I've heard a lot of stories about how if you don't know how to do fly properly you could seriously wreck your shoulders.
One story one of my friends told me that a friend of hers dislocated her shoulder in the middle of a race.
I do want to try it but I'm a bit intimidated to tell the truth. Plus, I'll look ridiculous the first time I try :blush:. Total embarrassment I'd predict.
Any tips to get over the fear?
Former Member
As promised
YouTube - Fly DrillSide
It's very simple to perform once you get the synch sorted out. And once you get to this point, there's no reason why the full stroke wouldn't work.
Not sure if just looking at it will be sufficient though. If you are fortunate enough to know someone that already knows the butterfly, you may want to send him think link and ask him to teach you. Otherwise, try it.
Think of it this way. One little kick to dive (head down), glide and one little kick to breathe (head up). Head up head down is the key. To breathe, PLAN your move. LOOK up to see where you're going to breathe before actually wanting to surface. Most of the glide occurs after the dive. You got to streamline yourself, feel like a very slippery seal. Once you got your fish, look up and surface.
Get this and you're getting the most fascinating aspect of BF.
If you have a hard time, then you can try with one arm as shown below
YouTube - Butterfly One Arm Drill (Back view)
Finally, I mentioned earlier in the thread about low intensity full stroke butterfly as being quite safe and soft on articulations. The clip below shows some of this very low intensity (low speed) butterfly. I can maintain this speed for a long while. I never experimented any sort of pain related to this.
You'll notice there's not a lot of undulation in this execution, that's mainly because I am very soft on the first kick trying to be energy efficient. If I was putting more energy to undulation, the overall speed would increase and so would the energy expenditure.
At this speed, I could swim a full kilo without slowing down.
YouTube - Base endurance Butterfly - Full stroke (Side View)
Hope you get to learn it, it's lots of fun
Your very welcome.
To help your understanding, don't hesitate to make some stills on the clips. Pay attention to when breathing begins, follow the head movement.
The key point with the first drill, is that when you manage to be able to do this, you're in perfect balance. You don't need the arm pulling to breathe. By leaving your hands in the front not using them, you're forced to lie solely on body undulation to support breathing. Without mastering this drill, chances are that most of your arm action will be spent getting your head (as well as shoulders and arms) out of the water.
This very common flaw is at the base of the fears you expressed in your introduction.
If you have too much of a hard time, don't hesitate to use fins. Without them, think of your feets as if they were a set of fins. Very relaxed and floppy ankles.
there have been some very good suggestions in this thread.
you may want to check out the articles by Coach Emmett Hines at:
www.h2oustonswims.org/articles_whole.html
especially:
Slip-Slid’n’ Away
and
Vive le Papillon!
i have major mobility issues w/ my shoulders and have managed to learn to do a pretty decent fly. i look at it this way:
you need a good kick. the power comes from the body motion. learning the timing takes a lot of patience (for most average folks) and/or good coaching.
think "forward"... not "up"
keep the hips as high as you can throughout the whole stroke.
learn to relax into the recovery as much as possible.
for a good practice and distance technique... try to incorporate a glide into your stroke. the glide comes at the end of the recovery.
learn to engage muscles in the core of your body... not just the extremities. fly is more of a whole body stroke than any other. i was amazed at what i learned about using core body strength in swimming once i learned to do a decent fly stroke.
one-arm fly will help with the timing. i prefer breathing to the side, inactive arm out front. this drill helps a lot to get you to stretch-out your stroke. you can alternate sides (and full strokes) in any combination you can imagine... just keep it balanced.
make yourself long in the water. visualize it.
what is frequently referred to as a 'pressing down of the chest' is really more of a 'opening of the chest' (ask a Yoga teacher about this term). the better your flexibility in the shoulders/spine, the better you will be at this.
breathe as early as possible... and make it quick.
the kick basically comes at the water entry and exit of the hands. the actual timing is a bit more refined than this, but this is where you want to start till you find your stroke.
do a lot of dolphin kicks on your back... arms out front. when people start complimenting you on this skill, you'll know you are pretty much there.
i never used fins for years, partly to be a purist, mostly because i never had them around. when i finally got around to trying it i used diver type fins and it threw off my timing in a big way. something to keep in mind if you use fins. i've never tried training fins (like 'zoomers'), but i'm guessing they would work better. i think fins would be a good idea to start, but don't get dependent on them, or your stroke probably won't ever really work without them.
play with the amplitude of your stroke. long, slow, deep 'diving' strokes can help till you build up endurance... and give you something to fall back on if you get fatigued and want to 'stay legal'. the more you can flatten your stroke, the faster you can get.
for practice... try just letting your legs sort of drag behind you as you fly... using very small kicks.
when you can start doing fly from a dead stop, floating stretched out in the water, you will know you are on your way to becoming a good fly swimmer.
enjoy it. make it fun.
:)
