butterfly is difficult

"Wilfried Helferding" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

i did improve my breaststroke technique but still dont get butterfly. doeas anyone know really
good websites where this technique is explained in very detail? plus training routines for this
stroke...

thx for advice

You can try the following swim portal to search other swim sites:

swimming.about.comswimming.about.comOpen ↗

Also, if I may be so bold, here are my recent observations. I too would like to swim Butterly better
since it's arguably the prettiest and most dramatic stroke. But nothing screams LOSER in the pool
louder than swimming 'fly and not having your recovering arms ever clear the water. (At least that's
the feeling I get 🙂

1. De-emphasize your arm pull.

I was going down and out with my hands and then almost straight back. The amount of force this
requires is too much. I was tired in two or three cycles. So I studied the elites. They in fact do
not pull straight back either. After going out and down with their straight arms, they actually bend
their elbows nearly to 90 degrees. So they are knifing or sculling their hands thumbs first towards
their thighs. A lot less resistance on the arms.

2. Try not to think too much about your arms at all.

Instead, concentrate on the body undulations ("dolphins"😉. When I look underwater at the men in my
pool who swim Fly well, their body movement is truly powerful and violent. But it involves big
muscles in your torso - abs and back muscles. They can take it much more than your arms can.

3. Intersperse one armed fly with double.

I swim two cycles of right arm fly (breath to the right) followed by two cycles of left arm fly
(breath to the left) and then (big mental and physical push here) two complete cycles of fly,
thinking about big body undulation for the two kicks for each cycle, and get your hands to your hips
without killing your arms.

It'll never get you confused with Michael Phelps, but it's helped me.

Eric

PS I almost forgot. We swim I.M. Tuesday and Thursday. I use my fins the whole workout. Makes it a
lot of fun. Makes fly much easier. I recommend it. It's not for the purists, but at 40 years of
age and no swim background, I ain't fooling anybody anyways.

One part you already know, you should be horizontal in the water, as soon as you loose the
horizontal position, you're body got a whole lot of drag and you will become very tired (the
flippers make this easier).

The other part of the arms, try making a keyhole with your arms; start with the arms above your head
together, then move them outside while moving them downwarts, when youre arms are next to you're
shoulders start bringing them back inside until they are under you're body, after that you can bring
you're arms along side you're body, finally move them over the water back to you're fornt.

"4precious" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"Wilfried Helferding" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

i did improve my breaststroke technique but still dont get butterfly.

doeas

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

anyone know really good websites where this technique is explained in

very

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

detail? plus training routines for this stroke...

thx for advice

You can try the following swim portal to search other swim sites:

swimming.about.comswimming.about.comOpen ↗

Also, if I may be so bold, here are my recent observations. I too would like to swim Butterly
better since it's arguably the prettiest and most dramatic stroke. But nothing screams LOSER in
the pool louder than swimming 'fly and not having your recovering arms ever clear the water. (At
least that's the feeling I get 🙂

1. De-emphasize your arm pull.

I was going down and out with my hands and then almost straight back. The amount of force this
requires is too much. I was tired in two or three cycles. So I studied the elites. They in fact do
not pull straight back either. After going out and down with their straight arms, they actually
bend their elbows nearly to 90 degrees. So they are knifing or sculling their hands thumbs first
towards their thighs. A lot less resistance on the arms.

2. Try not to think too much about your arms at all.

Instead, concentrate on the body undulations ("dolphins"😉. When I look underwater at the men in my
pool who swim Fly well, their body movement is truly powerful and violent. But it involves big
muscles in your torso - abs and back muscles. They can take it much more than your arms can.

3. Intersperse one armed fly with double.

I swim two cycles of right arm fly (breath to the right) followed by two cycles of left arm fly
(breath to the left) and then (big mental and physical push here) two complete cycles of fly,
thinking about big body undulation for the two kicks for each cycle, and get your hands to your
hips without killing your arms.

It'll never get you confused with Michael Phelps, but it's helped me.

Eric

PS I almost forgot. We swim I.M. Tuesday and Thursday. I use my fins the whole workout. Makes it a
lot of fun. Makes fly much easier. I recommend it. It's not for the purists, but at 40 years of
age and no swim background, I ain't fooling anybody anyways.