Before I get started, I just want to say that I'm already aware of how nothing can be better than simply swimming the stroke.
Anyways, I swim at my city's community center pool and it is quite crowded in the lap lanes, on top of that, the people are not exactly polite. I need to work on my butterfly(and other strokes too, but mostly fly) for when my school's swim season starts, so it's pretty important.
Does anyone know any good drills or weight sets that I can possibly do to improve my butterfly without much time in the water? (I'm kinda starting to get sick of playing frogger every day trying to avoid people)
Thanks!
Oh, on a side note, whenever I swim for a while, I get really noticeable dark circles under my eyes, does anyone know the cause?
Refer to the last two posts in this thread for out of water stuff:
Swimming + Gym: Is it possible? - U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums
While you're in the water obviously it can be tough doing a lot of fly with people around. For the times when you can swim but want to limit your chances of hitting arms with people, all you need to do is make sure you're swimming fly when you are tired. What I mean by that is doing sets like:
10 x 100: 75 free / 25 fly on a fast pace. Add 5 seconds to your normal free pace. So if you can hold 1:15 for 10 x 100's free, do them on 1:20. If you can maintain good stroke technique when you are tired, you can avoid doing heavy pure fly yardage.
Att he gym - Lat pul downs both seated & standing with your arms straight. Butter fly machine - the one you put your arms under & pick up. Any cable mach that will allow you to pull thru with 1 or 2 hands bent over to act like fly.
Hello Alex:o) I know what you mean about practice. We have that problem here also. Well everyone is very nice but it is hard to practice the back and fly when you have a lot of people in the pool. If anything if I were you I would at least swim the fly and swim around them. That is what I do. The kick you should be able to get in with a kick board. Pushups will help you strengthen your arms. I swim a 200 fly non stop every practice. That helps also. Other than that I can't think of anything else.
One-arm fly is a crappy substitute but it's better than nothing. At least you can still get the body motion in with the single arm pull. Not a great supplement but it's better than nothing at all.
Yeah, I try to do one-armed fly sometimes, but for me, under water kicking helps me get through the body motions (except arms, of course)
Are you targeting a specific butterfly race (50/100/200)?
During swim season, I usually just do 50 fly in the Medley, and the first 50 of the IM. But this year I will probably be doing the 100 fly also.
Usually towards the end of my workouts, usually around 8:00pm, the lanes clear up. I'll see if I can try and throw in a couple hundred yards butterfly. And i have a lot of room to work on turns because the pool is only 20yds.
Anyways, I did some searching and found out why I get black circles under my eyes, and it's because of my goggles. I'm probably going to buy a new pair soon. My buddy recommended "Swedish" goggles, are those any good?
No. That just means your buddy is a goggle snob.
Kind of agree with Jazz on the snobby quasi purist attitude about swedes.
I rarely do full stroke fly in practice. I only swim fly with fins as well (either easy speed or AFAP) due to shoulder paranoia. I do a huge amount of dolphin kicking and shooters, with and without fins. This seems sufficient to do the 50 fly and the 90 fly. (I just endure the last 10 yards of the 100.) Fly is a very leg driven stroke.
I also do a fair amount of leg work in the gym.
Breaststroke with dolphin kick doesn't take up much lane space.
Pull-ups and dips in the gym, especially pull-ups in the wide grip V position.
Rotator cuff exercises.
Being rather stupid, can you please "draw" me a better picture of wide grip V position? I assume you mean that your hands are farther apart, making the base of the V your head, right? How does this help? My fave has always been work on the triceps - like doing "curls" but behind your head with a forty pound weight.
This seems sufficient to do the 50 fly and the 90 fly. (I just endure the last 10 yards of the 100.)
That's awesome funny! Now that I think of it, I guess I actually swim a 75 fly and endure the last 25yds of it.
Over the past 3 weeks I've had to swim with the local age group team because my regular pool is being renovated/repaired. I was spoiled in that I could find times to swim when I'd either have the lane to myself, or could just split the lane with one other swimmer.
Since it had been over 20 years since I swam with a group, I wasn't sure how I'd handle fly (I was sure I'd be smacking these poor kids). The coach told us to time the strokes so we wouldn't have to break stroke. I knew what he meant but didn't think I could do it. However, I've been able to time it and not run into anyone. I have to scrunch up my shoulders a little more than normal, but so far it's been working. There are times when I've had to stroke, do some extra underwater dolphins, and then start back up again, but I've still been able to keep the rhythm going.
Long story short, it's possible to swim fly with others. It may not be an ideal stroke, but it can be done. I've actually swam more fly with this team than I would have done on my own anyway. Good luck.
:bliss:
Freestyle with dolphin kick. Kick once each time a hand enters the water. It's very similar to butterfly.
If you mean being out of the water entirely, that's just not going to work. Lift weights, I guess.
