Butterfly Technique



			


	


		
		

		
				
									
			
							
																

												
		
			Michael Phelps Butterfly 01

		
								


												
	
				
							
																

												
		
			Phelps Shatters 200 meter Butterfly Record

		
								


												
	
				
							
																

												
		
			NY Times article on Exercise

		
								
A NY Times Magazine article talks about this topic and discounts butterfly.   What is the Single Best Exercise? article 


Here is what I say about that:


It sounds like your reference, Greg Whyte, for swimming butterfly just doesn’t like swimming butterfly or never had a good coach.  I swim a mile of butterfly five days a week and compete in 1/2 mile and mile open water swim events.  One should not do an extensive amount of butterfly without a good coach helping with technique to reduce the chance of injury.  As a coach I would recommend that for any activity you are going to do on a regular basis, even walking.  Yes you need water to swim it.  If you run stairs you better find stairs that aren’t slippery.  Since no one else seems to have addressed swimming butterfly properly I will.  First find a US Masters Team, there are several great ones in NYC (Red Tide and Asphalt Green are two) or go to www.usms.org. Talk with your coach and put together a plan that will work for you.   When I practice swimming fly for distance I keep a steady pace (watching the pace clock), stay flat and relax.  After swimming competitively for 50 years I have found a lot of fun swimming in triathlons.  As an older guy, we start in the last wave and I get a chance to see all the different color caps from each previous wave of younger swimmers so I can hunt them down and pass as many colors as I can.  Life is short, swim fly!  Charlie


												
	
				
							
																

												
		
			Fun Butterfly Warm UP Set

		
								
4 X (50 alternate three fast strokes, two very slow, rest 15 seconds then 25 Sprint)

Purpose: this will help you on breakouts off the wall.  You will be surprised how much the two easy strokes give you rest. focus on hand speed during the three fast strokes.


6 x 25 fly kick under water as far as you can go and sprint the rest.   1-3 start out with legs apart a little for first 4 kicks then bring them together, with knees together the rest of the way. Can you feel the difference?  3-6 focus on breakout kick with legs together keeping upper body streamlined and still. Are you getting further off the wall?


												
	
				
							
																

												
		
			Elementary way to teach beginner hand/shoulder position.

		
								
I have the swimmer face the side of the pool and ask them to put their hands in front of them on the deck.


I ask them to pull themselves out of the water as far as they can without instruction.


I ask them what happens when they sweep their hands to the side (across their body) while pushing. They move sideways instead of up.


I ask them to do it again with high elbows, then low elbows.


With high elbows I ask them to tell me what they are doing with their shoulders to get the high elbow in place.


Now I ask them to think about where their fingers are pointing to get the best range of motion and push. I explain we are pushing water not pulling.


It is a primitive way of explaining it but it gets the student a reference that they can use mentally.


Further, especially coaching youth. I ask them never to use the ladder and always pull themselves out like they are swimming, I ask them to drop down in the water then pull themselves up fast.


Life is short, swim fly.


												
	
				
							
																

												
		
			200 fly Interrupted by Lightning and Re-Swum

		
								
In 1989 I was swimming the 200 fly at the USMS National Championships in Boca Raton Florida at the Mission Bay pool (now a tennis court).   Lightning struck 100 yards into the race and we were pulled out at 150 yards.  I was crashing fast as the guy next to me was pulling away.  An hour later we started the race again.  The finish was a lot of fun.  My friend Chris Nolte of the Colorado Masters Swim Team was video taping the race. See the YouTube link here.


See video of 200 butterfly interrupted at 150 by lightning and re-swum.