Over the last month we have added some butterfly to our Lap Time programs. Butterfly is believed to be the hardest stroke to master. Many adult swimmers can comfortably swim freestyle, breastroke and backstroke but feel butterfly is beyond their ability and only for elite and competitive swimmers! At Salty Fit we believe all our swimmers are capable of swimming butterfly. Butterfly is the second fastest stroke behind freestyle and when done right you can feel graceful, powerful and fast whilst moving through the water. Butterfly can be a beneficial addition to your swim training routine as you will use the same and different muscles than you are used to when swimming freestyle and will improve your endurance and general fitness as it is much harder to sustain than freestyle.
Best Tips to swim butterfly:
- The first challenge is mastering the kick. With butterfly kick, your legs should be together, and your whole body – not just your legs – undulates up and down. Rock your chest down and hips up and shoulders back and hips down. Your legs should be flexible flicking the water up and down following the body’s undulation.
- Once you’ve got the kick the next obstacle is coordinating your arms. The two most common mistakes people make when timing their butterfly stroke – either swimmers kick continuously and too much therefore interrupting their arms in performing the stroke and often results in a disconnected stroke and not a lot of movement forwards! Or they only kick once per arm stroke and instead focus on getting arms over the water which causes you to feel like you’re dragging your legs through the water.
- In butterfly your kick should initiate the stroke, and there are two kicks to one full arm stroke. You should kick to pull your arms down through the water to propel you forward and kick a second time to initiate your arms out of the water (as if you’re expanding your butterfly wings). So kick as your hands pull down and kick as your arms flick out and back to the front.
- Next up is breathing! To breathe in butterfly you should breathe every second stroke as this will allow you to build up the most momentum. (Although you can breathe every stroke – this is what Micheal Phelps does – this is more tiring!). You should lift your head as your arms pull down. Once you breathe, tuck your head back down before your arms begin to recover.
Check out this video of Jo having a blast swimming butterfly! She loves doing butterfly both in the pool and the ocean!