As a kid my father and my coach always wanted me to swim the fly but I always resisted. Only once was I ever persuaded to swim the 100m fly. I went out hell for leather in the first 50 and even turned in front but the wheels came off in the second 50, in a bad way, and I ended up limping in the last 25m swimming one arm butterfly! I never tried again!
Now after a 20 odd year abscence from swimming I find myself actually wanting to swim fly and enjoying it when I do. It's a beautiful feeling when the fly is executed well: smooth, rhythmic and exhilarating. When you hit the zone in fly it is an even better feeling than hitting the zone in crawl. It is an addictive feeling.
How did I get into fly? Well it has only been recently really, but I started to do a set of 25m at the end of every practice. I started off really slowly: 10 times 25m at 30 sec's alternating fly and crawl. Slowly I have built that up to 40 times 25m at 30sec and more recently I have been adding a set of 10 times 50 fly at 90sec. Next I plan to cut the repeat interval down to at least a minute on the 50's and then add some 100's. I can't wait to try the 100's but I don't want to try before I am really ready for them.
I always laugh when I see SwimStud's "Fly: Just say no!" because that is exactly how I felt but I have to say now, a practice without fly is a a practice without my 'fix'!
Anyone else have a similar experience?
Syd
Geo!! This is a great site. See it do it!! These are awesome videos. Now I need help on my back to *** turn.
Happy flying!
P
Sorry no help from me I no longer swim backstroke or breaststroke. I will find it and post the video.
I actually love fly for all the same reasons--the beauty, the absolute feeling of power. When someone comes into the pool who I don;t know, I unleash a furious 25 of fly just to let them know that I am a serious swimmer.
Here's a question: Besides being very tiring, why do my legs hurt first? The simple answer: My legs are weak, right?
Mac - Go down the list you will find nine videos of back to breaststrke turn. They are not great but you must watch all nine to get the picture. You will find them as -
IM - ryg til bryst www.online1966.com/all.asp
... but I have to say now, a practice without fly is a a practice without my 'fix'! ... Anyone else have a similar experience?....
yep, that is just how i feel about it.
i've been through a number of mantras on my road to successful butterfly. my current one is "think 'forward' (not 'up')." that one has helped a lot in smoothing out the breath cycle.
i did a 200 in competition once, it was not pretty, but it was legal, and both me and my team got the points. ;-)
Here is a fly kick tutorial try to work it in to your routine www.youtube.com/watch
All kidding aside go to GO SWIM www.goswim.tv/videolist.php go down to the butterfly videos.
There is a video here by Hickman on fly news.bbc.co.uk/.../2134870.stm
Those were some great video links for drills, George! I looked at the fast hands one for breaststroke. It required four different swim toys!
The back to *** turn videos were all over the shoulder spin turns though. I think the flip is faster. At least that's the one I'm trying. Hopefully, I won't DQ out of the box.
I'm not an expert,but I was taught that SDK is lower amplitude and faster than full stroke kick.I have also been told that you should move your upper body less in SDK,and then have read that was not true.I tend to move my upper body less in SDK,but I'm not that fast(my whip kick is faster.)
So, is the SDK supposed to be qualitatively different than the dolphin kick during the normal fly? Higher frequency? Lower amplitude? Less core involvement? It seems to me that if what you want is a higher frequency during SDK you will have to have a lower amplitude kick and less core involvement, at least to some degree.
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