The Butterfly Lane

Not that I am an expert...but I do have a great coach that has made me into a pretty good flyer. Our coach at Longhorn (TXLA) has us train several different ways and we pretty much train for middle distance races. We do a lot short rest freestyle sets, 100's, 200's on a tight interval. For example last week we did 3 sets of 8 X 100''s free on a tough of interval as you can make. You want to make the set but only get 3-5 seconds rest between each 100. This training will get you endurance which you need to finish a 200 Fly we also train stroke 2-3 days a week as well and another good set is 3 x100 free (interval of 5-8 seconds rest) followed by 6 x 50 Flys' on say 45/50 interval.. we do this for every stroke. This is simulating the last 50 of a 200 as you are tired from the free set and go right into a stoke set Finally my favorite set to train Fly is Drop outs /Drop Down 50's starting at 1:00 and drop a second each 50 till you miss the interval. I usually start Backstroke for the first 8 50's and then with to fly and try to make it down to around 37-36 before I drop out. Again this is simulating swimming Fly tired and that last 50 in a race. Sets like these have helped me a reasonable 200 Fly without dying too much! good luck on your training and racing! Thanks! My training has been up and down for fly--up until a year and a half ago, I primarily swam on my own, since I would coach my USAS group, have a 1.5 hour break, then coach my USMS group. I swam on my own in that gap 3-4 nights a week and ended up doing a lot of "quality" training...which would devolve into me doing sets like 10 x 50 FL on 1:10 aiming for a 1:1 swim/rest ratio, then dropping that down to 8 x 50, then taking a lot of rest between sets, and so on. There'd be plenty of nights when I'd struggle to hit 2000 yards! In the spring of 2018 I started training with the USAS senior prep group that practices after my younger USAS group and before my masters group. Much better overall conditioning, but I don't have a ton of opportunities to do true FL sets. This season, in addition to the evening practices I swim with the senior prep group, I'm swimming one morning a week with the senior distance group--the coach is an old school high yardage coach, so while my shoulders are complaining about it now just a couple of weeks into the season, I think that'll really kick my butt into great aerobic shape over the season. Even if I don't do a ton of fly-specific training this season, I think I'll have a much better aerobic base and back end for the 200 fly by the spring.

Not that I am an expert...but I do have a great coach that has made me into a pretty good flyer. Our coach at Longhorn (TXLA) has us train several different ways and we pretty much train for middle distance races. We do a lot short rest freestyle sets, 100's, 200's on a tight interval. For example last week we did 3 sets of 8 X 100''s free on a tough of interval as you can make. You want to make the set but only get 3-5 seconds rest between each 100. This training will get you endurance which you need to finish a 200 Fly we also train stroke 2-3 days a week as well and another good set is 3 x100 free (interval of 5-8 seconds rest) followed by 6 x 50 Flys' on say 45/50 interval.. we do this for every stroke. This is simulating the last 50 of a 200 as you are tired from the free set and go right into a stoke set Finally my favorite set to train Fly is Drop outs /Drop Down 50's starting at 1:00 and drop a second each 50 till you miss the interval. I usually start Backstroke for the first 8 50's and then with to fly and try to make it down to around 37-36 before I drop out. Again this is simulating swimming Fly tired and that last 50 in a race. Sets like these have helped me a reasonable 200 Fly without dying too much! good luck on your training and racing! Thanks! My training has been up and down for fly--up until a year and a half ago, I primarily swam on my own, since I would coach my USAS group, have a 1.5 hour break, then coach my USMS group. I swam on my own in that gap 3-4 nights a week and ended up doing a lot of "quality" training...which would devolve into me doing sets like 10 x 50 FL on 1:10 aiming for a 1:1 swim/rest ratio, then dropping that down to 8 x 50, then taking a lot of rest between sets, and so on. There'd be plenty of nights when I'd struggle to hit 2000 yards! In the spring of 2018 I started training with the USAS senior prep group that practices after my younger USAS group and before my masters group. Much better overall conditioning, but I don't have a ton of opportunities to do true FL sets. This season, in addition to the evening practices I swim with the senior prep group, I'm swimming one morning a week with the senior distance group--the coach is an old school high yardage coach, so while my shoulders are complaining about it now just a couple of weeks into the season, I think that'll really kick my butt into great aerobic shape over the season. Even if I don't do a ton of fly-specific training this season, I think I'll have a much better aerobic base and back end for the 200 fly by the spring.