Butterfly, Discussion on Overall Technique
I am going to reply to this post with my summary interpretation on fly technique but first I will describe where I am with the fly and how I got here.
About a year ago I casually decided to improve my horrible swimming "technique" and re-teach myself freestyle, back, and *** strokes. Somewhere along the line I started playing with the butterfly stroke too which was particularly helpful in making sure I got the most exhausting workouts. So far, my mission is to improve my enjoyment of exercise and make the best out of my limited opportunity for swimming which does not include any formal instruction (Masters would be fantastic but it's not in my near term plans.) In fact, my swimming season could end anytime now so I am taking this opportunity to record what I think I've figured out.
In reading older posts on this board, I came across a comment from someone who wrote: practice, study, practice, study, practice, ... That is what I've done. I've searched out advice on the net, downloaded and studied video, and taken a lot of notes. I haven't come across any type of consensus that the best video instruction or book to buy is "such and such" or found too much consensus on anything other that it's a hard stroke to learn. Other than for a couple of sources, info has come in bits and pieces. A personal instructor and film of myself would be great, maybe it will happen someday.
I began attempting butterfly without even having learned how to dolphin kick which is what I worked on first. After several workouts, I started getting the legs in control and could actually do some fast but very inelegant "butterfly" for up to 25 meters at a shot. My exercise routine has been pretty consistent in rotating two laps of each of the four strokes. I gradually started reading more info on the fly and I discovered I was supposed to be kicking twice instead of once. Initially, it seemed impossible to kick twice but (within a couple sessions) I worked in the second downkick by doing (what I thought of as a) "bunny hop" kick shortly after the first kick ended. For many a workout I worked on arm motion and breathing the most and took lots of notes in the evening. I was not getting the progress I was looking for which made me try even harder. Then I found that some recommend learning with one kick (but I wasn't going back to one now), and I realized the improper timing of my second kick but I was unable to do anything about it. I also discovered that some advice I had apparently misinterpreted had led me into unknowingly dragging my legs straight during part of the stroke. Then I wrote what I'll call my first brilliant rule of butterfly:
"You must learn to rhythmically undulate the entire torso properly for butterfly, and be able to control it, or you will not succeed. This is the first order of business. Do this and learning the rest is a matter of time and perseverance. Don't learn the butterfly undulation, and time don't matter."
Since then, I've been working on undulation almost exclusively. I am very bad at forcing myself to do drills for very long and for the other strokes I do not do any significant drills. For butterfly, I had been doing some isolated kicking and body movements and also plenty of non-breathing and slower motion butterfly. But it hadn't been helping enough. So I started swimming some more intense laps of just undulating and practicing undulating at the surface. Also, I've tried practicing with the arms recovering underwater instead of over and also swinging the arms over and under while applying little underwater resistance. No matter what I did, I found it hard to correct my fly undulation while pulling and the timing of the subsequent (second) kick. I tried mixing in a stroke or two of fly in the midst of a lap of otherwise plain undulation, but I found it too awkward to revert to anything else once got into a full fly stroke. In particular, as far as I can tell, plain undulation meshes with one kick and not two. I haven't yet tried alternating/mixing in other strokes (like *** and freestyle) with fly in the same lap or even one-armed fly. There are too many possible things to try and learn and none standout as best, so I prefer short drills, getting on with butterfly, and not overly interrupting the rest of my medley.
My breakthrough was in concentrating almost exclusively on undulation though the catch, pull, and push. I think of my body as pushing into an arc, but only in one segment at a time starting with the chest. First there is downward pressure on the chest, then the stomach, then the thighs, and then the lower legs. And by really exaggerating this motion I can finally change the pattern of my undulation. This also helps to loosen up my legs which was desperately needed. However, what I've gotten so far is a tiring jerky stroke with highly exaggerated undulation; but the sequence of my undulation seems to be finally on the right course. I've got a lot of smoothing and flattening out to do and it seems like I need work re-integrating my arm-stroke.
In reading earlier threads here, I found someone had posted a couple video frames of Phelps' stroke positions. I actually took the same source video file and extracted a few frames myself at the precise points of my interest (see attached jpeg). I am imprinting these positions into my mind and I intend to focus on executing these stroke points as shown. I looked at video of several other top swimmers (Ian Crocker and others including female) and I could find the same points of interest in their strokes. Phelps' head and trunk goes deeper below his arms than most others (but not all) and Phelps is one of few who breathe every stroke, but I think the stills of Phelps do the intended job.
Comments, arguments, ridicule, or advice on anything is welcome.
Parents
Former Member
gjy,
Are you a mechanical engineer or a forensic psychologist? I'm pretty technically oriented and pay attention to details, but I can't hold a candle to you.
A couple of observations:
1) Pick a race or a distance you are training for.
2) Pick a style of fly and stick to it.
Yes, there is a one beat (kick) and there is a two beat style of fly. The first is oriented more towards distance fly, the latter to sprinting. The important point is to appreciate the effect of tiring quickly while swimming fly (aka "the piano falling on your back"). This means trying to learn how to swim a 50 will drive you to makes choices that are substantially different that trying to learn how to swim a 200. Some will argue that all you need is conditioning to use the same style. Maybe, if you are young and you have National caliber potential. For those of us who are old and mediocre at any age, recognizing that they are different races is the key to enlightenment. I chose to learn how to do a 200 fly (in the words of Emmett Hines, turn myself into "that guy"), and it drove me towards a single beat, distance style. Your description of your butterflying odessey kinda sounds like you're trying to shift back and forth between sprint and distance techniques.
