When did you start swimming fly?

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

Former Member — Wed, 02 May 2007 15:14:01 GMT

I tried fly when I was in high school (mid ‘70’s, working as a lifeguard, never was on a team), but never really learned it then. Fast forward to 2000, age 42. I was about 5 years into a self-prescribed swimming regimen to recover lost mobility (especially in shoulders) due to a severe arthritis condition. (I basically had to re-learn to swim starting in 1995.) I needed a challenge, so I VERY SLOWLY started to introduce butterfly into my repertoire. About a year later I actually started doing butterfly. In December of 2001 (age 43) I got proficient enough at it that I did my first fly event. Nothing to crow about, but it was legal. I did a lot of intense study, and a moderate amount of practice in the beginning. I’d say it took me about 2-3 years to get decent at it. Now, about six years into it (at age 48) I feel proficient at it, but still don’t feel that it is totally automatic most of the time. I still work on my kick a lot and mostly do short distances in practice (kick out on my back, and fly back, rest, repeat). I typically do one 50 at the end of my practice to see how well I can hold up when I’m tired (which to me is the real test). A few weeks ago I did a 400IM in practice and it felt pretty good, so it is nice to know I still got it. Want to test myself again on the 200 fly (in practice), but just thinking about it for now.

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

swim4me — Wed, 02 May 2007 10:04:38 GMT

I could do fly until I had to take a breath (about 15 yards) when I was a young teen. I was really a breaststroker and a freestyler until 18 and then I stopped swimming. I started swimming again in October at 44 years. In January, the coach 'decided' that I was a butterflyer and told me we would be working on it for Nationals (LCM). I thought he was crazy! (My parents laughed when I told them this as they had seen me swim it as a kid!) However, it is now the beginning of May, and I can do 50 meters without my stroke falling apart. I have since turned 45 and can finally do fly and breath when I need to. My first ever butterfly event will be June 10th (Yikes!). I always thought that butterfly was my worst stroke, but now it has moved up and back stroke has moved to the bottom. So there is hope.

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

Muppet — Tue, 01 May 2007 12:53:07 GMT

Kip, sounds like you like a challenge! I say go for it, as one day a few years down the road once you're zooming through a 200 fly at nationals, you'll be saying to yourself, man I wish I tried this earlier! Butterfly is certainly tough, and the hardest thing, as you mention, is getting the cadence down correctly. Ideally, you will have one pull and two kicks each cycle, but for someone just starting out, i recommend doubling the kicks to 4 per cycle (it is actually legal to swim that way anyway). In a 2-kick cycle, you use the first kick of the cycle to propel your arms forward, and a smaller kick for the underwater portion of your arms as they move back towards your hips. If you look at it as swimming free with both arms at the same time, it isn't so bad :) Good luck!!

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

BillS — Tue, 01 May 2007 12:52:03 GMT

I started a couple years ago at age 45. I have swam a couple of 50's and 100 IM's in meets without being DQ'd, which was my only real goal, and like that I can swim the IM sets in workout without having to work around the fly legs. Although it will never be my best stroke, and still requires a fair bit of effort, it's a lot of fun to swim. As a side benefit, the kicking has helped me start to incorporate dolphin kicking on my start and turns in free. There are quite a few good threads here about getting started. Here's one: forums.usms.org/showthread.php And another: forums.usms.org/showthread.php Good luck, and have fun with it!

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

Former Member — Tue, 01 May 2007 11:42:22 GMT

I am 33 and started flying about a month ago. :wiggle: I need a lot of work but I love it already!!!

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

Former Member — Tue, 01 May 2007 11:15:57 GMT

Hey, I'm 47, just learning how to swim swim, if you know what I mean, and butterfly is my ambition. Gotta have those goals! It is beautiful to watch, exhilarating to swim (yes comical, too, but we'll get there). Hang in there.

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

mattson — Tue, 01 May 2007 08:25:42 GMT

Started fly at age 6. The team was doing fun relays. I told the coach I didn't know how to do fly, and he said to imitate what the other people were doing. At age 11, had a coach who changed my stroke so that I was trying to breathe during the arm recovery and kicking out of phase with my arm stroke. :shakeshead: That was the real start of my two decade hatred of butterfly. I started to learn how to do fly right about two years ago, still working on breaking bad habits.

