Originally Posted by BerndS

For me the kick is the most important thing. I focused on increasing the relative amount of work done with the body + leg as I started to go for long distance butterfly. Now, depending on the situation (cramp, or some weak arms) I can do 50+% with body + kick. Doing the breast arms + dolphin kick morphed into very little arm movement - barely moving much more then the wrists to enter the water and starting the body wave. I did this for hours (crowded pool) until I got faster than my working colleague in breast stroke (former swimmer, too). This way in full butterfly, I can make sure that my arms do not get exhausted and in case of two way traffic on a lane one can do 2-4 extra kicks (without losing too much speed) to avoid irritation of other swimmers.

The relaxing 0.3-0.5 extra kick is more a flapping or juggling - I needed to do it when getting cramps in the lower leg and noticed that it is really helpful when one is used to pool lane distances and in a lake there no wall for resting ; )

I never have been an elite swimmer. I re-started somehow regular swimming at 42ys, and now with 50ys I am a very relaxed butterflyer, not caring for speed, just flying as long as I am in the water (mostly ~50 mins, sometimes 2h) not counting the lanes or rounds in the lake (ok, sometimes counting strokes per lane). Just enjoying the feeling as long as there is time for it.