Freestyle and Butterfly Tips

January 3, 2010 at 10:28 pm | Posted in Stroke Tips | Leave a comment
Tags: 10, 247swim, a, advice, event, freestyle, frontcrawl, gala, in, juicy, lucy, race, remember, style, swimming, things, tips, to

This was written for me by a swimming coach and a very good friend of ours Juicy Lucy from the UK swimclub.

CHECKLIST – 10 THINGS TO REMEMBER IN A FREESTYLE EVENT

1. Dive through the ‘hole in the water’

2. Dolphin kick off the dive

3. Maintain your dive speed through the first length

4. Go deep out of the first turn – avoid turbulence

5. Keep your stroke long

6. Events over 200 metres – even pace or negative split

7. Maintain your speed out of the turn

8. Make sure you kick into and out of the turns

9. Don’t breathe for the final 5-10 metres of your race

10. Finish stretched on your side – races are won or lost at the finish – more often than not they are lost by a sloppy finish

STYLE TIPS

1. The hand entry should be forward of your head, somewhere between the middle of your head and the tip of your shoulder

2. Elbows high- hands low, on your overwater recovery

3. When turning your head to breathe – make sure you turn it and not lift it – and don’t turn too early

4. Body roll is an aid to maintaining lateral body alignment and reducing drag

5. 25 metre races should be swum without a breath. World class swimmers rarely breathe more than four times during a 50!

 

Butterfly Tips:

American swimmer, Michael Phelps, is the fastest butterfly swimmer in the world.

When swum properly, it is the most beautiful stroke to watch. It’s unlikely that you will break world records, but anyone can master the butterfly stroke if you spend the time to learn the technique.

All swimmers, when they first try it, find the stroke difficult and exhausting. As with all swimming strokes, if time is spent practising on a regular basis, before long you will be able to swim it with style and finesse.

Michael Phelps didn’t become an overnight success – it took years of hard work to perfect his butterfly technique.

Chest Up Position

When trying to swim butterfly, you should remember to keep your chest up.

If you really try to keep your chest raised, then it will be much easier to allow your arms to recover over the surface of the water.

When your hands enter the water in front of you, DON’T pull straight away.

Many swimmers, when learning butterfly, are too quick to pull, and this throws their timing out.

These swimmers then tend to pause at the end of the pull, with their arms resting by their side.

To grasp the stroke properly, try pausing slightly at the front – when your hands enter the water.

This will allow your body to follow the natural undulation of the stroke.

If you keep in your mind that you are going to start your pull as you ‘come up for a breath’ it will help greatly.

Always try to pierce the water rather than entering with a splash and a slap.

Accelerate through the stroke 

Try to accelerate through the stroke. Start the pull slowly and speed it up as you go through the stroke.

Always attempt a smooth and rhythmic action, rather than a jerky one.

Two kicks per arm cycle

For every arm stroke you do with your arms and shoulders, you should aim to do two dolphin kicks.

A common butterfly kicking fault is to bend the knees excessively.

If the legs are kept quite straight then the undulating movement will be made by the hips.

If the knees bend too much then the swimmer will not achieve the correct undulation that is a requirement for correct butterfly swimming.

Try this…

Give this a try. Push off underwater from the wall, and while in a streamlined position, start a small, rapid dolphin leg-kick.

You only need to do four or five kicks. When you surface, start your arm action… BUT REMEMBER to keep that small fast leg-kick going while you swim along the pool.

It is vital that when you start your arm action, you don’t go back into doing heavy and slow leg-kicks.

This fast kick will actually force you to do a fast arm action.

Many girl butterflyers, who are not as strong in the shoulders as the men, have been very successful when doing this ‘fast leg-kick’ action.

Breathing:

Because the stroke is quite strenuous, it is important to get the breathing right.

Most top swimmers breathe once every two strokes. This is a good habit to get into.

If you watch a good butterflyer doing this, you will notice that when he has his head down (and not breathing) he will actually move through the water quicker than when breathing in the head-up position.

When racing over a sprint distance; 25 metres or 50 metres, the swimmer will try to breathe as little as possible.

Some swimmers won’t breathe at all over these distances.

If breath-holding is attempted during a 200 metre swim, then the swimmer will pay the price and suffer later in the race.

Here’s where the ‘one breath every two strokes’ pays dividends.

A good tip for beginners learning to swim butterfly, is to look forward and keep your face out of the water for as long as possible while the arms are recovering over the water.

As your hands enter the water, then that’s the signal to lower your head.

Become an Expert

If you are prepared to do lots of training on butterfly then you can quickly become an expert butterfly swimmer.

When your coach gives you the opportunity to do any stroke you want, try to do the complete set on butterfly.

Let the front-crawlers go in front and take your place at the back of the lane.

It will be a struggle at first, but before long you will find that you are actually keeping up with them. Butterfly, after all, is just another stroke, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t do lots of it in training.

When swum properly it is the most beautiful of strokes to watch.

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Butterfly training tips

 

To help with your butterfly technique, swim one full stroke, followed by two left arm and two right arm pulls. Repeat this up and down the pool. It will enable you to swim further distances without getting too tired.

It’s a great conditioner and because you will be less fatigued it will help to develop a good rhythm and your timing will be excellent.

When swimming full stroke you will need two leg-kicks per arm cycle. The second leg kick will help you to get your arms clear of the surface when recovering.

Right from the start, get into the good habit of breathing every second pull. This will help to get the rhythm right, as well as really working the lungs.

To improve your butterfly leg-kick, practice the dolphin leg kick whilst in the streamlined position (underwater) but do it on your side. Keep your feet together and drive your legs from your hips, and keep your toes pointed.

If you attempt several one-length swims, try to go further underwater each time before coming up for a breath.

You can also try doing the dolphin leg kick on your back, keep your feet together and drive your legs from your hips. This is a great conditioner and is used often by many good butterflyers

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Advanced butterfly:

Fast butterfly swimmers must learn to lunge forward with minimal undulation.

When Olympic champion Michael Phelps breathes, he keeps as flat as possible.

He is aware that his head position seriously affects the efficiency and rhythm of his stroke.

Many butterfly swimmers bob up and down too much instead of lunging forward because their head position is at fault.

It is important to keep your head in line with your spine. You should try to elongate your neck as your chest rises to breathe.

When not breathing, you should attempt to keep your neck long and not tuck your chin or drop your head.

Remember, the top of your head leads the momentum through the stroke.

Butterfly is an excellent conditioning stroke but relaxation and stroke rhythm are vital if the timing is to be correct.

Good butterfly swimmers are usually good at other strokes too, purely because they will have learned to use their core strength and they will have a good understanding of stroke rhythm and timing.

Try this…

Vertical butterfly kicking in the deep end of the pool is great fun! Maintain an upright position with your arms crossed over your chest. It’s okay to use fins if your leg-kick isn’t strong enough to keep your head above the water.

Time yourself on this.

If you can manage 15 seconds kick and 15 seconds rest then this is a good start.

Try to keep this going for four minutes. Aim to build up to doing one minute kick with 15 seconds rest – keeping this going for six minutes.

If you want a real challenge then try the vertical kicking with your arms out of the water.