Hi,
I'm a butterfly beginner and currently having problem with my hips sinking too much when my arms start with the recovery. I posted some videos at my blog (http://blog.grkovic.com/?p=30) Hips sink so much that first downkick barely lifts them above them the water. Sometimes, they don't even come out.
If anybody would have any suggestions, I would appreciate it a lot.
Thanks.
- Predrag.
Predrag,
I see a fundamental issue that once corrected should help greatly.
1) You are not finishing your stroke. If you focus on just your hands, you will see:
a) They barely reach your hips at the end of your stroke
and more important than that:
b) you start to recover your arms by pulling them forward while your hands are still about 4-6 inches below the surface of the water. Stop the slowmo video at 1:09 and you should clearly see what I'm talking about. This is the source of your dropped hips as you have compensated for the increased resistance of your early recovery by elevating your shoulders to aid your hands exiting the water. Shoulders up=hips down. Also, because your shoulders are coming so high, your body crashes down into the water when your arms come forward, creating a deeper body position, hands deeper at start of recovery, shoulders have to come up more to compensate, repeat.
You have a nice side by side comparison on your site of the entry and start of the pull but, in my opinion, you're looking in the wrong place for the source of the dropped hips. There could be other issues but I think the majority of them are a direct result from the finish of your arm strokes.
If this was one of my swimmers, I would have them swim repeat 25s of Fly where the only focus is to snap the back half of the pull and finish the stroke past the hips. Make sure that you are snapping at the last 25% of the pull to ensure that your hands are exiting the water at the end of the pull. Take significant rest between 25s (at least a minute if not more) because this is about feeling the finish, not about swimming fast or swimming a certain distance. When the stroke starts to fall apart stop even in the middle of a 25.
Predrag,
I see a fundamental issue that once corrected should help greatly.
1) You are not finishing your stroke. If you focus on just your hands, you will see:
a) They barely reach your hips at the end of your stroke
and more important than that:
b) you start to recover your arms by pulling them forward while your hands are still about 4-6 inches below the surface of the water. Stop the slowmo video at 1:09 and you should clearly see what I'm talking about. This is the source of your dropped hips as you have compensated for the increased resistance of your early recovery by elevating your shoulders to aid your hands exiting the water. Shoulders up=hips down. Also, because your shoulders are coming so high, your body crashes down into the water when your arms come forward, creating a deeper body position, hands deeper at start of recovery, shoulders have to come up more to compensate, repeat.
You have a nice side by side comparison on your site of the entry and start of the pull but, in my opinion, you're looking in the wrong place for the source of the dropped hips. There could be other issues but I think the majority of them are a direct result from the finish of your arm strokes.
If this was one of my swimmers, I would have them swim repeat 25s of Fly where the only focus is to snap the back half of the pull and finish the stroke past the hips. Make sure that you are snapping at the last 25% of the pull to ensure that your hands are exiting the water at the end of the pull. Take significant rest between 25s (at least a minute if not more) because this is about feeling the finish, not about swimming fast or swimming a certain distance. When the stroke starts to fall apart stop even in the middle of a 25.
