The Butterfly Lane

Here is an interesting video about the Spitz/Russell 100 fly duel at the 68 Olympics: www.tsdhof.org/video-doug russell.html

Seriously?! And the 100 fly is a "sprint"? That's an endurance event, dude. :D If you can do a good 100 fly, you are not just a sprinter. :2cents: 50 fly question: Does anyone do this as a no breather? Pros and cons? With a mere 0.1 delta between my 50 breathing a few times and 50 breathing every stroke, for me, it's kind of a no brainer. I prefer to breathe a few times, probably allows me to finish harder.

I cant believe the butterfly lane is getting their a$$ kicked by the breaststroke lane. They have 2,000 more views and here I thought that was the evil stroke. Time for the fliers to catch up, we cant let breaststrokers beat us!

In college I swam the 100 & 200 fly and 500 free pretty much every duel meet, with the 200 free, 1650 free or 400 IM mixed in at other times. I still haven't done a 1650 in a race. I plan to though, as I'm doing the checkoff challenge this year. I apparently made my coach mad before one college dual meet. He came into the team meeting before the meet and said the he was thinking of a number between 1 and 10,000 and began asking people to guess his number. I as the third person he asked and as soon as I gave my answer, he announced that I had guessed correctly. My "prize" was swimming the 1,000 the 500 and the 200 fly in the meet. I still don't know what I did to make him mad.

I apparently made my coach mad before one college dual meet. He came into the team meeting before the meet and said the he was thinking of a number between 1 and 10,000 and began asking people to guess his number. I as the third person he asked and as soon as I gave my answer, he announced that I had guessed correctly. My "prize" was swimming the 1,000 the 500 and the 200 fly in the meet. I still don't know what I did to make him mad. If punishment is supposed to prevent you from doing the wrong thing again, that one wasn't very effective. I mean, if you didn't even know what you did.... I swam all the long stuff as no one else on the team was as good at it as I was. I'm actually best in the 100/200 distances but can grind out more if I need to. I had many, many meets like the one you describe as punishment. I *love* being able to pick my own events. And respect the effort that is takes to swim longer distances.

I apparently made my coach mad before one college dual meet. He came into the team meeting before the meet and said the he was thinking of a number between 1 and 10,000 and began asking people to guess his number. I as the third person he asked and as soon as I gave my answer, he announced that I had guessed correctly. My "prize" was swimming the 1,000 the 500 and the 200 fly in the meet. I still don't know what I did to make him mad. I swam that combo many times. It wasn't until late in my junior year that I figured out the correct mental approach for it. You have to actually want to do it. Otherwise that short-rest 500 just becomes a survival race. Although I conquered that mental hurdle, I'm glad I don't have to swim that combo anymore :)

If punishment is supposed to prevent you from doing the wrong thing again, that one wasn't very effective. I mean, if you didn't even know what you did.... I swam all the long stuff as no one else on the team was as good at it as I was. There were probably a lot of things it could have been for - it was the early 70s and a different time. I have added the 500 or 1,000 to a few recent meets and I think it is kind of fun to plan a longer race.

I swam that combo many times. It wasn't until late in my junior year that I figured out the correct mental approach for it. You have to actually want to do it. Otherwise that short-rest 500 just becomes a survival race. Although I conquered that mental hurdle, I'm glad I don't have to swim that combo anymore :) Luckily, that was my only time. At that time, people swam fewer events (at least I did). There is a longer FlowSwimming interview with Doug Russell about the 1968 100 fly race with Mark Spitz. Doug was also a world class backstroker, but he says in the video that the 100 fly and back were considered to be an "impossible double" in 1968. Imagine that.

Too darn funny! Let me know how well you do at this goal. There are many, many fast flyers who are not tall. You among them. A friend from high school a few years younger than I was the state's #8 finalist in Fly. She was 5' tall and looked like Smurfette next to the other girls when getting their medals. You do not have to be super tall or built to swim fly well.

i'm far behind all of you in that my goal is to be able to race a 50 fly versus just survive it. i also agree with the poster who said that it's a great bang for the buck when it comes to workout intensity. on using fins - i have the aquasphere fins and think that using them helps to gain endurance. i started doing 100 with fins and then the 50 without started getting easier but i still flail a bit towards the end and i'm definitely tired. someone mentioned that if you do fly correctly, you won't tire out. true? also, will the fins be a bad thing in the long run (uh, swim) where i'm messing up the timing? one of my long term goals would be to swim the 400 IM. i just need to be able to master the fly.