Training for the 200 fly

Fryan, I too aspire to completion of the 200 fly at 2004 SCY Nationals. I'm in the evil 40-44 age bracket. How about you? Will we be in the same heat together? Since I am not one of the naturally gifted swimmers who can just power through a 200 fly any old way I chose, I am trying to learn the crafty way to swim the stroke that relies less on pure conditioning. I ain't there yet, but I can see my destination on the road map. First, learn how to swim fly with your body. The best articles I have found for this are Emmet Hines' "Slip Slid'n Away" and "Vive le Papillon." You can find them on his club's web site (http://www.h2oustonswims.org/) in the "Articles" section. You can also find lots of technique drills from the Total Immersion folks. I would strongly recommend Terry Laughlin's book "Swimming Made Easy" which has excellent drills for all 4 strokes. They have other products and do-dads. You can get them or not as you fancy. The book has the essentials for their approach. Finally, whether you follow Emmett's or Terry's approach (or someone else's for that matter) the key tool for learning the proper body dolphin technique is a pair of fins, any ole' fins, full-length, short-blade, cheap, expensive...it does not matter so long as they are comfortable and stay on your feet. They are NOT cheating; they are essential to getting the feel for what you body should be doing. After you get that, you can progress to the same feeling with just your feet. The key problem with fly is being on the horns of a trilema. What do I mean by that? Well, you gots to do 3 things to swim fly. (1) Get your shoulders high enough on so you can recover your arms out of the water every stroke, and so you can inhale on the strokes when you breath (usually every other stroke or 2 out of 3). (2) keep you hips high enough so that you stay horizontal, and avoid having your back end sink down to the point of increasing your drag through the water. (3) Breathing often enough to be able to complete the race. Like many trilemas in life, you can usually get 2 out of 3 (as in “good, cheap, or fast; I can give you 2 out of 3”), but all 3 takes a lot more imagination. Since lifting your head enough to breath in most swimmers makes them lift their shoulders even higher than they would otherwise, a lot of them solve this puzzle by breathing less. Shoulders stay down; hips stay up; it works for about a 50. Once you get to a 100, it is a tough strategy to follow, and completely out of the question for a 200. A variation on this strategy is to simply swim faster. You breathe as you normally would, and you keep your hips up by increasing the velocity. This works a little better for a 100; moreover, since it is something you can improve with conditioning, it leads to the solution of doing lots of grueling fly sets while you are working out. Again, it is feasible up to a point. What happens when you cannot maintain this pace for 200 yards? You slow down, your hips sink, and you begin what Emmett so eloquently describes as butterstruggle. So I asked myself, is there a way to SLOW DOWN to a 200 pace, breathe as much as I need, and keep my body horizontal? I think there is with proper pacing. Let me explain below. Why is it so hard to slow down? If you are only breathing every second stroke, you could turn blue waiting for you next breath when you hit the 125 yard mark. That is why you see some swimmers try to make their turns in the 200 fly as SLOW as possible, so they can cram in two or three big breaths before they start the next length. OK, why don’t we breath every stroke? Our hips will sink. So, how can we breathe every stroke, and keep our hips up? I think the answer is, at least for me, is to put a glide in my stroke, and put it in when I am pressing my chest, and floating my hips. So, my distance fly stroke is pull, recover, glide, pull, recover, glide, and I breathe every stroke. Normally, that would not let me get my hips up, but with an exaggerated glide, I wait until I feel that they have refloated to the proper position. In fact, that is my cue for starting the next pull. The other key to stretching this stroke out is to de-emphasize my pull. I am focusing on a good body dolphin motion, and let my arms tag along for the ride. That helps me use the larger muscles in my body core, which are slower to tire than my arms, for more of my propulsion. I suspect that I have always put a glide in my stroke when I tire in a 200; however, I think I have been doing it at precisely the wrong moment for an efficient fly—when my shoulders are up and I am trying to gasp in as much air as possible. Does this sound familiar to you? I think the key may be to glide on purpose, from the very beginning, in the best, streamlined part of the stroke, and to avoid going into extreme oxygen debt and prematurely fatiguing key muscle groups before the race is over. Now that I’ve found my stroke, there are a few key concepts I want to follow in the training part of my preparation. ONLY practice technically sound butterfly. If I feel myself slipping into butterstruggle, I cut short the distance, catch my breath, and begin again. Emmett’s two articles talk about his “Easy Fly” drill, i.e. swim a 200 or 500 or whatever, swim the first 2, or 3, or 4,…strokes of each lap butterfly, and the rest of the lap freestyle (or body-dolphin). The idea is to pick a number of strokes so that you can swim them with good form at the beginning of each of the 20 laps that comprise a 500. Start with 2, and work up to the point where you can do the whole thing fly. Also, this is where my “pull, recover, glide” stroke fits in. I can vary speeds, and fall back to a slower fly that lets me “recover” (instead of simply tiring out more slowly). I can swim longer when I am tired without lapsing into butterstruggle. The key is to build up the yards I swim of butterfly in good form. Gutting out more yards of