Sinking hips during recovery in fly

Hi Predrag, not sure if you're still active on US MS. Was wondering if you finally came to the bottom of understanding what was causing your hips to sink? (I hope so). Anyway, on my end things have evolved (quite a lot) since 2010. I'm now in charge of a new Butterfly class in our local University and so this has given me great opportunitites to perform stroke analysis etc... Last year I finally put my finger of what I believe to be a cause of hip sinkage. I think this problem is due, or at least aggravated by a Balance that's not right. More specifically. When the legs are recovering (Upbeat) in prep for the first kick (obviously, this upbeat is happening after the 2nd kick downbeat), that adds some weight to the back of the stroke. This upbeat of the first kick does not help you to float, it gets you to sink. The more (and the harder) you pull on your legs bending the knees etc, the bigger the sinkage. I've found that if at this critical moment, your arms are too early into their recovery phase, they too (being positionned at the back of the stroke) add some weight, which worsten the sinkage effect. Add to this the head that must pop out to breathe once in a whilst, you're now up to a lot of weight to the back of the stroke (big balance issue). A stronger first kick downbeat is then required to compensate. It's my opinion that several people maintain this problem without even being aware of it. If you look at the following clip, you can observe 2 fly swimmers. The top one has a PB of 1:01 SCM, the other one can barely break 1:30. Now, look closely for the upbeat preceeding the first kick for Top swimmer. You'll notice that (first) his 2nd kick is delayed until the end (which is good). Therefore the Upbeat of the first kick also gets delayed. As a consequence, when the Top swimmer performs this Upbeat preceeding the first kick, his arms are already almost back at the front of the stroke. In fact, when he initiates the Upbeat, arms / hands are at the front. Also, you'll notice that he doesn't bend the knees aggressively on this Upbeat. In comparison, the swimmer at the bottom, like 90% of masters I'd say, is way too early on the 2nd kick. The Upbeat that follows this early 2nd kick therefore takes place too early. Timing wise the arms are still at the back of the stroke. Add to this that he's very aggressive in pulling up his legs (bending the knees etc). Conclusion, on top of leaving the hand exit prior arm recovey phase without the extra propulsion provided by the 2nd kick that should happen simultaneously, an early 2nd kick can be considered as a potential cause for hip sinkage. Underwater Comparison Of Butterfly Strokes - YouTube Thanks to Lindsay btw for his excellent work in building a massive video clip database.

Hi Predrag, not sure if you're still active on US MS. Was wondering if you finally came to the bottom of understanding what was causing your hips to sink? (I hope so). Anyway, on my end things have evolved (quite a lot) since 2010. I'm now in charge of a new Butterfly class in our local University and so this has given me great opportunitites to perform stroke analysis etc... Last year I finally put my finger of what I believe to be a cause of hip sinkage. I think this problem is due, or at least aggravated by a Balance that's not right. More specifically. When the legs are recovering (Upbeat) in prep for the first kick (obviously, this upbeat is happening after the 2nd kick downbeat), that adds some weight to the back of the stroke. This upbeat of the first kick does not help you to float, it gets you to sink. The more (and the harder) you pull on your legs bending the knees etc, the bigger the sinkage. I've found that if at this critical moment, your arms are too early into their recovery phase, they too (being positionned at the back of the stroke) add some weight, which worsten the sinkage effect. Add to this the head that must pop out to breathe once in a whilst, you're now up to a lot of weight to the back of the stroke (big balance issue). A stronger first kick downbeat is then required to compensate. It's my opinion that several people maintain this problem without even being aware of it. If you look at the following clip, you can observe 2 fly swimmers. The top one has a PB of 1:01 SCM, the other one can barely break 1:30. Now, look closely for the upbeat preceeding the first kick for Top swimmer. You'll notice that (first) his 2nd kick is delayed until the end (which is good). Therefore the Upbeat of the first kick also gets delayed. As a consequence, when the Top swimmer performs this Upbeat preceeding the first kick, his arms are already almost back at the front of the stroke. In fact, when he initiates the Upbeat, arms / hands are at the front. Also, you'll notice that he doesn't bend the knees aggressively on this Upbeat. In comparison, the swimmer at the bottom, like 90% of masters I'd say, is way too early on the 2nd kick. The Upbeat that follows this early 2nd kick therefore takes place too early. Timing wise the arms are still at the back of the stroke. Add to this that he's very aggressive in pulling up his legs (bending the knees etc). Conclusion, on top of leaving the hand exit prior arm recovey phase without the extra propulsion provided by the 2nd kick that should happen simultaneously, an early 2nd kick can be considered as a potential cause for hip sinkage. Underwater Comparison Of Butterfly Strokes - YouTube Thanks to Lindsay btw for his excellent work in building a massive video clip database.