Learning to fly

Originally posted by BillS I went back and re-read all of the posts in this thread 4 months after I started out. I was cleaning up old bookmarks and I came across this thread. I re-read all of it too, like BillS (the originator). The first time was rather quick and I understand things a little better now too. I get to BillS' post at the end and I see his "4 Month Update" from last week but somehow I missed seeing this thread up top (I should have gravitated to anything "butterfly"). I agree this is a real good thread and all comments are interesting. I forgot about the number of people (two here?) that don't like doing drills which is also me. I see there is an explanation of the one-arm fly drill here which I had been looking for. Not that I want to do it at this point - I wanted to know what was to be accomplished by it. Mostly I get here that it allows you to work on timing - other than that, the purposes seem kind of weak. I don't need to work on timing anymore - I've got it now - it's automatic. A couple weeks ago, I did finally give the one-arm drill a better try, for a full couple laps (but I erroneously, I guess, did not switch arms) and I couldn't even guess what its purpose was. I think there is a rule, isn't there, that you don't do a drill unless you know what you are trying to accomplish. One thing about this thread seems highly typical. The people willing to talk about butterfly techique (other than in "bullet" form) are all people who have recently learned or are still very much learning. It seems once we figure it out, we don't have much to say. I see a couple here, including BillS, are going with breathing every stroke. I was on the verge of taking this course myself. Congratulations, BillS, on your success to date ("50's are finally starting to feel pretty solid"), you've stayed ahead of me. Several weeks ago I was able to knock out good 50's on occassion. And since then my form has more than dramtically improved. But due to asthma/allergies, my breathing ability has correspondingly degraded. I had already been paying a heavy price because I was getting a ridicuously runny nose for the rest of the day most times I went swimming (it never runs while swimming though, only congestion). Often the running would carry over to part of the next day. But then the problem turned to primarily congestion and it's been lasting one or two days after each swim. It's not mild congestion either. So it looks like the only way I'm going to get 50 and beyond is with drugs or possibly with a different pool. Maybe next year. In the meantime, I've gotten great physical benefit from doing fly (3 days a week, and all the fly I could do, for the past month). My back seems to be more flexible and my upper body muscle has maintained even though I stopped weight training a couple months ago. My stomach muscles have got to be stronger. Every time I get my breathing back, I feel great.

Originally posted by BillS I went back and re-read all of the posts in this thread 4 months after I started out. I was cleaning up old bookmarks and I came across this thread. I re-read all of it too, like BillS (the originator). The first time was rather quick and I understand things a little better now too. I get to BillS' post at the end and I see his "4 Month Update" from last week but somehow I missed seeing this thread up top (I should have gravitated to anything "butterfly"). I agree this is a real good thread and all comments are interesting. I forgot about the number of people (two here?) that don't like doing drills which is also me. I see there is an explanation of the one-arm fly drill here which I had been looking for. Not that I want to do it at this point - I wanted to know what was to be accomplished by it. Mostly I get here that it allows you to work on timing - other than that, the purposes seem kind of weak. I don't need to work on timing anymore - I've got it now - it's automatic. A couple weeks ago, I did finally give the one-arm drill a better try, for a full couple laps (but I erroneously, I guess, did not switch arms) and I couldn't even guess what its purpose was. I think there is a rule, isn't there, that you don't do a drill unless you know what you are trying to accomplish. One thing about this thread seems highly typical. The people willing to talk about butterfly techique (other than in "bullet" form) are all people who have recently learned or are still very much learning. It seems once we figure it out, we don't have much to say. I see a couple here, including BillS, are going with breathing every stroke. I was on the verge of taking this course myself. Congratulations, BillS, on your success to date ("50's are finally starting to feel pretty solid"), you've stayed ahead of me. Several weeks ago I was able to knock out good 50's on occassion. And since then my form has more than dramtically improved. But due to asthma/allergies, my breathing ability has correspondingly degraded. I had already been paying a heavy price because I was getting a ridicuously runny nose for the rest of the day most times I went swimming (it never runs while swimming though, only congestion). Often the running would carry over to part of the next day. But then the problem turned to primarily congestion and it's been lasting one or two days after each swim. It's not mild congestion either. So it looks like the only way I'm going to get 50 and beyond is with drugs or possibly with a different pool. Maybe next year. In the meantime, I've gotten great physical benefit from doing fly (3 days a week, and all the fly I could do, for the past month). My back seems to be more flexible and my upper body muscle has maintained even though I stopped weight training a couple months ago. My stomach muscles have got to be stronger. Every time I get my breathing back, I feel great.