The Butterfly Lane

Check out this video starting at the 35:15 mark where you can compare my timing to Terry Laughlin and another swimmer he is using in his "Total Immersion" video. My kick is obviously awful compared to their kicks; however, I am not sure the timing is the worst part of my stroke. I appreciate your input, and I would love to hear more from the other Forumites! Either you forgot the link to the "this video" you reference or I'm an idiot and can't figure out it. Not sure, either is plausible. Anyway, more generically, I find *** stroke to be an unbelievably hard stroke to swim as far as coordination and all of that. Fly has always been one of those that just feels right. Was reading this a day or two ago, and it occurred to me that I have no idea what my stroke is like when I try to pace myself for a 400IM or a 200 fly (I have started trying to copy Yajima to a degree). As fortune would have it, I was doing some IM work this morning, so I tried to pay attention to what I was doing wihtout really thinking about it. In any fly, the kick, at least to me, is not a deliberate motion. It is the extension of the body as it is positioned from the shoulders. If I say that the stroke starts when the hands enter the water, then the beginning of the stroke involves the entry of the hands, and the subsequent chin tuck and driving the head under and through the water. That motion almost creates an undulation wiht the body that ends with the first kick. Hands are still in front. I think that where things diverge is that for my shorter fly, I'll force my arms to start my pull. The second kick is usually softer, it seems to be like your body is like a spring oscillating and when the wave gets to teh end, that's when the kick occurs. On the longer events, I don't force my pull that early. I wait until that "second oscillation" goes, and I'll feel the kick come, and when it does, I'll use it to initiate my pull. So both have the primary kick when hands enter. Short fly, the secondary usually comes as hands finish the pull and begin recovery, but the longer fly, the kick is at the pull initiation. Not sure if that makes sense, again, I don't think about it, and I'm trying to remember how I was feeling it this morning. It looks to me in your video, and I'm not an expert by any means, that your shoulders are working with one body oscillation, but that at your hips, your lower body is on some different oscillation. It looks disjointed if you will. I'm guessing you are thinking about what you are doing, and not letting your body just naturally progress. Does that make sense? I'm inclined to tell you to try to swim it and not think, but rather feel. I hope if my uneducated opinion here is misguided that someone will correct me. But I think that is what generally goes on.

Check out this video starting at the 35:15 mark where you can compare my timing to Terry Laughlin and another swimmer he is using in his "Total Immersion" video. My kick is obviously awful compared to their kicks; however, I am not sure the timing is the worst part of my stroke. I appreciate your input, and I would love to hear more from the other Forumites! Either you forgot the link to the "this video" you reference or I'm an idiot and can't figure out it. Not sure, either is plausible. Anyway, more generically, I find *** stroke to be an unbelievably hard stroke to swim as far as coordination and all of that. Fly has always been one of those that just feels right. Was reading this a day or two ago, and it occurred to me that I have no idea what my stroke is like when I try to pace myself for a 400IM or a 200 fly (I have started trying to copy Yajima to a degree). As fortune would have it, I was doing some IM work this morning, so I tried to pay attention to what I was doing wihtout really thinking about it. In any fly, the kick, at least to me, is not a deliberate motion. It is the extension of the body as it is positioned from the shoulders. If I say that the stroke starts when the hands enter the water, then the beginning of the stroke involves the entry of the hands, and the subsequent chin tuck and driving the head under and through the water. That motion almost creates an undulation wiht the body that ends with the first kick. Hands are still in front. I think that where things diverge is that for my shorter fly, I'll force my arms to start my pull. The second kick is usually softer, it seems to be like your body is like a spring oscillating and when the wave gets to teh end, that's when the kick occurs. On the longer events, I don't force my pull that early. I wait until that "second oscillation" goes, and I'll feel the kick come, and when it does, I'll use it to initiate my pull. So both have the primary kick when hands enter. Short fly, the secondary usually comes as hands finish the pull and begin recovery, but the longer fly, the kick is at the pull initiation. Not sure if that makes sense, again, I don't think about it, and I'm trying to remember how I was feeling it this morning. It looks to me in your video, and I'm not an expert by any means, that your shoulders are working with one body oscillation, but that at your hips, your lower body is on some different oscillation. It looks disjointed if you will. I'm guessing you are thinking about what you are doing, and not letting your body just naturally progress. Does that make sense? I'm inclined to tell you to try to swim it and not think, but rather feel. I hope if my uneducated opinion here is misguided that someone will correct me. But I think that is what generally goes on.