The Butterfly Lane

Recent articles by Terry Heggy on our USMS site on Butterfly, Top Half and Bottom Half. The first one, link is: www.usms.org/.../articledisplay.php It has a section on squeezing shoulder blades to assist arm recovery (I copy/pasted the relevant portion below). I do not quite get the usefulness of this drill, does anyone understand and think it is useful? Start with a squeezeAs you initiate your arm recovery, squeeze your shoulder blades together to lift the arms, rather than forcing your shoulders to do all the work. Drill—Float face-down in the water with both arms at your hips and then squeeze your back to slowly swing your arms across the water into the forward catch position (without kicking). You’ll find that a good shoulder blade squeeze will enable a relaxed recovery without forcing you to levitate out of the water.

Recent articles by Terry Heggy on our USMS site on Butterfly, Top Half and Bottom Half. The first one, link is: www.usms.org/.../articledisplay.php It has a section on squeezing shoulder blades to assist arm recovery (I copy/pasted the relevant portion below). I do not quite get the usefulness of this drill, does anyone understand and think it is useful? Start with a squeeze As you initiate your arm recovery, squeeze your shoulder blades together to lift the arms, rather than forcing your shoulders to do all the work. Drill—Float face-down in the water with both arms at your hips and then squeeze your back to slowly swing your arms across the water into the forward catch position (without kicking). You’ll find that a good shoulder blade squeeze will enable a relaxed recovery without forcing you to levitate out of the water. Great article, thanks for bringing that up. I can’t figure out a way to subscribe to those posts. I will have to try the drill next time I get in the water.

If you guys want a better butterfly take note of Ella Eastin doing a 1:49.5 at PAC 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS.

Hi everyone! I started to swim nearly 2 years ago, almost exclusively freestyle. I recently started to try to learn fly just to have some variety to my workout. However, i can barely complete a stroke (with both arms) so just to practice the rhythm, i’m doing single armed drills. Nonetheless, i really would like to be able to complete a full butterfly stroke with both arms. Whenever i do attempt it, I find it so hard to finish my pull. When my arms reach somewhere under my midsection, that’s where i experience the most pressure from the water which seem to be slowing down my pull. During this phase, it sometimes feel like i’m pulling through mud (for lack of any better description i can think of). By the time i do complete the pull near my hips, my upper torso seem to have already gone down. And maybe because of this, i’m unable to get a clean recovery and instead have my arms wading through water during the recovery. Any tips that you can share so i can be able to accelerate my arms through the latter part of the pull? Any drills which you think can help me with it? Sorry if I don’t have any videos - but i do hope you guys get the picture. Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi everyone! I started to swim nearly 2 years ago, almost exclusively freestyle. I recently started to try to learn fly just to have some variety to my workout. However, i can barely complete a stroke (with both arms) so just to practice the rhythm, i’m doing single armed drills. Nonetheless, i really would like to be able to complete a full butterfly stroke with both arms. Whenever i do attempt it, I find it so hard to finish my pull. When my arms reach somewhere under my midsection, that’s where i experience the most pressure from the water which seem to be slowing down my pull. During this phase, it sometimes feel like i’m pulling through mud (for lack of any better description i can think of). By the time i do complete the pull near my hips, my upper torso seem to have already gone down. And maybe because of this, i’m unable to get a clean recovery and instead have my arms wading through water during the recovery. Any tips that you can share so i can be able to accelerate my arms through the latter part of the pull? Any drills which you think can help me with it? Sorry if I don’t have any videos - but i do hope you guys get the picture. Thanks in advance for your help! When I teach Fly....to my summer league team...I always have them use fins to start out. I start with basic drills, kick with a board, kick with hands at their sides, Kick Fly on their back, Kick Fly underwater with Streamline, then add in 1 arm stroke RT and LT, then drill with alternating arms. Try drills with Fins as what you are after is getting the motion and then the timing. Once you have done drills try putting it all together...again the above is all with Fins. Once you feel that that is easier, do the drills without fins and put all together. This approach has worked well for me teaching my summer leaguers how to swim fly!

Boom-Digs, This is gonna be a complete stab in the dark. First - For now, don't even think about when or how to kick - except to keep your toes pointed. Next - Fly is best swum with your focus on the position of your shoulders relative to your hips. It is called short axis rotation. If you do this right, the kick takes care of itself. Most people who struggle with fly have not figured out how the shoulders and hips should be positioned during the stroke cycle. I suspect that as you start to pull, you are performing the pull (actually a push) from your shoulders and your shoulders are going down at the same time your arms are going down. This is exactly the opposite of what you want. It leads to very late breathing and plowing along - mostly underwater. Next - if this is your problem, to change to the correct positioning, when you start your pull, lift your head upward and keep your head up throughout the pull and most of the recovery. Yes, this will cause your hips to drop. More importantly, it keeps your shoulders higher than your hips which is the correct position. Over-exaggerated - Yes! Future adjustments to fix - Yes. Once you get comfortable with this, you and your coach(s) can start the fine tuning process. Fins can be helpful if you have the basic stroke rhythm. If you are pushing your shoulders down to get your arms to pull, fins will not correct this - only help you go faster which might reinforce the incorrect rotation. As I said - a complete stab in the dark without video to confirm or deny. :) Good Luck Paul

