Impossible fly!?!?!?!?

[GBMbreastroker]

Am i the only person in this world completely crap at fly? i have been swimming for as long as I can remember but have never been able to do anything that can be classed as fly. I'm 16 and do a 1:34.74 for 100 (only about 25 seconds slower than the slowest other boy in my club age group), and i would drown on a 200. I'm best at breast and some people say they conflict? i've also been told that as i am tall i have zero co-ordination and can't do it. The main problem is that my kick is soooooo slow and i stop my arms for about 1-2 secs at the start (arms in front you) of every stroke!!!! Does anyone have any advice or similar problems???

[swimgurl]

dont worry im sure you are not the only one out there, my fly is pretty useless! i cant do fly kick save my life and i always seem 2 die in anything over 50 meters! what are your brst times like?

[GBMbreastroker]

around 1:17 so not that great either, ne1 else had serious problems with fly?

[chlorine_babe]

Whats your body movement like before you worry about anything else work on it. Your body should be like a seesaw with your hips and shoulders coming equal distances above the water. Concentrate on pushing forward on your chest when your hips anre coming up most people find this bit easy.Make sure you out equal effort into pushing your hips down and forward this is the bit most people have difficulty with. Kepp your head still and at the surface when you're not breathing. I get my littlies to pretend they are dolphins and swim with arms by their sides no leg movement at all just practising the above movement they all love it and you can see the difference in their stroke when it's applied to the full stroke.

[lozswimmer]

i really had to work on my fly because i couldnt do it for ages! its still not too brilliant but i can do 100m pretty easily now lol, working on getting it to 6 then gradually 8!
what are your times like for 50m GBMbreastroker???

[Pete]

GBM! Put some fins on. Kick with a loose back avoiding a big action. Kick underwater. Kick on your side. Kick on your front with arms to sides (when you do this always kick on the breath so that this transfers to full stroke.) Sweep wide on recovery when using arms. Go 2, 3, 4, even 5 strokes without a breath to feel your rhythm. Go short distances, when you lose your rhythm slip into Freestyle for a few strokes. Check with your coach whether he is happy with this. I always tell my swimmers "Never ask if you can wear fins for training fly just put them on". Fins build confidence and allow you to swim further with good technique. When you feel ready you throw off your fins.

[GBMbreastroker]

Thanks for all the great advice, will have to put it into practice, never done a 50m fly though, but i doubt it would be much faster than half the 100m time, as i stop for so long in the stroke no matter what!!!

[mad4it]

Originally Posted by Pete

I always tell my swimmers "Never ask if you can wear fins for training fly just put them on".

Don't you find they take advantage of your good nature and use them to get out of actually having to put in effort on a fly set?

[KatieBun]

Originally Posted by mad4it

Don't you find they take advantage of your good nature and use them to get out of actually having to put in effort on a fly set?

What good would that do them, mad4it? If they want to get better, surely they'll want to make the effort! On another note, great advice, folks. Pete, I wear fins to try to improve my fly kick but I find it very difficult to do the full stroke with the fins on. It hurts my back!

[mad4it]

None of course! But well we all know plenty of swimmers who would use fins to get of having to put in that extra effort to improve their butterfly!

Its one of those other annoying things which happens in training, and well my swimmers anyway, they hate having to do an odd fly set without fins, too much like hard work!


BTW I'm liking your new little avatar rabbit KB!

[KJ89]

I do most of my fly training without fins and my coach (well ex-coach now) always said in a fly set that if you struggle with fly put your fins on so the rest of my lane always put their fins on then she would expect me to still lead which did make me work harder and improved my fly quite a lot

[KatieBun]

Originally Posted by mad4it

BTW I'm liking your new little avatar rabbit KB!

Thanks. I'm not sure about it, but I liked the woolly hat. This new one has a glass of red! Aah, that's more like it!

[Pete]

The cause of the back problem might be to do with dropping your hips and putting too much emphasis on kicking from the knees but without seeing it is difficult to know. Meet me at the Sydney Aquatic Centre next week and I will take a look.

[KatieBun]

Originally Posted by Pete

The cause of the back problem might be to do with dropping your hips and putting too much emphasis on kicking from the knees but without seeing it is difficult to know. Meet me at the Sydney Aquatic Centre next week and I will take a look.

I was there in August, Pete, but it's a bit far to go back now! I couldn't believe how empty it was!
Thanks for the advice. I think you're right. I'm not very flexible.

[FlyingBean]

I find using fins for fly changes the rhythm of the stroke, so I prefer fly without. For me (and my times are no where near as good as yours GBMBreastroker - old and wrinkly that's my excuse) it's all about timing and rhythm. If you try kicking or breathing at the wrong time you can end up putting a whole lot of effort in and end up not really getting anywhere.

My advice would be to get someone to video your stroke and compare that to someone who has excellent technique. Try to visualise yourself doing their stroke, but in order to do that you need to be aware of what you are actually doing.