Swimmers I need your help!!

[Libby2999]

Hello, so I'm a swimmer. In great at free stly and breast stoke. Good at back to but I hate that stroke. Fly is the one stroke that I'm not sure how to do. I do get the main idea but any tips of how to do it better? I need to work on my kick a lot! And my arms are just kinda flalling around cuz idk how to do it right. Thanks, I really want to be a great swimmer.

~libby

[Punkinhead75]

The butterfly is actually one of my favorites.  I used to do it a lot when I was in my teens.  I've recently gotten back in the pool now at age 38.  My brain still says I can do it but the body says whoa, are you nuts?.  LOL!!!!!  Anyway,  it's a fun stroke once you get it down.  It takes practice to build up the shoulders and time the kick.  You got some good tips in the other posts.  Have fun and remember----don't breathe with your head under water!!!!!

[Siz2741]

The trick to breast stoke by and by if you want to know so that you can get it all lined up nicely, is using a count of three. Stroke with your arms and about halfway through kick. The trick is to count so that you are gliding from your kick on three so 1 is arms, 2 is kick, 3 is glide. And for hte legs, think like a frog :)

[Libby2999]

Thanks! I've never thought of it like that, key hole shape. Ya I really didn't know what to do with my arms an my legs like to do breast stroke kick. Lol and that floaty that hose between your legs is called a pull booie. Haha ya I go one of those. Thanks a bunch. I'll keep that in min next time. ;D

[Siz2741]

I did swimming a couple years ago on a team and the butterfly was actually the stroke that I was very good at competition wise. Here are a couple key tricks to get you going:

For the legs the best thing to think is that you are a mermaid (wierd I know) so think about moving them like you've seen it should be very fluid. I would suggest working on doing just the KICK with either a kickboard or you can do a drill that I know where you do freestyle arms but a butterfly kick that way you can isolate the move if you don't have  board.

The arms are tricky and it takes a lot of power to do this stroke so I'm going to suggest that you make it part of you swimming work out to do push ups off the wall of the pool. This will strengthen you shoulder muscles which you need in the stroke. After that, you can get something that looks like a floaty that youplace between your knees so that you isloate your arms. When you do the stroke come up and over but when you are in the water make a key hole shape in the water. Make sure to bring your arms all the way back but you can keep a little bend on them but it should feel almsot like your shoulder blades are rubbing together that's when you come back out.

At the begining when you put it all together do the stroke in a count of two. So 1 will  you will kick and then pull your arms, 2 you will kick harder than you did on one so that you have more momentum to pull you head out of the water when you  bring your arms down and through.

You have picked a very tricky storke to master I wish you the best of luck. Once you get it down though you will be the talk of the town most people can't do it very well.