The Butterfly Lane

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! Thanks for the tips jimsauer! Maybe my timing and motion is still off. I’ll try to work on more drills with fins. Never really bothered to work with fins before so this might be an opportune time to buy a pair. Makes me think though, when is it the right time to do the first kick? I see in most videos that during the pull, there’s the 1st kick, and a 2nd kick right when the arms enter the water after recovery. But what’s confusing to me is at what point during the pull phase should the 1st kick occur? Should this be during the initial phase of the pull (when the head exits the water for the breath) or during the latter phase just before the arms exit the water? Sorry, this might be all too natural for most flyers but your perspectives would really give me a good idea of what i should be thinking about when learning the stroke. Thanks so much for the 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! Thanks for the tips jimsauer! Maybe my timing and motion is still off. I’ll try to work on more drills with fins. Never really bothered to work with fins before so this might be an opportune time to buy a pair. Makes me think though, when is it the right time to do the first kick? I see in most videos that during the pull, there’s the 1st kick, and a 2nd kick right when the arms enter the water after recovery. But what’s confusing to me is at what point during the pull phase should the 1st kick occur? Should this be during the initial phase of the pull (when the head exits the water for the breath) or during the latter phase just before the arms exit the water? Sorry, this might be all too natural for most flyers but your perspectives would really give me a good idea of what i should be thinking about when learning the stroke. Thanks so much for the help!