butterstruggle in poor form does not contribute. The second key concept is to build confidence in my ability to swim fly when I am tired. Externally, this appears to be not much different from swimming longer fly sets to build physical endurance. However, the idea is to convince myself I can swim a 200 and it is no big thang. One set I have used before training for a 200 is as follows: 4x broken 200 fly: 1x 200 on 4:00 1:00 rest 1x 125 on 2:30, 1x 75 on 1:30 1:00 rest 1x 100 on 2:00, 2x 50 on 1:00 1:00 rest 3x 50 on 1:00, 2x 25 on 30 (please note the intervals are not sacred; they are simply what I needed to maintain good form) Note how the set starts with a 200; if I do it in practice every time I use this set (and I tried to use it at least once a week), how big a deal could a competition 200 be? Then I do 3 more broken 200’s, but I step down the distances to avoid lapsing into butterstruggle. I am practicing fatigued fly, but in a context where I can still keep the stroke mechanics together, and in a format that approximates swimming 200’s. This set works simultaneously on mechanics, conditioning and confidence. The last key concept is to continue to use stroke drills to maintain good mechanics, and otherwise ensure I have a well-rounded training program. I have found in most of the masters teams I join a tendency in many swimmers to indulge in mindless yardage pounding on the lowest sustainable interval, and give short-shrift to stroke drills, speed work, or even avoiding boredom. I do not understand why this aerobic rut is so popular (I have felt is siren allure myself, almost like some irresistible test of manhood, but I digress…). However, I do feel I need to consciously resist it by ensuring I have the other essential elements of conditioning in my workouts. If you practice with a masters team, as I do, this may require an exercise of discipline. It can be very attractive to switch from drilling to swimming, or blowing off what you should be doing to keep up with your lane mates who want to use a faster interval than you can maintain. It’s your conditioning program; you made need to move over to a slower lane, or modify the workout to ensure you reach the training objectives the coach intends for the particular workout. (Note: this requires from me that I actually UNDERSTAND what the coach is trying to do. That can be a dicey proposition for me at 5:00 am, if I do not make a conscious effort to do so.) Take control of your training program. OK, if you are still reading this, thanks for your patience. I expect most folks would have moved onto another post (or had their eyes rolled up into the back of their ends, and a little trail of drool leaking out the side of their mouth, but again I digress…), rather than wade through my semi-coherent ramblings. Please let me know how things work for you. I’d be interested. Oh, BTW, here is another interesting article on training for distance fly (www.thomasboettcher.org/.../default.htm). Matt

Fryan, I too aspire to completion of the 200 fly at 2004 SCY Nationals. I'm in the evil 40-44 age bracket. How about you? Will we be in the same heat together? Since I am not one of the naturally gifted swimmers who can just power through a 200 fly any old way I chose, I am trying to learn the crafty way to swim the stroke that relies less on pure conditioning. I ain't there yet, but I can see my destination on the road map. First, learn how to swim fly with your body. The best articles I have found for this are Emmet Hines' "Slip Slid'n Away" and "Vive le Papillon." You can find them on his club's web site (http://www.h2oustonswims.org/) in the "Articles" section. You can also find lots of technique drills from the Total Immersion folks. I would strongly recommend Terry Laughlin's book "Swimming Made Easy" which has excellent drills for all 4 strokes. They have other products and do-dads. You can get them or not as you fancy. The book has the essentials for their approach. Finally, whether you follow Emmett's or Terry's approach (or someone else's for that matter) the key tool for learning the proper body dolphin technique is a pair of fins, any ole' fins, full-length, short-blade, cheap, expensive...it does not matter so long as they are comfortable and stay on your feet. They are NOT cheating; they are essential to getting the feel for what you body should be doing. After you get that, you can progress to the same feeling with just your feet. The key problem with fly is being on the horns of a trilema. What do I mean by that? Well, you gots to do 3 things to swim fly. (1) Get your shoulders high enough on so you can recover your arms out of the water every stroke, and so you can inhale on the strokes when you breath (usually every other stroke or 2 out of 3). (2) keep you hips high enough so that you stay horizontal, and avoid having your back end sink down to the point of increasing your drag through the water. (3) Breathing often enough to be able to complete the race. Like many trilemas in life, you can usually get 2 out of 3 (as in “good, cheap, or fast; I can give you 2 out of 3”), but all 3 takes a lot more imagination. Since lifting your head enough to breath in most swimmers makes them lift their shoulders even higher than they would otherwise, a lot of them solve this puzzle by breathing less. Shoulders stay down; hips stay up; it works for about a 50. Once you get to a 100, it is a tough strategy to follow, and completely out of the question for a 200. A variation on this strategy is to simply swim faster. You breathe as you normally would, and you keep your hips up by increasing the velocity. This works a little better for a 100; moreover, since it is something you can improve with conditioning, it leads to the solution of doing lots of grueling fly sets while you are working out. Again, it is feasible up to a point. What happens when you cannot maintain this pace for 200 yards? You slow down, your