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Butterfly recovery

ForceDJ

Can I get a comment from anyone with some expertise in butterfly. I’m not real proficient at the stroke, and only throw a little bit into my swims just for a bit of variation. I.e. my pool workouts of usually around 3000 meters are just about all free/crawl…I’ll do a 400m IM toward the end just to break things up. So my biggest problem is with the recovery. Maybe I just don’t have the shoulder/arm flexibility, but getting my arms out of the water to throw them forward is difficult. At least with my elbows bent. I get fatigued and then end up “catching crabs” and get sloppy. The thing is, I’ve never really known if my elbows/arms should be straight/horizontal going forward, or should I have them bent and high at the elbow, like you would in a crawl stroke recovery? I look at various graphics depicting the stages of the stroke (two attached)…some show the arm straight. Some so the elbows bent. I think straight would be easier. Is that correct? — Dan

 

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  • I highly recommend watching slow motion videos of Michael Phelps swimming butterfly.  His recovery was THE BEST in the business and one I try to emulate.  I also recommend concentrating on initiating your upper back muscles (squeeze your shoulder blades together) to bring your arms around on recovery rather than lifting with your elbows.  This action alone is what I attribute my ability to swim a 2,000 yard non-stop butterfly (as well as a 900, a 1,000, and several 500's over the years).  That was back when I was 50, but at 62, I am still "racing" 200 butterfly-- although, due to dyautonomia, my times are very sloooow. 

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  • I highly recommend watching slow motion videos of Michael Phelps swimming butterfly.  His recovery was THE BEST in the business and one I try to emulate.  I also recommend concentrating on initiating your upper back muscles (squeeze your shoulder blades together) to bring your arms around on recovery rather than lifting with your elbows.  This action alone is what I attribute my ability to swim a 2,000 yard non-stop butterfly (as well as a 900, a 1,000, and several 500's over the years).  That was back when I was 50, but at 62, I am still "racing" 200 butterfly-- although, due to dyautonomia, my times are very sloooow. 

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