Buoyancy and Streamlining

[mailtonataraj]

I followed Terry's Betterfly for everybody to train on butterfly and am now able to swim butterfly. Following is my question,

1) When Terry says, "rest till the water buoyancy brings the body up". Here my question/expereince is when i rest and wait for my body to come up, the body doest come up but in the process loosing my streamlined position and hence have to stroke till my body is fairly below the surface.

Because of this while i start stroking my body tends to be almost vertical and its almost like jumping in water vertically .

Any specific reason for this ?

[LBRoberts]

Sounds to me like you need to press down on your chest a bit more / lean forward a bit more as you recover; that should help prevent your legs dropping.

Another thing you could do is to ensure you look down throughout. It's very tempting to look forward on Fly but there's actually no need to do so (other than to sight towards the ends maybe)

[dwdvagamundo]

Are you waiting too long? I think you should begin your stroke when you feel the water begin to force your chest up. In effect, you use the upward momentum the water gives to your chest and so use the arms to drive yourself forward rather than to lift yourself up.

I say "I think" because I have a poor butterfly, so if someone has a different interpretation, I'd love to read it.

[CoachEricDeSanto]

to me it sounds like your amplitude is too big. For me, when I swim slowly, my amplitude gets too big. As your hands press straight forward and your legs flip back, you can create enough tone in your body to prevent your chest from dropping too far. From that tension, you can keep your legs up.

Questions
Did you have problems sinking in the press the shoulders drill? Did you feel your body stretch a bit from fingers to toes when you added the toe flick?

Those two things helped my fly a lot.

[terry]

I control for amplitude - and avoid diving - by a strong focus on landing forward, and on landing gently.
I also focus on really maintaining a streamline -- which requires I be engaged in the core and legs -- as I sink. The longer bodyline I maintain, the more quickly buoyancy returns me to the surface.

[mailtonataraj]

Really excited to see Terry replying to thos post. I think what am doing is diving. Because of this my hands and chest are a bit deeper than the ideal position. However i try not to dive, am not able to do so.Any thoughts ?

[terry]

Four focal points will help you avoid diving:
1) Land with hands and arms fairly wide and land on the heels of your hands, not the fingertips. (I sometimes say "Don't 'play the piano.'")
2) Let the head simply return to the water, by gravity, in a neutral position. Avoid nodding the chin down.
3) Land forward, gently, as if to avoid making a splash.
4) Your "landing zone" should be between sternum and elbows, not between elbows and hands.

[ayesr]

I've accidentally took-in water on several ocassions - in the chin scraping the water surface, nose pointing towards water surface position - and nodding, I've found helps reduce these instances (it's fortunate that I immediately start exhaling upon head fall).

The same is true in my low amplitude breaststroke.

If done gently, softly, smoothly, nodding seems to work for me.

Any similar experiences, you guys?

Is there another solution to nodding?

Thanks for your inputs, guys!

End.
N.B. My apologies to Mailtonataraj for butting in like this in his thread.