I've always tried to breathe every other stroke in fly, but watching the elites at Worlds breathe every stroke made me want to try it out. So recently I experimented with breathing every stroke in fly. Findings after a couple workouts where I averaged about 600 total yards of full-stroke fly:
Breathing every stroke has a negative impact on my body position
I can help that by kicking harder
The additional oxygen that I get from all the extra breathing helps fuel the harder kicking, but it seems like I'm working harder overall (higher perceived pulse rate at the end of each swim, but I didn't actually measure it)
Stroke counts and times are about the same
So I think I've found a useful drill to make me kick harder, but I doubt I'll be trying this in a race anytime soon. Has anyone else (who hasn't always swum fly this way) messed around with breathing every stroke in fly? What were your findings?
I know there are tons of drills for fly, but I just saw a dolphin kick drill on the GoSwimWeekly Website that adds resistance as a drill.
Put a pull buoy between your legs (the one-piece pull buoy works better than the two-piece ones); dive down and get in streamline and kick four or five fast dolphin kicks with the pull buoy (seems to work best if it's between your knees). Come up for air; go back down.
First time I did this drill I couldn't move. Second time, better. It's hard to stay in streamline, but I think that's where the strength comes from for this drill. One day, I will get the fly.
I breathe every stroke, but someone else passed along a drill that emphasized diving the head in before the arms enter, and that has helped me keep my body involved, rather than swim the fly very shallow and flat, with my feet coming out of the water (sigh) and my rhythm off. The last time my coach talked to me about my fly, she just asked, "What's with it?"
I keep working on it.
I know there are tons of drills for fly, but I just saw a dolphin kick drill on the GoSwimWeekly Website that adds resistance as a drill.
Put a pull buoy between your legs (the one-piece pull buoy works better than the two-piece ones); dive down and get in streamline and kick four or five fast dolphin kicks with the pull buoy (seems to work best if it's between your knees). Come up for air; go back down.
First time I did this drill I couldn't move. Second time, better. It's hard to stay in streamline, but I think that's where the strength comes from for this drill. One day, I will get the fly.
I breathe every stroke, but someone else passed along a drill that emphasized diving the head in before the arms enter, and that has helped me keep my body involved, rather than swim the fly very shallow and flat, with my feet coming out of the water (sigh) and my rhythm off. The last time my coach talked to me about my fly, she just asked, "What's with it?"
I keep working on it.
