The Butterfly Lane

Not long ago I posted a call out to my Facebook friends to post their best "simple butterfly tip" for a Butterfly 101 Clinic I was coaching on the upcoming weekend. Here is a collage of them - tips for all levels I would say from retired flyers to World Record Holders, Olympians, coaches and swimmers. This was fun! CVMM 101 Butterfly Some simple tips from Butterflying Friends of Ahelee’s (no particular order) Allison Wagner: Get your head down quickly after breathing! Cheryl Kupan: I'm a big fan of one arm fly… well, these days that's all I can do (literally) is just 1 arm. ;) "a friend sent it to me this AM as he knows my love of FLY... not! RL ain't so bad to watch either” Ryan Lochte butterfly YouTube- Ryan Lochte butterfly technique " Mo Begley Chambers: "Hi Ahelee - simple, but basic, for butterfly. Keeping your head/neck/spine in alignment, press and then release your chest so it slips just under and then over the water. Work from your core! OK, short enough? John Robert Morales: "Butterfly tip: try to swim perfect butterfly in practice. It may be just a 25 or 50, but practicing a bad butterfly stroke only results in a bad butterfly stroke. Jim McCleery: "Ahelee, I like two drills for butterfly. 1) 1 arm with dolphin kick, 2) dolphin kick with a snorkel and arms at your sides. Both enhance the rhythmic nature of the stroke. " Jeri Marshburn (Tom Shields’ development coach): Unless I am fine tuning a stroke there are 2 things I always say 1) “the fastest way to swim butterfly is underwater” ......and 2)"your legs are not useless appendages - your arms appreciate it when you use them!" Ethan Yotter: "timing. timing. timing. If your arms are recovering, your head should be down. Also, the "wave" motion of butterfly- it starts at your head and goes all the way to your toes." Michael Heather: "Dive into each stroke. Lots of core strength=speed and endurance in butterfly." Keith Dennison: "Butterfly is all about getting on top of and "flying" across the water. This is all technique, core strength and endurance. I would watch the YouTube videos from Phelps in 2008 at the Olympics and 2009 at World in Rome. For a clinic, I'd focus on sculling out in front and directly underneath the shoulders. One arm drills, breathing every other (focusing on keeping as high in the water as possible. Lastly, I'd do fly kick on your back in a perfect streamline. For advanced swimmers, vertical kicking, also in a streamline position. It can't be mastered in a weekend, but you can improve significantly in a matter of a few months. In the weight room; back, shoulders, triceps and core are the most critical. Bottom line, if you can do 3 sets of 10 pull ups unassisted, you have the tools to be an amazing flyer!!! Tyler Clary: Work on shoulder and wrist flexibility. the better that is, the more efficient you will be which is especially helpful in long course events. Lucy Johnson Face in the water before the hands, follow your hands with your eyes (and therefore your head) until eyes are looking at the bottom of the pool right under your face (not looking forward at this point); and lift your hips. Jessica Hardy all I think about doing is trying to make it as much like breaststroke as possible...high catch underwater, low breath, and fast turnover! (below is 1 conversation of tips) Lisa Ward Do drills instead of broken down fly. That's all I do :) Leslie Livingston: Metoo Ahelee Sue Osborn: Me too... And Finz. Always! Leslie Livingston: I haven't swum a single length of fly without fins in years. Keeps the shoulders healthy and legs strong. Lisa Ward: I only use my zoomers for fast kick sets doing fly on my back. Since I'm starting to do 200 fly I will drill to keep up my endurance. When I only did 50 fly I rarely swam fly in practice. Leslie Livingston: I never use zoomers, only the regular speedo fins. I drill a ton of fly as well. I never swim more than a 50 fly in practice, usually AFAP. I use fins for all fly swimming. But I kick regularly without fins and practice my shooters without fins. I like using my monofin for an endurance dolphin kick set, or a super zippy speed set. In short, I kick a lot of fly and don't swim much. Fly is a very kick driven stroke. Now, if you're doing a 200, I have no advice, as I am strictly a sprint flyer. ~~~~~~~ Ande Rasmussen: Anything you do & measure, Improves, SDK faster, Keep your head down, when not breathing Move your arms fast Fly is a flat stroke with a slight undulation Andrea Block stay flat, press the chest and keep the hips high! Bill Brenner For beginners, drop your chin towards your chest after each breath. Others, put one foot on top of the other when bringing the feet to the wall on the turns. Michael Mann Hands under hips when pushing the stroke to finish Rob Dumouchel: Remember that the more you can bear to kick underwater the less you have to actually swim on top of it :) Nichole Talbot: One of the things I focus on is to keep my head low when taking a breath. If the head is too high, the body becomes more vertical which reduces momentum. Mj Caswell: Press your chest down every time your arms come to the front and remember to enter the water with soft hands. Ouida Liu: I always tell people to learn swim fly correctly and they'll be able to swim without getting tired. Laura Val: For me I need to breathe every other to keep my rhythm. Otherwise I go up and down. Also I think about keeping my hips up and head down. Gary Hall, Sr.: "Wow! tough one. Get your legs strong. When your legs go in fly, so do you. Good legs will keep you horizontal in fly...the only way to be. If you front breathe, lift the neck only; not the shoulders. Otherwise try breathing to the side like I now do. Bridgitt Welge: It's always been a rule with me that there's NO breathing "off the wall" with fly. Beginners (and some non-beginners) lose their rhythm with that first breath and just can't get it back. You have to take a couple of strokes before your first breath...even if those couple strokes have to start out as 1-arm fly.