Butterfly, Breathing Every Stroke

Fly used to be my fastest stroke and I found that I had to make myself breathe every third stroke in order to maintain my time. I only did 50 yards at a time (either IM or Medley relay) so I don't know that I could have kept it up for any distance longer than that as I was pretty spent at the end of it. Of course, that was also years ago . . . right now I'd be happy to do 50 yards of fly without dying half way through!

The lower you keep your head, the better you will do breathing every stroke. If you lift your head high and look forward a lot as you breathe you are using a lot of force to lift your head and it can tire you out more. Keep your head low and you will probably find less change between a breathing stroke and a non-breathing stroke. I have folks do drills very similar to the video above, and it seems to help in that regard. An important aspect of that drill is that you don't want to push down on your extended arms when you breathe. In fact we do that drill with arms at our sides to work on breathing rhythm and head position. I'm not a particular fan of a lot of head motion when breathing, but it seems to work for SolarEnergy.

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'm going to try Solar Energy's drill. In high school, fly was my fastest stroke, and I enjoyed swimming 100's and 200's routinely. Now my fly is only fast for about 25 y, and I lose energy quickly. The thought of swimming a 100 seems impossible. I traced my problems back to my breathing. With my body dynamic changed at 40, I now lack the trunk flexibility I had at 17. Even then, I lifted my head too much, but my hips didn't drop as a result because of my trunk flexibility. Now when I lift my head too much, my hips drop. The only thing saving my stroke is that I breathe every other. I have tried focusing on diving my head forward into the water before my arms enter, but I either end up sucking water on my breath and choking or lifting my head too high again to ensure I actually get air. Is there anything else I can look at doing? For example, as people improve freestyle stroke, breathing becomes easier with only a slight turn of the head. Swimming freestyle, I am actually breathing in a trough created by my shoulders and head pushing through the water and as a result, my head only turns a little. Is there a corrollary for fly?

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? My findings are much like yours. I find I have to really work to put my chest down after breathing so that my hips don't drop. It's much easier to drop my chest when I don't breath. Also, it helps to breath earlier in the stroke, when the hands are under your hips (I actually try to breath when my hands are at my waist, but I breath when my hands are at my hips). I'm working on this as well, for same reasons. I need more air now that I'm not 13 anymore.... --mj

So I think I've found a useful drill to make me kick harder I have to disagree here. I hope in the end that you'll see it as a drill to improve your ability to breathe without negative impact on body position, because that's the way butterfly should be swam. I switched from every other to every stroke several years back. Then, few years after, like another member have suggested earlier in the thread, I found it difficult to leave the head in the water while recovering the arms. Now I can use any breathing pattern (and matter of fact I do, you wouldn't see me performing a 50m breathing every stroke, that's a nonsense to me). Simple tip. Try to look for where you're going to breathe before actually breathing. I mean take a look at where your head is going to break the surface. We may call this technique: look-then-breathe Another (not as simple) tip. Try to master this *balance during breathing* drill here, just by looking at it I am sure you'll understand its purpose (again, I use the look-then-breathe technique) YouTube - Fly DrillSide

In fact we do that drill with arms at our sides to work on breathing rhythm and head position. For what it's worth, the reason why I perform this drill arms extended in the front, is that because it's much faster. Therefore, it allows me to use this drill as a replacement for pure kicking during fast kick sets (e.g. sets of 50m off 1min where I touch the wall at 45sec). That's the main reason. However, several swimmers might find it easier to learn the drill with arms along side the body, for the reason you smartly referred to: this prevents the swimmer from using his hands/arms to breathe.

in freestyle, its pretty much given that the act of taking a breath slows you down. is this the same for fly? Your head needs to come out of the water to take a stroke, what difference would it make picking your face up out of the water to breathe vs leaving it in (causing drag). I'm a decent flyer and I've noticed on sprint 25s and 50s I typically swim faster breathing every stroke than not. Thats obviously not the case in freestyle.

I came from long distance free, so I went to breathing to the side, like free. This lets me stay in my limits & keep form.

I always considered myself a "flyer" and was moderately successful at the National level (occasional Top-10). I've always been taught to breathe as little as possible in order to maximize my horizontal body position. After watching Michael Phelps in the water and listening to him and his coach on a butterfly training DVD, I changed my approach and made huge strides in my results. Michael's coach said that, depending on your particular physiology and how precise your "body awareness" is through dedicated training, you can swim butterfly not only faster, but farther by breathing every stroke. He said, by breathing every stroke, Michael has learned to sacrifice very little horizontal stability in exchange for increased LEVERAGE. Leverage and increased oxygen uptake made the difference for him--and me.