Hello, welcome to our series of butterfly swimming lessons!
Including body movements, kicking, arm stroke, hands return and breathing
To master the correct technique
you’ll need to put in some good effort
get yourself in decent physical shape and be patient
In the first lesson
we’re going to achieve the correct technique
by preparing your body with dryland exercises
This will help you learn the correct body movements
you’ll need for swimming butterfly
In butterfly lessons we’ll be joined by a member
of the Russian National Swim Team, Alexander Pribytok
The flexibility of our body and joints is much more important in butterfly than in any other stroke
Good flexibility is what allows you to achieve the body movements
which mimic a dolphin swimming
Improving your flexibility will allow you to swim easier and faster
This is why, swimmers should constantly work on their flexibility
Dryland exercises for improving your flexibility may not necessarily be the most appealing
In the beginning, they can be painful, and it can seem that progress is slow
But keep at it
Gradually your body will become more and more flexible and your overall technique will improve
Hand rotation is one of the best exercises for shoulder flexibility
These rotations are effective both as a warm-up and also for flexibility training
You rotate both hands forwards, backwards and to the opposite sides
as well as rotating only one hand
To imitate swimming movements you can lean forward and rotate both hands
This will help you to get the correct feelings of the movements that you’ll need to do in the water.
One way to do this exercise is with the assistance of a rubber band, but be careful
using this rubber band can lead to shoulder injury if you don’t do it correctly
Remember, you should warm your shoulders up before the exercise
I recommend doing the hand rotation exercise with an elastic rubber band, but not with the stick or a towel
When your shoulders aren’t able to rotate easily or if their close to being injured
a rubber band will stretch and the hands will rotate
However, a stick or towel isn’t able to stretch, so the risk of injury for your shoulders is much greater
In butterfly, the swimmer should move their back smoothly and in wave pattern
This is done by flexing the chest and the back
This flexing will allow you to relax your back and feel the proper back movements that you need to do in the water
For the next exercise, you need to lay on the fitness mat
supporting your weight with your hands, and in this position, you perform butterfly kicks
This exercises helps to train the body movements as well as the butterfly kicks
Your starting position is when your weight is on your hands and your legs are laying on the mat
Then, you start performing the wavy movement from the back to the feet
It’s done by lifting the back up, then you lift your hips up and you push with your feet upwards
This will help you to feel and get used to the correct movements
Now you just need to repeat these movements while swimming
Please, remember to do this exercises on a very soft mat or surface since your feet can get hurt.
Dryland exercises are crucial for getting the correct technique
They’ll help you to both feel and understand how you should perform the movements in the water
In swimming, flexibility is crucial and especially the flexibility of the shoulders
The better it is, the easier it will be for you to swim
Now, lets learn how to do the various movements
In butterfly, you should take a high position in the water in order to swim efficiently
This will reduce the water resistance and allow you to return your hands forward after the arm stroke
A high position in the water during the first part of the stroke is achieved by getting the support of the water with your hands
as well as keeping a high position in your back and pelvis
After the arm stroke, you should lift your pelvis and legs up
and move the upper part of your body a little downwards
This will help you to swim smoothly
During the stroke, your body should make wave-like movements starting with the back
It should continue with the pelvis and legs and end with the movement of the feet
This movement, together with the the arm stroke and the leg movement is what pushes you forward
Every swimmer has some problems with body movements in the beginning
Most swimmers are too tight or tense in the water
and are unable do the wave-like movements
Most children who train in swimming schools can’t swim butterfly on their first attempt
The main reason is that they haven’t developed body flexibility and the body is too tense
However, after some time training their flexibility and coordination
many kids are able to swim butterfly properly
Adult swimmers should be patient and continue training
I guarantee, that after 2-3 months of training your flexibility
your butterfly will be much better
While swimming don’t try to control each movement in the water
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes and try to swim in different ways
in order to get various feelings in the water
Most importantly, do everything possible to stay relaxed
Focus on your feelings in the water
By improving your technique, your swimming will feel lighter and your speed will rise
When you start the arm stroke, your body should lean a little forwards
while your back and hands should be a little deeper in the water
This is required so that the swimmer can grab as much water as possible
I will talk about the arm stroke in the 3rd lesson
While making the arm stroke your back moves upwards
In the middle of the stroke your back should be upon the water surface
At this moment you start lifting your legs up to perform the kick
aiming for the same time as the end of the arm stroke
If you are able to connect the end of the arm stroke with the leg movement you can get a lot of speed
At this moment you need to keep your back as high upon the water surface as possible
as well as keep you body leaning forwards
Your pelvis and legs should be at the same level as your back
When your hands enter the water, you need to perform the second kick
After this you should move your back in the wave-like movement from the lower part of your back
This will allow you to gain additional speed in the water
When your pelvis moves up, your shoulders should go downwards in water
In butterfly, it is crucial to perform the movements which will give you your speed to move forward
Any fluctuations up and down while swimming will reduce speed due to the higher resistance of the water
Concentrate on all of your movements being directed forwards
and that all of them are performed at almost the same level
Swimmers often make the mistake lifting their back and hands too high while returning them forward
This creates additional water resistance and their speed slows down dramatically
In butterfly, the movement of the body should be continuous
from the back to the feet
Can you imagine how flippers look when performing kicks?
The movement of the flipper is continuous all the way from the beginning to the end without any sharp movements
All swimmers who swim butterfly need to aim to do the same movement - as their body is essentially a big flipper
a wave motion from the back to the feet without any pauses in the pelvis or knees
Performing the dolphin kicks while the hands are located near the legs
allows you to train the body wave movements
Try to get a high position in the water
while doing this exercise
and try to avoid the upper body’s fluctuations
performing the movement only by moving the pelvis and legs
Try to swim in different ways while performing this exercise
and keep your swimming speed stable
For breathing, only raise your chin upwards
The second drill is dolphin kicks on your back
This will train your body movement
The arms should be in an arrow position, reaching forwards
This drill is hard, and it will take some time to get used to it
Avoid big arm fluctuations up and down
try to move them smoothly
You should straighten your arms as far forwards as possible
Your back, pelvis and legs should perform the same movements as in the previous exercise
You could also swim with training flippers
in order to feel better the movements and to learn how to move the body faster
Another exercise is doing dolphin kicks on the side
One arm is forward and the second arm is tied to the body
This is useful in training the pelvis and leg movements
It can teach you to perform the same movements of the body and legs up and down
The common mistake is that swimmers perform uneven movements up and down
This exercise will train you to eliminate this mistake
In this lesson we’ve covered the first step of learning fly technique
and we’ve learnt how to move the body correctly
This is the foundation for your future technique
To master a good and stable butterfly technique
you need to build up the elements of technique one by one
not all at the same time
It’s the same as building a house, you can't do it all at once
you need to construct the foundation first, then the walls and the roof come later
In the next video, we’ll learn how to do proper butterfly kicks
What about you? What’s the most important technique element for you when you swim butterfly?
Leave your answer in the comments
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