Help! I want to improve my Butterfly!

Question

Okay, so swim tryouts are in 2 weeks, and my main stroke is butterfly (I swim the 100 fly and IM Relay). I'm okay at it (not extremely fast), but I want to improve my stroke. I think what is holding me back is that I use my arms more than my legs. Do you have any suggestions for me to incorporate my legs more in the stroke, and any other tips to improve my time before tryouts? I want to increase my speed dramatically this year. Thank you so much - any advice is greatly appreciated =)

Answer 1

You shouldn't really be using your legs much - it's mostly your waist and above.  

Answer 2

Practice drilling by doing right hand, left hand, then both hands. Also, if you breathe every stroke, try to learn to breathe every other stroke. Remember to reach, throw your arms in front of you. I recommend practicing your dolphin kick as well with a kick board. You might also want to life weights or do some upper body exercises. Butterfly has a lot to do with the upper body. I know butterfly is the hardest stoke, so practice, practice, practice. It was my individual when I was on my high school swim team.

Answer 3

ParteeGirl,

The Butterfly is more of an upper body stroke with the legs used more for stabilization (except off the walls).

The best thing you can do for any stroke improvement is to have a competent professional (coach) watch you swim. You can have someone video tape your stroke for analyzing but nothing beats having a coach watch and teach in a 'live' environment.

With that being said there are many butterfly kicking drills that will help strengthen the lower body part of your butterfly.

1.) Kicking with a board

2.) Kicking on your side with the lower hand outstretched (no board)

3.) Kicking on your back with arms in streamline

4.) Kicking on your back with arms at your side

5.) Treading water using nothing but a dolphin kick (no arms - in a vertical position)

6.) Same drills with fins/unifin

It will probably be more advantageous (in general) to work on body position and upper body strength to improve your butterfly. But this is something that would be difficult to completely explain in a forum such as this, especially without seeing your stroke.

Good luck this season and with your tryouts. I'm sure you'll exceed.