The Butterfly Lane

Do you need to train fly to swim it fast? I mainly train freestyle and do some fly sprinting, 25's & 50's but rarely further. I train for mainly middle distance freestyle type events (200/500/1000), and do the occasional IM workout as well. I really don't do that much full stroke fly, or if I do, I tend to add it to the front half/back half of a 150 distance (100 Free/50 Fly). I like this, because it makes me work my fly when I'm tired vs. always doing it rested. I know this is different than many folks choose to do it, but it works for my 200 Fly training, learning how to keep going when I'm tired.

Do you need to train fly to swim it fast? I mainly train freestyle and do some fly sprinting, 25's & 50's but rarely further. It seems to vary a lot based on the individual. I have to train a lot of fly if I want to race it, but I've seen an NCAA finalist in the 200 fly who did very little fly in practice.

Do you need to train fly to swim it fast? I mainly train freestyle and do some fly sprinting, 25's & 50's but rarely further.

So I just finished my first year of competition after two years of solo lap swimming. I'd like to swim more fly since I got 5th at State with a 33 low 50 fly (age 55-59). I know my form has opportunity for improvement & I think my coach can help me with that. Any thought on cross-training or my solo workout swims? I die in the last 10-15 yards. I'm averaging 12-13k per week in practice. I am 57 and just crossing 13 months with a masters program after 30+ year lay off. Swam 12.9 fly 25 SCY off the blocks at the end of practice. I have no chance for a 1st as we have a top 10 in nation in my AG here in Mn. Getting back into it can be really quite surprising, maybe unbelievable, with swim times that you are capable of. Safe training to all in the B.L. forums.usms.org/.../blah.gif

Do you need to train fly to swim it fast? IMO you need to do a certain minimum fly swimming and/or drilling to maintain "muscle memory" (or whatever you want to call it) for efficient swimming. I've known many fly sprinters who don't do much fly in practice. Anecdotal evidence for 200 fly is more mixed. When I was in college and swam the event, I definitely felt like I needed to do a lot in practice. Now I am less sure. I believe the coach at the University of Richmond does not much like his swimmers to do fly when tired; the fly repeats tend to be shorter reps with enough recovery time that stroke efficiency doesn't suffer. And then there is this example of Becky Fenson who has done 10K fly in the Hudson river: In the pool, she does a lot of fly kick on her back and butterfly drills with freestyle mixed in. “Most of my pool swimming is freestyle.”

I did my best masters SCY 200 Fly time today in our home meet. 2:06.37 :applaud: This beat my time from Nationals in Mesa, by over a second. I'm also swimming full beard, hairy almost like The Wookiee, and very inconsistent training over the past few weeks. Swimming is as much mental preparation as it is the physical. Just go out there and swim fast no matter the conditions, but have fun doing it!! :banana:

I did my fastest fly & IM times in college with almost all freestyle training. Now I train a much higher volume of fly, mainly because that's how I'd rather train. It's Masters, do whatever you want! :banana: Great attitude. So easy to follow in other's footsteps. Not so easy to make your own. The main problem in using the FreeStyle to train for butterfly, is that it only addresses the physiological component, not the technical one. And anyway, I see no reason on earth why one would avoid reps of 100m at fly, since these are quite easy to book. The first 50 is easy. Things are getting a bit harder on the third 25, and you're actually suffering only over the last 25. Specificity, specificity, specificity.

100 fly last Sunday. Out in 30 and back in 39 (incl 3 breaths at the 75). SCM. Last time at that event was 1976 or 77. Still catching my breath.

Hey flyers! I posted this short video on The Breaststroke Lane wanting to believe in my biased FROG brain that this eagle was swimming the breaststroke. But, after it was pointed out by Philoswimmer that it is really swimming the butterfly, I had to face the reality of it and post the video where it belongs :cry:: www.youtube.com/.../87xNpOYOlQ4

So Elaine... What we have learned here is that butterfly is more efficient for towing large objects through the pool with one's feet! Thanks for the post. I find it amazing how the eagle dispensed with trying to airlift the victim, and had the presence of mind (dare we say, intelligence?) to adapt to use his wings to pull the object through the water, instead! Amazing! Well, Red, I never said we would be learning anything useful with that video. :D If nothing else, we did learn that perseverance pays off! :applaud: