The Butterfly Lane

I'm going to be a contrary voice in two ways. (1) I hate kicking fly on my back (at least, on the surface). Maybe it is okay as a drill to work on the up-kick. The problem is that kicking fly on the surface robs you of much of your power in the down-kick (er, that would be the up-kick if you are on your back). You are good at making a lot of waves but not it isn't translating as effectively to forward propulsion. To do a good dolphin kick, lead with (and focus on) what your hips are doing rather than your legs. They will follow the hips. You want to work on your up-beat but don't want to worry about lack of oxygen? Do dolphin with a kickboard but be sure to keep your feet below the water: they should never break the surface. Concentrate on working the kick both ways. You will get an excellent workout for your legs and core and also be working on a good kick. Nowadays coaches often dismiss this approach. "Body position all wrong" and such. But how many races are there where you do dolphin kick on your back on the surface? None. By the way, in college I kicked exclusively with a kickboard, usually dolphin kick. Nowadays I do maybe 30-40% of my kicking with a board. But I was a much faster kicker in college than I am now. Obviously I was younger, but I think the "kickboard-only" approach didn't hurt as much as many would think. (2) As long as you can keep your form (and that's a big thing), do as much butterfly as you want. There is no other stroke IMO that gives you as much of a workout in a given amount of time. (Well, maybe breaststroke but that's not a real stroke.) Thanks for the input - I am a rubbish kicker on all strokes and only since joining the forums here have been informed that fly is very kick dominated! I actually find it more core-dominated in that if I get a good undulation, the hips in the right place and then the legs follow naturally. Or perhaps I am harking back to learning it in the 1980s? Either way I never use a kickboard on fly and do most of my kicking on my side. I find with the board I get a lot of pressure on my lower back. I'm working on the principle right now that if you're training for the 200 free, you do lots of free sets of different lengths at different speeds, while still keeping a good stroke. So if I want to do a 200 fly, then surely a similar approach would work:dunno: OK so I'm not jumping into doing 4 x 200 fly descending next week, which would be very easy to do on freestyle, but I've swum many more yards free than I have fly in my lifetime. I guess my fly just needs to catch up!

I'm going to be a contrary voice in two ways. (1) I hate kicking fly on my back (at least, on the surface). Maybe it is okay as a drill to work on the up-kick. The problem is that kicking fly on the surface robs you of much of your power in the down-kick (er, that would be the up-kick if you are on your back). You are good at making a lot of waves but not it isn't translating as effectively to forward propulsion. To do a good dolphin kick, lead with (and focus on) what your hips are doing rather than your legs. They will follow the hips. You want to work on your up-beat but don't want to worry about lack of oxygen? Do dolphin with a kickboard but be sure to keep your feet below the water: they should never break the surface. Concentrate on working the kick both ways. You will get an excellent workout for your legs and core and also be working on a good kick. Nowadays coaches often dismiss this approach. "Body position all wrong" and such. But how many races are there where you do dolphin kick on your back on the surface? None. By the way, in college I kicked exclusively with a kickboard, usually dolphin kick. Nowadays I do maybe 30-40% of my kicking with a board. But I was a much faster kicker in college than I am now. Obviously I was younger, but I think the "kickboard-only" approach didn't hurt as much as many would think. (2) As long as you can keep your form (and that's a big thing), do as much butterfly as you want. There is no other stroke IMO that gives you as much of a workout in a given amount of time. (Well, maybe breaststroke but that's not a real stroke.) Thanks for the input - I am a rubbish kicker on all strokes and only since joining the forums here have been informed that fly is very kick dominated! I actually find it more core-dominated in that if I get a good undulation, the hips in the right place and then the legs follow naturally. Or perhaps I am harking back to learning it in the 1980s? Either way I never use a kickboard on fly and do most of my kicking on my side. I find with the board I get a lot of pressure on my lower back. I'm working on the principle right now that if you're training for the 200 free, you do lots of free sets of different lengths at different speeds, while still keeping a good stroke. So if I want to do a 200 fly, then surely a similar approach would work:dunno: OK so I'm not jumping into doing 4 x 200 fly descending next week, which would be very easy to do on freestyle, but I've swum many more yards free than I have fly in my lifetime. I guess my fly just needs to catch up!