When I teach Fly....to my summer league team...I always have them use fins to start out. I start with basic drills, kick with a board, kick with hands at their sides, Kick Fly on their back, Kick Fly underwater with Streamline, then add in 1 arm stroke RT and LT, then drill with alternating arms. Try drills with Fins as what you are after is getting the motion and then the timing. Once you have done drills try putting it all together...again the above is all with Fins. Once you feel that that is easier, do the drills without fins and put all together. This approach has worked well for me teaching my summer leaguers how to swim fly! Thanks for the tips jimsauer! Maybe my timing and motion is still off. I’ll try to work on more drills with fins. Never really bothered to work with fins before so this might be an opportune time to buy a pair. Makes me think though, when is it the right time to do the first kick? I see in most videos that during the pull, there’s the 1st kick, and a 2nd kick right when the arms enter the water after recovery. But what’s confusing to me is at what point during the pull phase should the 1st kick occur? Should this be during the initial phase of the pull (when the head exits the water for the breath) or during the latter phase just before the arms exit the water? Sorry, this might be all too natural for most flyers but your perspectives would really give me a good idea of what i should be thinking about when learning the stroke. Thanks so much for the help!

Boom-Digs, This is gonna be a complete stab in the dark. First - For now, don't even think about when or how to kick - except to keep your toes pointed. Next - Fly is best swum with your focus on the position of your shoulders relative to your hips. It is called short axis rotation. If you do this right, the kick takes care of itself. Most people who struggle with fly have not figured out how the shoulders and hips should be positioned during the stroke cycle. I suspect that as you start to pull, you are performing the pull (actually a push) from your shoulders and your shoulders are going down at the same time your arms are going down. This is exactly the opposite of what you want. It leads to very late breathing and plowing along - mostly underwater. Next - if this is your problem, to change to the correct positioning, when you start your pull, lift your head upward and keep your head up throughout the pull and most of the recovery. Yes, this will cause your hips to drop. More importantly, it keeps your shoulders higher than your hips which is the correct position. Over-exaggerated - Yes! Future adjustments to fix - Yes. Once you get comfortable with this, you and your coach(s) can start the fine tuning process. Fins can be helpful if you have the basic stroke rhythm. If you are pushing your shoulders down to get your arms to pull, fins will not correct this - only help you go faster which might reinforce the incorrect rotation. As I said - a complete stab in the dark without video to confirm or deny. :) Good Luck Paul Hi Paul, sorry for not being able to provide any video. Admittedly, my stroke is far from being watchable even from a beginner’s standpoint - I swear i can see the lifeguard’s toes cringe (from the corner of my goggles) each time he catches me attempting a stroke resembling butter-die. He’s probably wondering when he’ll have to eventually jump in and perform cpr. :) Anyhow, I honestly think that you do have a very good point. My timing and motion may be completely off as I never really gave much thought on how i am pulling - if my shoulders drop while i pull, bringing my shoulders lower than my hips. This might explain why i simply cannot make a clean recovery. I’ll take your advice to heart and try to keep my head up during the pull and part of the recovery so as to maintain my shoulders above the hips. I really hope this fixes it. I’ll see if i can convince the lifeguard to hold my phone to take a video and assure him that he can drop it anytime he thinks i’m close to drowning. Lol

Sorry if this has already been discussed. I’m too lazy to read through 41 pages. My post is about breathing. To me, getting enough oxygen in any stroke is key. Note that the world’s best 200 flyer and the world’s greatest female distance freestyler breathe every stroke. I noticed while watching the most recent US nationals that all men in the A final took breaths every stroke in 200 fly, and most also in the fly leg of IM. I noticed most females were breathing in a pattern of 2 up 1 down in 200 fly. For both men and women this is different from how it used to be when coaches taught breathing every other stroke in fly. (Of course Kelsi dahlia didn’t breathe once in 50 fly). so what do people think about breathing every stroke in 2 fly? Why do fewer females breathe every stroke?Does it help or hinder your distance per stroke? Does breathing every stroke result in more even splits? Does extra oxygen actually improve speed or just makes swimming fly feel easier? Or does it? Seems like no matter how much I hold back or breathe during the front half of a fly race, the back half never feels any easier.

Sorry if this has already been discussed. I’m too lazy to read through 41 pages. My post is about breathing. To me, getting enough oxygen in any stroke is key. Note that the world’s best 200 flyer and the world’s greatest female distance freestyler breathe every stroke. I noticed while watching the most recent US nationals that all men in the A final took breaths every stroke in 200 fly, and most also in the fly leg of IM. I noticed most females were breathing in a pattern of 2 up 1 down in 200 fly. For both men and women this is different from how it used to be when coaches taught breathing every other stroke in fly. (Of course Kelsi dahlia didn’t breathe once in 50 fly). so what do people think about breathing every stroke in 2 fly? Why do fewer females breathe every stroke?Does it help or hinder your distance per stroke? Does breathing every stroke result in more even splits? Does extra oxygen actually improve speed or just makes swimming fly feel easier? Or does it? Seems like no matter how much I hold back or breathe during the front half of a fly race, the back half never feels any easier. Probably the guys have the temple better at every stoke in 200 fly than the gals. In the old days, Mark Spitz breath more every other stroke and his best time was better than some of the swimmers at Nationals at 2:00. Gals probably need to keep their temple up and they do every other stroke. I swam a 200 fly in workouts and it was mainly every stroke. As a teenager I swam it every other stroke and also every stroke. I think for many masters swimmers since we are older its probably better to do every stroke since Oxygen is harder with age.