(training) Oh, psychology. I thought it was a LOT easier to do fly AFTER I was told that it should feel like I was going "downhill" than to simply learn that it feels "uphill" a lot of the time until you do it right. Jessica Cole-Crawford: kick "UP" as well as down... Another one: take your time at the top of the stroke when placing your hands in the water... allow yourself to catch and grab rather than slip through (no rushing the top of the stroke)... Another: be sure to power through all the way to the bottom of the pull and "push" the water all the way through to your fingertips past your hips/thighs. this will help ease the recovery and allow your arms to naturally recover over the water will less effort on your part... it will help save the shoulders and preserve your upper body strength and endurance... I always found doing chin dips to be very helpful for this as well as working with the overhead pull-down in the weight room... get those triceps strong! lats and shoulders too... (and, of course the core- but I am focusing on upper body in this particular comment). core strengthening will help immensely with the kick, making sure it is equally strong on the up as well as on the down motion. kicking on your back is GREAT for this, as is vertical kicking... u should be able to work your way to being strong enough with your kick to be able to lift your body up out of the water at least to your ribcage... Hermine Terhorst: 4 count fly drill.....under body to front for 1 out to sides for two breaths for 3 and push back for 4.....under body to front for 1...to begin again..... keeps them flat, teaches rhythm and makes them learn to wait to breathe (must do 2 before breath) Michelle Chow: "Hide the cookie" or thumb drag drill. If you "hide a cookie" from me, then your palm with face more backwards than frontwards, the latter causing you to sink and go vertical. For breastroke, you "take a cookie, put it in your mouth!” More geared for little kiddies. Obviously, to break the habit of "putting the cookie in your pocket"! Therese O'Rourke: I think the best way to swim fly is with a smile! After Clovis I decided to STOP doing one arm fly drills being that I almost lapsed into it on the last 50 of the 200 due to fatigue. Doing fly at the END of 200 frees and at the end of practice has really helped me with strength and endurance... which seems to help my whole stroke....When I teach kids fly, I usually have them do extra "up and outs" to build their upper body strength.

Not long ago I posted a call out to my Facebook friends to post their best "simple butterfly tip" for a Butterfly 101 Clinic I was coaching on the upcoming weekend. Here is a collage of them - tips for all levels I would say from retired flyers to World Record Holders, Olympians, coaches and swimmers. This was fun! CVMM 101 Butterfly Some simple tips from Butterflying Friends of Ahelee’s (no particular order) Allison Wagner: Get your head down quickly after breathing! Cheryl Kupan: I'm a big fan of one arm fly… well, these days that's all I can do (literally) is just 1 arm. ;) "a friend sent it to me this AM as he knows my love of FLY... not! RL ain't so bad to watch either” Ryan Lochte butterfly YouTube- Ryan Lochte butterfly technique " Mo Begley Chambers: "Hi Ahelee - simple, but basic, for butterfly. Keeping your head/neck/spine in alignment, press and then release your chest so it slips just under and then over the water. Work from your core! OK, short enough? John Robert Morales: "Butterfly tip: try to swim perfect butterfly in practice. It may be just a 25 or 50, but practicing a bad butterfly stroke only results in a bad butterfly stroke. Jim McCleery: "Ahelee, I like two drills for butterfly. 1) 1 arm with dolphin kick, 2) dolphin kick with a snorkel and arms at your sides. Both enhance the rhythmic nature of the stroke. " Jeri Marshburn (Tom Shields’ development coach): Unless I am fine tuning a stroke there are 2 things I always say 1) “the fastest way to swim butterfly is underwater” ......and 2)"your legs are not useless appendages - your arms appreciate it when you use them!" Ethan Yotter: "timing. timing. timing. If your arms are recovering, your head should be down. Also, the "wave" motion of butterfly- it starts at your head and goes all the way to your toes." Michael Heather: "Dive into each stroke. Lots of core strength=speed and endurance in butterfly." Keith Dennison: "Butterfly is all about getting on top of and "flying" across the water. This is all technique, core strength and endurance. I would watch the YouTube videos from Phelps in 2008 at the Olympics and 2009 at World in Rome. For a clinic, I'd focus on sculling out in front and directly underneath the shoulders. One arm drills, breathing every other (focusing on keeping as high in the water as possible. Lastly, I'd do fly kick on your back in a perfect streamline. For advanced swimmers, vertical kicking, also in a streamline position. It can't be mastered in a weekend, but you can improve significantly in a matter of a few months. In the weight room; back, shoulders, triceps and core are the most critical. Bottom line, if you can do 3 sets of 10 pull ups unassisted, you have the tools to be an amazing flyer!!! Tyler Clary: Work on shoulder and wrist flexibility. the better that is, the more efficient you will be