hips sink, and you begin what Emmett so eloquently describes as butterstruggle. So I asked myself, is there a way to SLOW DOWN to a 200 pace, breathe as much as I need, and keep my body horizontal? I think there is with proper pacing. Let me explain below. Why is it so hard to slow down? If you are only breathing every second stroke, you could turn blue waiting for you next breath when you hit the 125 yard mark. That is why you see some swimmers try to make their turns in the 200 fly as SLOW as possible, so they can cram in two or three big breaths before they start the next length. OK, why don’t we breath every stroke? Our hips will sink. So, how can we breathe every stroke, and keep our hips up? I think the answer is, at least for me, is to put a glide in my stroke, and put it in when I am pressing my chest, and floating my hips. So, my distance fly stroke is pull, recover, glide, pull, recover, glide, and I breathe every stroke. Normally, that would not let me get my hips up, but with an exaggerated glide, I wait until I feel that they have refloated to the proper position. In fact, that is my cue for starting the next pull. The other key to stretching this stroke out is to de-emphasize my pull. I am focusing on a good body dolphin motion, and let my arms tag along for the ride. That helps me use the larger muscles in my body core, which are slower to tire than my arms, for more of my propulsion. I suspect that I have always put a glide in my stroke when I tire in a 200; however, I think I have been doing it at precisely the wrong moment for an efficient fly—when my shoulders are up and I am trying to gasp in as much air as possible. Does this sound familiar to you? I think the key may be to glide on purpose, from the very beginning, in the best, streamlined part of the stroke, and to avoid going into extreme oxygen debt and prematurely fatiguing key muscle groups before the race is over. Now that I’ve found my stroke, there are a few key concepts I want to follow in the training part of my preparation. ONLY practice technically sound butterfly. If I feel myself slipping into butterstruggle, I cut short the distance, catch my breath, and begin again. Emmett’s two articles talk about his “Easy Fly” drill, i.e. swim a 200 or 500 or whatever, swim the first 2, or 3, or 4,…strokes of each lap butterfly, and the rest of the lap freestyle (or body-dolphin). The idea is to pick a number of strokes so that you can swim them with good form at the beginning of each of the 20 laps that comprise a 500. Start with 2, and work up to the point where you can do the whole thing fly. Also, this is where my “pull, recover, glide” stroke fits in. I can vary speeds, and fall back to a slower fly that lets me “recover” (instead of simply tiring out more slowly). I can swim longer when I am tired without lapsing into butterstruggle. The key is to build up the yards I swim of butterfly in good form. Gutting out more yards of butterstruggle in poor form does not contribute. The second key concept is to build confidence in my ability to swim fly when I am tired. Externally, this appears to be not much different from swimming longer fly sets to build physical endurance. However, the idea is to convince myself I can swim a 200 and it is no big thang. One set I have used before training for a 200 is as follows: 4x broken 200 fly: 1x 200 on 4:00 1:00 rest 1x 125 on 2:30, 1x 75 on 1:30 1:00 rest 1x 100 on 2:00, 2x 50 on 1:00 1:00 rest 3x 50 on 1:00, 2x 25 on 30 (please note the intervals are not sacred; they are simply what I needed to maintain good form) Note how the set starts with a 200; if I do it in practice every time I use this set (and I tried to use it at least once a week), how big a deal could a competition 200 be? Then I do 3 more broken 200’s, but I step down the distances to avoid lapsing into butterstruggle. I am practicing fatigued fly, but in a context where I can still keep the stroke mechanics together, and in a format that approximates swimming 200’s. This set works simultaneously on mechanics, conditioning and confidence. The last key concept is to continue to use stroke drills to maintain good mechanics, and otherwise ensure I have a well-rounded training program. I have found in most of the masters teams I join a tendency in many swimmers to indulge in mindless yardage pounding on the lowest sustainable interval, and give short-shrift to stroke drills, speed work, or even avoiding boredom. I do not understand why this aerobic rut is so popular (I have felt is siren allure myself, almost like some irresistible test of manhood, but I digress…). However, I do feel I need to consciously resist it by ensuring I have the other essential elements of conditioning in my workouts. If you practice with a masters team, as I do, this may require an exercise of discipline. It can be very attractive to switch from drilling to swimming, or blowing off what you should be doing to keep up with your lane mates who want to use a faster interval than you can maintain. It’s your conditioning program; you made need to move over to a slower lane, or modify the workout to ensure you reach the training objectives the coach intends for the particular workout. (Note: this requires from me that I actually UNDERSTAND what the coach is trying to do. That can be a dicey proposition for me at 5:00 am, if I do not make a conscious effort to do so.) Take control of your training program. OK, if you are still reading this, thanks for your patience. I expect most folks would have moved onto another post (or had their eyes rolled up into the back of their ends, and a little trail of drool leaking out the side of their mouth, but again I digress…), rather than wade through my semi-coherent ramblings. Please let me know how things work for you. I’d be interested. Oh, BTW, here is another interesting article on training for distance fly (www.thomasboettcher.org/.../default.htm). Matt