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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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  • A couple of things I'd say that may or may not help.  Fly is my favorite stroke, but man when it is off a little, it is crushing.  As for the recovery aspect, one drill I'd work on is swimming it with a freestyle kick.  This will help keep your hips higher in the water, so they don't drop when you are recovering, which is when I start bending the elbow a lot.  The other big thing is to focus more on the body undulation, and try to relax your arms during recovery.  Almost like making a big shrug, and just flopping your arms forward.  Like Windrath said, palms back and thumbs down.  Last thing I'd say is that I do much better when I glide just a wee little bit when my arms enter, and slow down the stroke.  It helps relax you, and instead of fighting the water, you glide through it.

    I fought for sheesh, a year, trying to figure out how my fly got so bad.  Starting using weights to improve it (there is a specific exercise, can't recall its name).  The best thign I did for making it all come together, and again, the recovery is where it seems to just fall apart, is add that ever so slight pause/glide.  May be getting the timing of the kicks right with the rest of my body, I'm not sure.  But that's what helped me the most.

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  • A couple of things I'd say that may or may not help.  Fly is my favorite stroke, but man when it is off a little, it is crushing.  As for the recovery aspect, one drill I'd work on is swimming it with a freestyle kick.  This will help keep your hips higher in the water, so they don't drop when you are recovering, which is when I start bending the elbow a lot.  The other big thing is to focus more on the body undulation, and try to relax your arms during recovery.  Almost like making a big shrug, and just flopping your arms forward.  Like Windrath said, palms back and thumbs down.  Last thing I'd say is that I do much better when I glide just a wee little bit when my arms enter, and slow down the stroke.  It helps relax you, and instead of fighting the water, you glide through it.

    I fought for sheesh, a year, trying to figure out how my fly got so bad.  Starting using weights to improve it (there is a specific exercise, can't recall its name).  The best thign I did for making it all come together, and again, the recovery is where it seems to just fall apart, is add that ever so slight pause/glide.  May be getting the timing of the kicks right with the rest of my body, I'm not sure.  But that's what helped me the most.

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