which is especially helpful in long course events. Lucy Johnson Face in the water before the hands, follow your hands with your eyes (and therefore your head) until eyes are looking at the bottom of the pool right under your face (not looking forward at this point); and lift your hips. Jessica Hardy all I think about doing is trying to make it as much like breaststroke as possible...high catch underwater, low breath, and fast turnover! (below is 1 conversation of tips) Lisa Ward Do drills instead of broken down fly. That's all I do :) Leslie Livingston: Metoo Ahelee Sue Osborn: Me too... And Finz. Always! Leslie Livingston: I haven't swum a single length of fly without fins in years. Keeps the shoulders healthy and legs strong. Lisa Ward: I only use my zoomers for fast kick sets doing fly on my back. Since I'm starting to do 200 fly I will drill to keep up my endurance. When I only did 50 fly I rarely swam fly in practice. Leslie Livingston: I never use zoomers, only the regular speedo fins. I drill a ton of fly as well. I never swim more than a 50 fly in practice, usually AFAP. I use fins for all fly swimming. But I kick regularly without fins and practice my shooters without fins. I like using my monofin for an endurance dolphin kick set, or a super zippy speed set. In short, I kick a lot of fly and don't swim much. Fly is a very kick driven stroke. Now, if you're doing a 200, I have no advice, as I am strictly a sprint flyer. ~~~~~~~ Ande Rasmussen: Anything you do & measure, Improves, SDK faster, Keep your head down, when not breathing Move your arms fast Fly is a flat stroke with a slight undulation Andrea Block stay flat, press the chest and keep the hips high! Bill Brenner For beginners, drop your chin towards your chest after each breath. Others, put one foot on top of the other when bringing the feet to the wall on the turns. Michael Mann Hands under hips when pushing the stroke to finish Rob Dumouchel: Remember that the more you can bear to kick underwater the less you have to actually swim on top of it :) Nichole Talbot: One of the things I focus on is to keep my head low when taking a breath. If the head is too high, the body becomes more vertical which reduces momentum. Mj Caswell: Press your chest down every time your arms come to the front and remember to enter the water with soft hands. Ouida Liu: I always tell people to learn swim fly correctly and they'll be able to swim without getting tired. Laura Val: For me I need to breathe every other to keep my rhythm. Otherwise I go up and down. Also I think about keeping my hips up and head down. Gary Hall, Sr.: "Wow! tough one. Get your legs strong. When your legs go in fly, so do you. Good legs will keep you horizontal in fly...the only way to be. If you front breathe, lift the neck only; not the shoulders. Otherwise try breathing to the side like I now do. Bridgitt Welge: It's always been a rule with me that there's NO breathing "off the wall" with fly. Beginners (and some non-beginners) lose their rhythm with that first breath and just can't get it back. You have to take a couple of strokes before your first breath...even if those couple strokes have to start out as 1-arm fly.(training) Oh, psychology. I thought it was a LOT easier to do fly AFTER I was told that it should feel like I was going "downhill" than to simply learn that it feels "uphill" a lot of the time until you do it right. Jessica Cole-Crawford: kick "UP" as well as down... Another one: take your time at the top of the stroke when placing your hands in the water... allow yourself to catch and grab rather than slip through (no rushing the top of the stroke)... Another: be sure to power through all the way to the bottom of the pull and "push" the water all the way through to your fingertips past your hips/thighs. this will help ease the recovery and allow your arms to naturally recover over the water will less effort on your part... it will help save the shoulders and preserve your upper body strength and endurance... I always found doing chin dips to be very helpful for this as well as working with the overhead pull-down in the weight room... get those triceps strong! lats and shoulders too... (and, of course the core- but I am focusing on upper body in this particular comment). core strengthening will help immensely with the kick, making sure it is equally strong on the up as well as on the down motion. kicking on your back is GREAT for this, as is vertical kicking... u should be able to work your way to being strong enough with your kick to be able to lift your body up out of the water at least to your ribcage... Hermine Terhorst: 4 count fly drill.....under body to front for 1 out to sides for two breaths for 3 and push back for 4.....under body to front for 1...to begin again..... keeps them flat, teaches rhythm and makes them learn to wait to breathe (must do 2 before breath) Michelle Chow: "Hide the cookie" or thumb drag drill. If you "hide a cookie" from me, then your palm with face more backwards than frontwards, the latter causing you to sink and go vertical. For breastroke, you "take a cookie, put it in your mouth!” More geared for little kiddies. Obviously, to break the habit of "putting the cookie in your pocket"! Therese O'Rourke: I think the best way to swim fly is with a smile! After Clovis I decided to STOP doing one arm fly drills being that I almost lapsed into it on the last 50 of the 200 due to fatigue. Doing fly at the END of 200 frees and at the end of practice has really helped me with strength and endurance... which seems to help my whole stroke....When I teach kids fly, I usually have them do extra "up and outs" to build their upper body strength.