents
Former Member
When I was a young age grouper (about 11) my coach saw that my "butterfly" was missing something. Specifically, it was missing the second kick. My coach explained that for every arm pull, I was dolphin kicking one time. Simple enough, but wrong. Butterfly is in fact two kicks for each arm pull. I was mostly pulling myself through the water rather than kicking and pulling myself.
Here's the remedy he devised: he made me swim butterfly by holding my arms outstretched in front until I kicked two dolphin kicks. Then I pulled my arms through one complete stroke to the start (outstretched in front of me) where I held them again. Then I kicked two dolphin kicks. Then I pulled my arms through to the starting position (outstretched in front). And so on and so on. In order to do this, I had to grab my thumbs to keep from pulling until I had kicked twice. What eventually happened was my arms would begin their pull while I was making the second kick. As I began to adjust to the rhythm of the timing sequence, my fly developed into the normal two-kick, one-pull stroke its supposed to be. I also realized I had more endurance because I was kicking twice as much, giving my arms a break. The short axis motion/rotation developed along with this drill.
It worked pretty well for me and I became a decent butteflyer in my teens. At 40, I need more lung capacity, need to strengthen my abs and lose my beer belly. But the rhythm is still there.
Good luck with your quest.
When I was a young age grouper (about 11) my coach saw that my "butterfly" was missing something. Specifically, it was missing the second kick. My coach explained that for every arm pull, I was dolphin kicking one time. Simple enough, but wrong. Butterfly is in fact two kicks for each arm pull. I was mostly pulling myself through the water rather than kicking and pulling myself.
Here's the remedy he devised: he made me swim butterfly by holding my arms outstretched in front until I kicked two dolphin kicks. Then I pulled my arms through one complete stroke to the start (outstretched in front of me) where I held them again. Then I kicked two dolphin kicks. Then I pulled my arms through to the starting position (outstretched in front). And so on and so on. In order to do this, I had to grab my thumbs to keep from pulling until I had kicked twice. What eventually happened was my arms would begin their pull while I was making the second kick. As I began to adjust to the rhythm of the timing sequence, my fly developed into the normal two-kick, one-pull stroke its supposed to be. I also realized I had more endurance because I was kicking twice as much, giving my arms a break. The short axis motion/rotation developed along with this drill.
It worked pretty well for me and I became a decent butteflyer in my teens. At 40, I need more lung capacity, need to strengthen my abs and lose my beer belly. But the rhythm is still there.
Good luck with your quest.
