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?
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Is this working for you? Can you speed it up where you want it? I have been told (and read on this forum, possibly quoting Ande, "slow fly equals no fly"). This is why I called it an innovative approach. I realized that I am pretty much alone in my camp, and this is how I like things anyway ;-)
I train for the 200, event for which I am aiming for gold at next state (province) championship.
Ande is pretty right in that the technique to swim slow and that to swim fast is different. Does that mean one can't train the two? My slow freestyle doesn't look (or feel) anywhere near my sprint freestyle. It's almost two different strokes (6beat high on the water vs energy efficient 2beat).
I already listed few benefits of this strategy earlier in the thread, but here's one more. When I climb on the block for the competition, I'll be swimming against folks that are basically scared of performing the 200 butterfly. Me, I will have completed probably between 200 and 500 times 200 butterfly at all sorts of speed. I will be hungry for a 200 bf. Not scared.
I guess that my quest is about stopping being scared to swim the butterfly. Not sure where it's going to bring me but so far I really enjoy the process.
Is this working for you? Can you speed it up where you want it? I have been told (and read on this forum, possibly quoting Ande, "slow fly equals no fly"). This is why I called it an innovative approach. I realized that I am pretty much alone in my camp, and this is how I like things anyway ;-)
I train for the 200, event for which I am aiming for gold at next state (province) championship.
Ande is pretty right in that the technique to swim slow and that to swim fast is different. Does that mean one can't train the two? My slow freestyle doesn't look (or feel) anywhere near my sprint freestyle. It's almost two different strokes (6beat high on the water vs energy efficient 2beat).
I already listed few benefits of this strategy earlier in the thread, but here's one more. When I climb on the block for the competition, I'll be swimming against folks that are basically scared of performing the 200 butterfly. Me, I will have completed probably between 200 and 500 times 200 butterfly at all sorts of speed. I will be hungry for a 200 bf. Not scared.
I guess that my quest is about stopping being scared to swim the butterfly. Not sure where it's going to bring me but so far I really enjoy the process.
