Last summer I got some video of various swimmers at a club in Montreal and I put together some videos that compare two swimmers' butterfly timing:
Above water comparison:
YouTube- Butterfly Stroke Comparison
Below water comparison:
YouTube- Underwater Comparison Of Butterfly Strokes
Above and below of just the lower swimmer:
YouTube- Alfonso Split Screen Butterfly
I wrote some thoughts about the differences in timing here:
mymsc.ca/.../butterfly_stroke_timing
In addition to the timing there are some other issues like kicking from the knee, but I am interested in what approach people would suggest to help this swimmer improve his stroke, whether it be an approach to changing his timing or something else.
I've got a couple swimmers in my club that have similar timing issues and are having a hard time changing.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
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Former Member
What I found was that if instead of working to lift the front end of the torso up I simply pressed downward with the hips instead I got from the downhill to an upward orientation, and that with that orientation even a relaxed pull easily brought me up enough to get a breath and recover my arms. I'm very glad that you found your way to easier breathing/recovery whilst eliminating the need to rely on your hands to support you whilst being at the front.
For me, I like to use another very simple trick, and that is how I coach as well. I just teach to look at where you plan to breathe, prior breathing. So that qualifies me as a "head-leads-the-undulation" coach.
I know I know. I read at numerous occasions that the head should remain still during the whole undulation, to me, that makes no sense. Even Phelps, who is often quoted as keeping his head still and fix whilst swimming BF does indeed moves the head up and down.
So that's my trick. Look at where you plan to breathe, prior breathing.
But I'll try to think about your trick tonight and see how good it feels.
That's enough for now, I'm already going to feel real silly if I see video of this and it's all wrong! Colleague, if I can issue one little advise, if you are to take the slow butterfly route to improve stroke mechanics, give yourself plenty of time before achieving some nice Form (video feed back). 1 thing that you may notice is how difficult to get the hips to surface (during the first kick) when you're swimming slow. You may not like yourself very much but after time, something nice (although slightly different than if you were swimming power fly) should come out of this process.
What I found was that if instead of working to lift the front end of the torso up I simply pressed downward with the hips instead I got from the downhill to an upward orientation, and that with that orientation even a relaxed pull easily brought me up enough to get a breath and recover my arms. I'm very glad that you found your way to easier breathing/recovery whilst eliminating the need to rely on your hands to support you whilst being at the front.
For me, I like to use another very simple trick, and that is how I coach as well. I just teach to look at where you plan to breathe, prior breathing. So that qualifies me as a "head-leads-the-undulation" coach.
I know I know. I read at numerous occasions that the head should remain still during the whole undulation, to me, that makes no sense. Even Phelps, who is often quoted as keeping his head still and fix whilst swimming BF does indeed moves the head up and down.
So that's my trick. Look at where you plan to breathe, prior breathing.
But I'll try to think about your trick tonight and see how good it feels.
That's enough for now, I'm already going to feel real silly if I see video of this and it's all wrong! Colleague, if I can issue one little advise, if you are to take the slow butterfly route to improve stroke mechanics, give yourself plenty of time before achieving some nice Form (video feed back). 1 thing that you may notice is how difficult to get the hips to surface (during the first kick) when you're swimming slow. You may not like yourself very much but after time, something nice (although slightly different than if you were swimming power fly) should come out of this process.
