Improve Butterfly without actually swimming it.

Ok, I don't see how he's snobbish for that, it's not like they're 30 dollar goggles. But I digress. There are people who think Swedes are the only proper goggles. The biggest problem with them is for most people they don't fit and they hurt. There's no padding at all. Just your eye socket and some plastic. It's a bad way to fix rings-around-the-eyes.

Yeah, I try to kick as much as I can for any stroke, since I don't have much arm room. I guess all I can do for now is just strengthen my arms with weights and try to swim a length or two of butterfly whenever I get the chance.

I guess all I can do for now is just strengthen my arms with weights and try to swim a length or two of butterfly whenever I get the chance. A lot depends on several factors - what distance you're planning to race, if your stroke is dominant in the upper body, lower body, or just based on rhythm. Additionally, and probably more important, what are you weak points currently? For example, if you're targeting the 100 Fly and when you swim it in a meet (not practice - that doesn't count) then when do you die and which body parts give out first? Basically what is the limiting factor? As a case in point, my stroke is upper-body dominant and I swim sprint distances. In college it was very different - I had to work a lot more on legs since I had to swim 200's all of the time, but now I'm focusing on the 50 with a secondary focus on the 100. Therefore, in the weight room I concentrate on lower chest and triceps to give me enough strength to surge out of the water. This is because I touch my hands together in the sculling motion underneath the chest, and push forcefully in the latter half of the underwater stroke with my triceps. It's extraordinarily effective, but takes a great deal of strength to do it right - especially for a 100. With that in mind, my primary strength exercises are close-grip dips and the decline hammer strength press. I'll add some exercises for my rear delts, but with lighter weight and higher reps. This is because I'm not trying to add strength there - the goal for those muscles is endurance as that's what gives out in the last 25 of the 100 Fly. It may not work for everyone, but it's been proven to work well for me. Earlier this year I had to be out of the water for 3 months due to a broken toe. I lifted during the 3 months in this manner, and was only able to get 2 weeks of swimming in before a big meet. Despite being out of the water for 3 months, I still swam incredibly fast.

A lot depends on several factors - what distance you're planning to race, if your stroke is dominant in the upper body, lower body, or just based on rhythm. Additionally, and probably more important, what are you weak points currently? For example, if you're targeting the 100 Fly and when you swim it in a meet (not practice - that doesn't count) then when do you die and which body parts give out first? Basically what is the limiting factor? As a case in point, my stroke is upper-body dominant and I swim sprint distances. In college it was very different - I had to work a lot more on legs since I had to swim 200's all of the time, but now I'm focusing on the 50 with a secondary focus on the 100. Therefore, in the weight room I concentrate on lower chest and triceps to give me enough strength to surge out of the water. This is because I touch my hands together in the sculling motion underneath the chest, and push forcefully in the latter half of the underwater stroke with my triceps. It's extraordinarily effective, but takes a great deal of strength to do it right - especially for a 100. With that in mind, my primary strength exercises are close-grip dips and the decline hammer strength press. I'll add some exercises for my rear delts, but with lighter weight and higher reps. This is because I'm not trying to add strength there - the goal for those muscles is endurance as that's what gives out in the last 25 of the 100 Fly. This is a good post and mostly mirrors my own thoughts and training. Except even for "upper body dominant butterflyers" I think legs/core are very important in this stroke. Even if most of the propulsion comes from the upper body, having a strong kick gets you better leverage for your pull. And if you develop a good underwater kick, that can both make you faster (better off the walls) and -- if you stay underwater longer -- it means you take fewer strokes and possibly last longer into the race. All that said, unless you have shoulder issues I don't see much point in doing dolphin kick with hands by your sides. When you go without a board, practice it with a streamline while on your front (doing it on your back is a different kick, unless fully submerged). A surprising number of good butterflyers have trouble doing dolphin kick and maintaining a good streamline. A kickboard is okay too, IMO (though there are many detractors) as long as it isn't overused. Fins don't appear to be an option for you due to crowding, but possibly vertical kicking is. One-arm fly is not as good as full fly but it is still better than always doing freestyle. Good luck.

ndecker, I usually swim 50 fly in the medley, and during the IM. However, I may be swimming the 100 fly on top of the two, and I haven't swam that in two years at least. Chris, I will kick underwater with my arms at my sides to get the motions, other than that I streamline kick under water or use a board. And I try to keep one armed fly to a minimum now since the pool gets more and more crowded every time i show up. But today I got a pretty good workout, I did 10x80 IMs and my fly felt fine for not going fast at all, my breaststroke seems to make my arms feel like "rubber"...I can't get back into that pocket that I was for breaststroke anymore, I guess that'll be my secondary focus after butterfly.