How to Swim Butterfly
How to Swim Butterfly
All those who know, even a little bit of swimming, have come to agree that the butterfly stroke is by far the most difficult stroke in swimming. It may not necessarily be the most difficult stroke to master technique-wise (that title is held by breast stroke, as far as I know), but it is definitely the most taxing stroke to swim. Of course, one can always argue that any stroke is taxing to swim when you’re swimming with 100 percent effort, and that is true, but even in that butterfly has come to occupy the title of the most feared stroke. In fact, it is common to find swimmers avoid swimming butterfly during workouts and yet they go ahead and do extremely well in the competition in butterfly events. While such things may depend, to a large extent, on the capacity of the individual swimmer, right now we are going to discuss that aspect of butterfly which once mastered, makes the stroke a little less daunting.
The first and the most fundamental rule to mastering the butterfly stroke is mastering the dolphin kick. This name has literally been derived from the moment of the dolphins. The easy and flexible way in which they move their bodies in order to get momentum is the ideal way to swim butterfly. The dolphin kick demands that the kick originate from the hips, the centre of the body, rather than the legs. No doubt, the force and pressure to move forward is derived from our leg moments but the initiation of the moment has to take place at the hips.
Now the next question you’ll ask is; how do I do that? Well, it’s simple really. First, start by doing only lower body action in the water. Make sure that your moment originates from your hip and that with every lower thrust of your legs, your hips move upwards in an opposite reaction. Do this action for a while. There is no specific time period that can be mentioned here since different people require different amount of time to master a particular thing. So take your time but make sure your
All those who know, even a little bit of swimming, have come to agree that the butterfly stroke is by far the most difficult stroke in swimming. It may not necessarily be the most difficult stroke to master technique-wise (that title is held by breast stroke, as far as I know), but it is definitely the most taxing stroke to swim. Of course, one can always argue that any stroke is taxing to swim when you’re swimming with 100 percent effort, and that is true, but even in that butterfly has come to occupy the title of the most feared stroke. In fact, it is common to find swimmers avoid swimming butterfly during workouts and yet they go ahead and do extremely well in the competition in butterfly events. While such things may depend, to a large extent, on the capacity of the individual swimmer, right now we are going to discuss that aspect of butterfly which once mastered, makes the stroke a little less daunting.
The first and the most fundamental rule to mastering the butterfly stroke is mastering the dolphin kick. This name has literally been derived from the moment of the dolphins. The easy and flexible way in which they move their bodies in order to get momentum is the ideal way to swim butterfly. The dolphin kick demands that the kick originate from the hips, the centre of the body, rather than the legs. No doubt, the force and pressure to move forward is derived from our leg moments but the initiation of the moment has to take place at the hips.
Now the next question you’ll ask is; how do I do that? Well, it’s simple really. First, start by doing only lower body action in the water. Make sure that your moment originates from your hip and that with every lower thrust of your legs, your hips move upwards in an opposite reaction. Do this action for a while. There is no specific time period that can be mentioned here since different people require different amount of time to master a particular thing. So take your time but make sure your