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

Former Member — Tue, 01 May 2007 05:56:08 GMT

I learned fly one afternoon at the local pool when I was 14. Not that it was good, but it was enough to get me started on the swim team. I still work on improving my fly during practices. It's fine for short distances, but I don't think I'll ever have the endurance for a 200. There is a woman on my team in her sixties that is still "learning" fly. She was not a swimmer in her youth, but now competes regularly in all strokes. She is the first to make fun of her fly, but she keeps working on it. Don't give up.

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

Former Member — Tue, 01 May 2007 05:54:22 GMT

I started flying at 22 years of age but had done all of the other strokes from about 5. The crawl stroke is probably the most benifit to swimming fly. I even did butterfrog before Terry L invented it. I never practiced a lot of fly, never worked more than 100 fly during a workout but did a lot of dolphin kicking. When I do fly workouts now I do repeats of 25s and occasionally 50s. If I were to race I could do a 100 but never do any 100s in training.

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

Former Member — Tue, 01 May 2007 05:20:42 GMT

Everyone goes through the "awkward stage" of learning butterfly. If you are around kids that don't swim year round, they have the same problems with rhythm. It just looks funnier on an adult because we are bigger. Keep working at it, it will come.

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

funkyfish — Tue, 01 May 2007 02:59:53 GMT

I swam competitively since grade school, but had the "off rhythm" fly. My senior year in high school we lost both flyers, so my coach tapped me on the shoulder and said "you're our flyer." It took me about 1.5 months struggling with the rhythm, then 3 weeks before our first meet someone gave me some fins. I went down one length of the pool and it clicked. I managed to drop 10 seconds off my 100yd fly time from the beginning of the season to state championships. Now after 20yrs of non-swimming I've gained 10+ seconds and feel like I'm starting over again.

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

some_girl — Tue, 01 May 2007 02:38:47 GMT

I started teaching myself three or four years ago and actually had a coach look at it maybe 2.5 years ago. I am swimming all three distances at nationals this year. While there are definitely some folks who just struggle with the timing, I don't think it is as hard to swim the longer distances as people think it is. If you are swimming more than three times a week, I think you should have the endurance to carry it off. But unlike the other strokes, where you can just slow down if you are tired, you have to keep it together in fly. So people panic and flail and think it is *so hard*. But if you spent a year swimming it and refusing to do one arm unless absolutely necessary, you could swim a decent 100.

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

poolraat — Tue, 01 May 2007 01:53:29 GMT

I started to learn the stroke in 2002 at age 50. I struggled with the stroke for most of the time since and am just now feeling comfortable with it. I am on the verge of going under 30 for a 50y and just recently began to attempt 100's. It hasn't been easy to get the rhythm and flow of the stroke but once it happened it was awesome! Good luck.

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

Rob Copeland — Tue, 01 May 2007 01:38:46 GMT

I started flying around age 7, however my mother started closer to 60 and while it wasn’t pretty at first she now has a few national top 10’s in the 50 fly in her age group. So there is hope through perseverance.

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

aquageek — Tue, 01 May 2007 01:34:22 GMT

I swam fly as a kid and was pretty abyssmal at it. I took it back up at age 28 or 30. I have enjoyed learning it correctly now. I will say that I'm working with a teammate who is learning fly in her 40s and it's tough to learn, even for a very accomplished athlete.

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

dorothyrde — Tue, 01 May 2007 01:11:15 GMT

I learned at age 40, and this after my kids collapsing in gails of laughter from my attempts. But I kept trying!

RE: When did you start swimming fly?

The Fortress — Tue, 01 May 2007 01:07:58 GMT

I learned at age 11 and stopped at age 19 after the big rip. I waited 25 years and then I started again. A lot had changed in the interim. LOL. I felt like I had to re-learn it. But after a lot of drills, SDK work and some fin use, I can do it again at age 45. The old "Learn to Fly" threads are very useful, with lots of good suggestions. Start there.