I have a swim partner right now, a young girl from Scotland who is training for our triathlon here; she pushes me big time even tho I could be her mother (she is always on my feet, I can't get rid of her!!)
I was a natural backstroker for 40 plus years, turned distance freestyle and no more backstroke.
Here's our personal challenge and wanted to see if any of you would be interested. I have never been a butterflyer except when I was young and didn't know any better and did the 400 IM, and I never butterfrogged; only dolphin kick.
On March 19th to build a different kind of strength, we are going to add to our training with distance fly (yes, I must have dementia).
From shore to a buoy, it is 350 yards and our goal is to do the entire thing fly. When I come up with challenges for myself, I always say Why Not?
So, my friend Jo and I are going to start training for the 350 fly and we don't have any turns, it is straight, non-stop to the buoy. I remember trying this same challenge for myself several years ago, and only got to about 150 yards and DIED. But it is always good to challenge ourselves in something we don't normally swim.
So, for you flyers out there and non-flyers, I ask my standard question: Why Not? Are you game? And if not fly, why not another stroke that gives you grief? All that can happen is you may not succeed at a particular distance, but you are giving your body a rest from its norm and moving into areas of different training.
I hope to report more than enough hilarious stories along the way toward this goal.
Donna
Parents
Former Member
When I was at my first college, at our meet against Kings Point: Merchant Marine Academy, one of the boys on their team had missed practice or something like that, and as a punishment, he had to swim the 1000 fly instead of freestyle. It was ridiculous. He did it, and didn't get last! He never fell apart!
I mentioned this before on some thread, but I'll say it again: being able to maintain your form on butterfly and not "die" whether it be on a 100, 200, 350 or 1000 really seems to me to be based on how much of an effort you are making to mentally think about your event. Most of us could swim 1000s of yards freestyle straight if we needed to...I know I have done up to 5000 yards straight in an 1.5hour straight swim and we don't really need to think about, but we do...at least I do, I concentrate on my form and that makes it so much more enjoyable and easy.
Fly can be the same way (of course being conditioned is half the battle, but once you have that base...) bringing a consistency to your fly swimming, including breathing patterns, speed throughout, and lengthening your stroke and really focusing on the body dolphin aspect of the stroke is essential. You can do it!
When I was at my first college, at our meet against Kings Point: Merchant Marine Academy, one of the boys on their team had missed practice or something like that, and as a punishment, he had to swim the 1000 fly instead of freestyle. It was ridiculous. He did it, and didn't get last! He never fell apart!
I mentioned this before on some thread, but I'll say it again: being able to maintain your form on butterfly and not "die" whether it be on a 100, 200, 350 or 1000 really seems to me to be based on how much of an effort you are making to mentally think about your event. Most of us could swim 1000s of yards freestyle straight if we needed to...I know I have done up to 5000 yards straight in an 1.5hour straight swim and we don't really need to think about, but we do...at least I do, I concentrate on my form and that makes it so much more enjoyable and easy.
Fly can be the same way (of course being conditioned is half the battle, but once you have that base...) bringing a consistency to your fly swimming, including breathing patterns, speed throughout, and lengthening your stroke and really focusing on the body dolphin aspect of the stroke is essential. You can do it!
