Butterfly, beautiful to watch, difficult to train.
We SDK off every wall.
We're most likely to smack hands with each other and those beside us.
Fly's fun to sprint but no fun when the piano comes down
What did you do in practice today?
the breastroke lane
The Middle Distance Lane
The Backstroke Lane
The Butterfly Lane
The SDK Lane
The Taper Lane
The Distance Lane
The IM Lane
The Sprint Free Lane
The Pool Deck
I think fins take away so much from swimming butterfly. I just zoom over the water with hardly any effort- but i love butterfly.
I have heard fins will help beginners with the rythm and keeping the hips up, but how long do you want to be dependant on them?
If your stroke is flawed using fins to make the practice easier isn't going to correct your stroke. Because the fins make the sets easier how can you really build up endurance?
No matter how good your stroke is you will eventually get tired swimming fly. I train for the 200 by swimming fly when I am tired. In a lot of ways it is easier because I can only focus on my technique in order to survive. I can just keep going. It doesn't mean I am not tired, but I work on training myself to perform good technique when I am tired. I guess now I just know what it feels like so it isn't so overwhelming.
Originally Posted by rdeclercq:
"I think fins are good tools to help with stroke, technique but should not be used as aids to get through practice."
This is conventional wisdom. Everyone in the world repeats this like a mantra. How are you so sure it's true?
I DEFINITELY DO NOT believe its true!
Despise this old school thinking...
I will answer one of them:
someone mentioned that if you do fly correctly, you won't tire out. true?
No. My opinion, Yes.
But it will be some very slow butterfly, certainly slower than breaststroke for same energy expanded.
At first I wasn't sure if I agreed with hedgehog, but the latter part of the post swayed me. I think fins (as well as paddles) are good tools to help with stroke, technique but should not be used as aids to get through practice.
On a personal example, I like fly, but my technique isn't cohesive (or smooth). It needs a lot of work but I think over the next year, it could be great (with the assistance of my great coaches). We had the "opportunity" at practice last week to do a 1000 m set of IM.
250 IM (25 Fly, 50 Back, 75 ***, 100 Free)
5 x 100 IM
250 IM (25 Fly, 50 Back, 75 ***, 100 Free)
Going into it, my confidence was very low (how the he|| am I going to get through the Fly by the time I get to that last 250 IM?). "Take it slow and easy," I told myself and that I did. By the end of the set, I was a little tired but by no means did I allow my fly technique to suffer. I was pleasantly surprised with how I got through the set with much success.
So, to echo hedgehog, you will only get better by practice and the fins should not be used to get through a workout (your technique will not improve).
There's an annual meet someplace that involves a 1500 or 1650 fly, and there's the guy that swims the 5k Big Shoulders race butterfly, so it is possible to swim butterfly in a way that allows you to go a lot further than typical, but whether that is "correct" butterfly style in the sense that you would want to swim a 50 or a 100 or a 200 in that style is open to debate.
Taking a step back, even "correct" freestyle will tire you out as you pick up the speed.
So, I would suggest the first question is whether there is a style of butterfly that can be swum slow enough that you can swim it long distance, and the answer is clearly yes based on the Big Shoulders guy and the 1500m fliers.
The second question is whether the same style can also be suitable for shorter distances. Solar says yes. I'm still working on it.
I think fins are good tools to help with stroke, technique but should not be used as aids to get through practice.
This is conventional wisdom. Everyone in the world repeats this like a mantra. How are you so sure it's true?
The second question is whether the same style can also be suitable for shorter distances. Solar says yes. I'm still working on it. Hi Lindsay!!
For the record, I would say that there's a significant difference in stroke mechanics between slow and fast fly. But like you said, there's also a huge difference between recovery or warm up paced free style and full blown 6beat kick 50m sprint.
Just my :2cents:
