BUTTERFLY TECHNIQUE

More/Similar:

Butterfly Technique VIDEOS

Butterfly DRILLS

Butterfly Technique Basics

Two Kicks, One Pull– One to power your head and shoulders above the water, corresponding with the end of the pull, when your arms reach your hips. The other to drive you forward during arm recovery into streamline and glide as timed with hands entering the water up front. Often younger kids take a very small 1^st or 2^nd kick and sink. On the other hand, there are some elite swimmers whose 1^st kick is barely noticeable, but that means that their arms recover extremely high (with extraordinary shoulder mobility) and the second kick is incredibly strong and well timed with hand entry.

Exact Kick Mechanics and Timing– “Kick on entry, kick on exit”. Both kicks should be for about the same strength and size! And remember to work the up kick as well by pointing your toes back as feet move upwards- don’t let them hang down after down kick! Toes should be pigeon toed in while down kicking, so more of the top of foot is utilized to push water back. Feet parallel when up-kicking. Keep the knees very close to each other at all times. Ideal knee bend is 50-75 degrees and ideal hip bend is 20-30 degrees. This enables the legs to mostly stay within the body slipstream/vortex behind you and not cause massive drag by being too high or hanging too low. It also enables the swimmer to hit both the body vortex and both foot vortecis on the way up and down- meaning some of the kick happens as the water flows behind you, in your direction. Almost like swimming down the river. First (down)kick should start for about when your arms pass the shoulder line underwater and end for about when arms reach the down position. The idea is to get as much power to get your head up to breathe as you need, by timing the end of kick with the end of pull. Second kick accentuates the forward momentum and should end when arms enter the water or slightly before in order to generate speed/power to carry on to streamline.

Symmetry– Watch for one arm lagging behind the other, it means the swimmer is struggling to keep momentum while breathing. Stronger, more powerful pulls and kicks, accelerating as much as possible towards the end of the pull and then relaxing after, in streamline, for a bit longer, is usually the answer. “Slow Butterfly” with fins drill helps to enforce that. Also watch for legs not staying together while kicking, with new swimmers especially.

Staying Flat and Head Movement While Breathing– Contrary to popular belief, butterfly is a fairly flat stroke. No reason to jump like a dolphin (humans don’t have that kind of speed/ability because we don’t have a single muscle that runs from our ears to our toes). The idea is to only lift the head out of water just enough to get a breath, while minimizing drag (sinking too low while coming down and/or being too vertical). Goal is to breathe (since you have to) and move forward with the most efficiency, not to jump over waves. Keep chin on surface and extended it forward as pull ends and then move it to almost chin to chest as fast as possible by the time arms cross shoulder line, after which it moves back to neutral position as body straightens out.

Staying High, Yet Not Over-Elevating Shoulders– Not jumping high out of the water and going vertical, but rather staying high and flat on water surface. You want your back and butt on or above water line while pulling underwater, but keep the shoulders low during breath especially in the beginning/middle of pull- it flattens out the stroke. Acceptable angle of body to surface is 13-18 degrees during breath.

Pull Width and Early Vertical Forearm– EVF, just like in freestyle. Essentially you are doing two freestyle pulls at the same time with both arms together. Hands should stay for about shoulder width apart during underwater phase of pull, they will naturally make a small S curve if looked from above, but you should aim to push as much water straight behind you as possible and not sweep it to the side, (happens especially in the beginning of pull with straight arms/no EVF with beginners), nor pull with the thumbs touching under belly. DO NOT drop/lead with the elbows in the beginning of pull and do dorsi-flex the wrists at the end of pull, so palms always face straight back as much as possible!

End of Recovery– When arms hit the water in front, don’t let them sink too low. Also avoid burying your head low, but rather tuck the chin to chest and get the head out of harms way. Push the chest down (but not too much), so your hips rise and set you up nice and horizontal for the next cycle. Arms enter shoulder width wide or a bit narrower. Arms should also enter water with wrists straight, or fingers pointing down slightly, unless you are really sprinting a 50 (when it might be slightly beneficial to have wrists totally flexed which enables faster stroke rate). Lead with a wrist during recovery with wrists relaxed though.

Breathing– Start of the breath is when your hands pass your shoulder line underwater and the head goes back down as they pass your shoulders again in the air. Don’t drive up your shoulders (or head) to breathe, instead use your neck muscles to get the head out/chin extended forward and then back again- head goes from chin forward to chin almost to chest. i.e. really almost a full extension both ways… or as much as you need to get your mouth out while head staying close to surface (bottom of jaw literally glides on surface for an instant). This fast, full range snap helps you to enter the water and get in the streamline as early as possible while not having to elevate your shoulders and chest out of water. Breath needs to be as fast as possible, because the longer the head is above the water, the more your hips and legs sink, creating drag. Mouth should only come high enough to clear space for air to come in. You can breathe every stroke or skip some if you have enough oxygen and want to be more efficient (It varies widely, based on age, distance, gender etc.). More Advanced: Side breathing is also an option as you can keep your head slightly lower(cheek to surface, instead of chin), but requires some extra flexibility in your neck and shoulders. Also watch for head going too low (with the chin NOT tucked to chest) when entering the water, as it either will guide you towards the bottom (and you have to waste energy to get up again), and/or create drag by being below the chest when you are supposed to be gliding happily along in streamline with your chest hiding behind your head. Point being- let the neck do the work and try not to jump out too much while taking a breath!

Head Position– Head needs to be moving relative to body, but remain still relative to water and in neutral position- except when taking a breath. You want it neutral in relation to water and very slightly under water or a bit above surface as much as possible. Because the body moves to different angles during the stroke, try to emphasize that the head should be in a neutral position (in relation to the water) as much as possible, which means you need to adjust it to what angle your body is in at that moment. Kind of like a gimbal. The only time you move it is during breathing, not unlike a dolphin swimming with their whole body moving, but the head/nose is going almost straight to where the dolphin wants to go. Once again- dolphins don’t actually undulate a crazy amount while swimming, they just do it with their whole body while the head stays still and tail mainly staying in the slipstream or breaching it briefly. And humans have to take a breath every once in a while through the nose/mouth, not through the blowhole, hence the need to lift the head. Young swimmers often keep the head up too long, or push it down for too long with a rigid neck. Loose neck and steady head makes a faster flyer.

Arm Recovery– Arms are straight during recovery. So you take advantage of the centrifugal forces without fighting them with bent arms. Do not bend the elbows (or bend very, very little if you must), but lead with wrists. Gravity helps with acceleration if your shoulders are flexible enough to get your hands high over your elbows and coming down with great force. This is also known as high hand recovery- the arms coming down from higher up help with generating more kinetic energy when arms hit the water, plus you don’t have to get as high out of the water with your shoulders in order to get your hands over, resulting in a more flat position in the water. But for most swimmers, due to not being as crazy flexible at shoulders, it is recommended to use ascending recovery, meaning triceps hit the water first, followed by elbows and then wrists/palms, but all in a forward line, not diagonal while driving hands forward above the water. No matter what you do, slashing diagonally into the water is the worst you can do. Hands should be driving forward on top of the water for as long as possible. Once again, bent wrists with fingers pointing down at hand entry are only OK for sprint fly, if you want a faster stroke rate, otherwise enter them with fingertips reaching for the wall ahead or just slightly aimed downwards.

Dropping Elbows on Catch– Swimmers might enter the water in a great position, but drop the elbows as soon as the pull starts. Strive for Early Vertical Forearm, and not leading with elbows during the whole pull! Make the pull closer to body underwater, move water back, not down and almost drag your body forward on the surface is sometimes a good way to explain it to less experienced swimmers.

Early VS Late Breath– Most swimmers use an early breath technique when the head starts lifting as the hands initiate the pull. The advantage of early breath is maximizing propulsion as the breath is timed with the peak propulsion from the pull and kick, but the disadvantage is that the head is above the water longer, thus lowering the body and creating more drag. The head also gets into the water just before the ahnds hit the water and peak propulsion from the kick occurs. Fewer swimmers use a late breath technique where the head remains under water longer (past the peak propulsion, or for about 0.1 seconds longer than normal) and snaps back in very fast and powerfully after inhalation and… is timed perfectly with the second down kick and arms hitting the water into streamline, thus combining all three of those motions to augment and add to each other better. Late breath creates less drag, and might compromise some propulsion, but might work for some swimmers, especially those who can snap the head down powerfully and fast, but might not have the shoulder strength to fly out and carry the head above water for a longer distance. Might be worth trying, after all it kind of makes sense to to reduce drag by keeping the head down longer, as long as not too much propulsion is not lost. Fly is hard enough as it is.

Common Mistakes– Lifting head/body too high (not extending the chin forward), slashing arms diagonally into the water up front, sweeping wide after hand entry, pushing down after letting elbows drop in the beginning of pull, bending elbows on recovery (hands enter bend and close to head), bending knees and/or hips too much during one or both kicks, pushing chest down too much, (which causes greater knee bend in some swimmers) and not having a known/consistent breathing patterns for different distances are all costly mistakes, especially in butterfly.