Lots of people have lots of different theories about how to swim fly. They are not all the same. Since you sound like you are going to coach yourself, I would recommend picking one coach, book author, or school of thought, and sticking with their methods until you feel you have learned their basic style. Same comment as above about mixing techniques. Wait until you can do basic vanilla well before you start experimenting.
Personally, I prefer the Total Immersion school of thought. You can read a couple of excellent articles describing its basics at Emmett Hines' Team website. Go to www.h2oustonswims.org Then click on "Articles." Then look for "Slip Slid'n Away" and "Vive le Papillon!" (in that order. After the first one, you will know who "that guy" is.) With this style, I have learned how to do a 200 fly pretty much any time I want without feeling like I've climbed Mt. Kilamanjaro for 2 days afterward. Also, I have used this technique to teach brand new age group swimmers how to fly in a brief 9 week summer rec league season. A few keys points:
- Swim with your body, not your arms. I've even gone so far as to not push all that hard with my arms, and just sort of let them tag along with the body dolphin (udulation) motion.
- Breath low and early, all the better to fit in with the body dolphin, and enable you to breath more often without shredding your stroke.
- GLIDE! This is my key to a 200. We don't breath every stroke because our hips will sink. But, this will make us breathless after a while. Just as freestylers learn how to breath without disrupting their stroke, so they can breath every 2 strokes when they want to, so too should flyers learn how to breath every stroke. How to do this? There is another way to fight sinking hips. Glide a little longer while pressing your chest deeper. This will float your hips after every stroke, which will let you breath every stroke, which you will need to glide just that little bit longer. It's slow, but it works.
- If you are not already, practice your body dolphin with fins, at least part of the time. This will give you stronger positive feedback when you body dolphin properly, i.e. you will notice small improvements more easily. Then take off the fins, and try to make it feel the same with nekkid feet.
- Feel you stroke. You have done an incredible job breaking down your fly into its component parts. Your attention to detail is remarkable. You can also learn by focusing your attention onto how the stroke as a whole "feels." This might help you gain a sense of flow, and address the jerky quality you have mentioned.
- Drill: try some more one-arm fly. It is an excellent drill for the "pressing your chest" part of the stroke. A few years ago, Michael Phelps wrote an article for Swim magazine describing how he does it, and he also indicated it was his favorite drill.
Good luck with all of this. Let us know how you do.
Matt
gjy,
Are you a mechanical engineer or a forensic psychologist? I'm pretty technically oriented and pay attention to details, but I can't hold a candle to you.
A couple of observations:
1) Pick a race or a distance you are training for.
2) Pick a style of fly and stick to it.
Yes, there is a one beat (kick) and there is a two beat style of fly. The first is oriented more towards distance fly, the latter to sprinting. The important point is to appreciate the effect of tiring quickly while swimming fly (aka "the piano falling on your back"). This means trying to learn how to swim a 50 will drive you to makes choices that are substantially different that trying to learn how to swim a 200. Some will argue that all you need is conditioning to use the same style. Maybe, if you are young and you have National caliber potential. For those of us who are old and mediocre at any age, recognizing that they are different races is the key to enlightenment. I chose to learn how to do a 200 fly (in the words of Emmett Hines, turn myself into "that guy"), and it drove me towards a single beat, distance style. Your description of your butterflying odessey kinda sounds like you're trying to shift back and forth between sprint and distance techniques.
Lots of people have lots of different theories about how to swim fly. They are not all the same. Since you sound like you are going to coach yourself, I would recommend picking one coach, book author, or school of thought, and sticking with their methods until you feel you have learned their basic style. Same comment as above about mixing techniques. Wait until you can do basic vanilla well before you start experimenting.
Personally, I prefer the Total Immersion school of thought. You can read a couple of excellent articles describing its basics at Emmett Hines' Team website. Go to www.h2oustonswims.org Then click on "Articles." Then look for "Slip Slid'n Away" and "Vive le Papillon!" (in that order. After the first one, you will know who "that guy" is.) With this style, I have learned how to do a 200 fly pretty much any time I want without feeling like I've climbed Mt. Kilamanjaro for 2 days afterward. Also, I have used this technique to teach brand new age group swimmers how to fly in a brief 9 week summer rec league season. A few keys points:
- Swim with your body, not your arms. I've even gone so far as to not push all that hard with my arms, and just sort of let them tag along with the body dolphin (udulation) motion.
- Breath low and early, all the better to fit in with the body dolphin, and enable you to breath more often without shredding your stroke.
- GLIDE! This is my key to a 200. We don't breath every stroke because our hips will sink. But, this will make us breathless after a while. Just as freestylers learn how to breath without disrupting their stroke, so they can breath every 2 strokes when they want to, so too should flyers learn how to breath every stroke. How to do this? There is another way to fight sinking hips. Glide a little longer while pressing your chest deeper. This will float your hips after every stroke, which will let you breath every stroke, which you will need to glide just that little bit longer. It's slow, but it works.
- If you are not already, practice your body dolphin with fins, at least part of the time. This will give you stronger positive feedback when you body dolphin properly, i.e. you will notice small improvements more easily. Then take off the fins, and try to make it feel the same with nekkid feet.
- Feel you stroke. You have done an incredible job breaking down your fly into its component parts. Your attention to detail is remarkable. You can also learn by focusing your attention onto how the stroke as a whole "feels." This might help you gain a sense of flow, and address the jerky quality you have mentioned.
- Drill: try some more one-arm fly. It is an excellent drill for the "pressing your chest" part of the stroke. A few years ago, Michael Phelps wrote an article for Swim magazine describing how he does it, and he also indicated it was his favorite drill.
Good luck with all of this. Let us know how you do.
Matt
