The Butterfly Lane

Hi everyone! I started to swim nearly 2 years ago, almost exclusively freestyle. I recently started to try to learn fly just to have some variety to my workout. However, i can barely complete a stroke (with both arms) so just to practice the rhythm, i’m doing single armed drills. Nonetheless, i really would like to be able to complete a full butterfly stroke with both arms. Whenever i do attempt it, I find it so hard to finish my pull. When my arms reach somewhere under my midsection, that’s where i experience the most pressure from the water which seem to be slowing down my pull. During this phase, it sometimes feel like i’m pulling through mud (for lack of any better description i can think of). By the time i do complete the pull near my hips, my upper torso seem to have already gone down. And maybe because of this, i’m unable to get a clean recovery and instead have my arms wading through water during the recovery. Any tips that you can share so i can be able to accelerate my arms through the latter part of the pull? Any drills which you think can help me with it? Sorry if I don’t have any videos - but i do hope you guys get the picture. Thanks in advance for your help! When I teach Fly....to my summer league team...I always have them use fins to start out. I start with basic drills, kick with a board, kick with hands at their sides, Kick Fly on their back, Kick Fly underwater with Streamline, then add in 1 arm stroke RT and LT, then drill with alternating arms. Try drills with Fins as what you are after is getting the motion and then the timing. Once you have done drills try putting it all together...again the above is all with Fins. Once you feel that that is easier, do the drills without fins and put all together. This approach has worked well for me teaching my summer leaguers how to swim fly!

Hi everyone! I started to swim nearly 2 years ago, almost exclusively freestyle. I recently started to try to learn fly just to have some variety to my workout. However, i can barely complete a stroke (with both arms) so just to practice the rhythm, i’m doing single armed drills. Nonetheless, i really would like to be able to complete a full butterfly stroke with both arms. Whenever i do attempt it, I find it so hard to finish my pull. When my arms reach somewhere under my midsection, that’s where i experience the most pressure from the water which seem to be slowing down my pull. During this phase, it sometimes feel like i’m pulling through mud (for lack of any better description i can think of). By the time i do complete the pull near my hips, my upper torso seem to have already gone down. And maybe because of this, i’m unable to get a clean recovery and instead have my arms wading through water during the recovery. Any tips that you can share so i can be able to accelerate my arms through the latter part of the pull? Any drills which you think can help me with it? Sorry if I don’t have any videos - but i do hope you guys get the picture. Thanks in advance for your help! When I teach Fly....to my summer league team...I always have them use fins to start out. I start with basic drills, kick with a board, kick with hands at their sides, Kick Fly on their back, Kick Fly underwater with Streamline, then add in 1 arm stroke RT and LT, then drill with alternating arms. Try drills with Fins as what you are after is getting the motion and then the timing. Once you have done drills try putting it all together...again the above is all with Fins. Once you feel that that is easier, do the drills without fins and put all together. This approach has worked well for me teaching my summer leaguers how to swim fly!