one-arm butterfly?

[Jamwhite]

Does anyone use one-arm butterfly in their practice? If so, can you give me the details of what you use it for please.

Also, if you do, what version of the drill do you use? Straight arm, or bent arm? (or another)

[shuumai]

Originally Posted by Jamwhite

Does anyone use one-arm butterfly in their practice? If so, can you give me the details of what you use it for please.

Also, if you do, what version of the drill do you use? Straight arm, or bent arm? (or another)

Michael Phelps' coach, Bob Bowman, mentioned that Phelps uses the bend-arm recovery to work on hand entry. He also does straight-arm recovery as well, breathing to the side to keep the timing closer to the whole stroke. (Just repeated what I heard.)

The single arm drills take less energy. Mixed with whole-stroke you should be able to sustain a swim longer. That might help with building endurance while working on technique without becoming overly tired.

[CoachEricDeSanto]

I like it at times. I think the purpose depends on what form you are doing. I have seen one arm fly done:
breathing front,
breathing side
non-stroking arm front
non-stroking arm side

The down side is that it is easy to slip a long axis rotation into the stroke which would give you a false muscle memory.

The good side:
Swimming with the non-stroking arm extended decreases amplitude of the undulation and can help prevent diving too deep.
It is more relaxing and therefore allows longer distances.

I use side breathing and non-stroking arm extended to help with timing and entry. I can really get a feeling of my body causing the arm motion that does transfer somewhat to whole stroke. I can really get a sense of extending forward in one arm that is hard to get in two arm. But it does transfer some as well.

The other options of breathing to the front and having the non-stroking arm at the side are more challenging and a closer match for whole stroke.

[shuumai]

Originally Posted by CoachEricD

The other options of breathing to the front and having the non-stroking arm at the side are more challenging and a closer match for whole stroke.

Opposite-side-breathing-single-arm-fly might be interesting and challenging to try.

There is a Paralympic rule that a one-armed butterflyer must breathe to the opposite side of the stroking arm. I assume that breathing to the front would be an option though. The rule was made because officials thought that a certain swimmer had an unfair advantage when he breathed on the same side as his stroking arm. At least that's the story I watched on YouTube.

[dwdvagamundo]

Jamwhite--

I use it daily in my warmups. I find it's a good way to warm up for fly because it's easier on my shoulders. I think it also helps with timing.

I currently do "hand lead" straight arm fly breathing to the front. I've found that breathing to the front not only is a better practice for real fly, but also tends to reduce the freestyle mature of the recovery over side breathing.

After reading this thread, I'll try "head lead" and see how that works.

[Suddethb]

I read about this yesterday. Today I did a mile freestyle for warm up and then alternated a lap of free and a lap of fly for most of the next three miles. I had a total of 50 laps fly in this workout. I shared a lane with a female swimmer who had a really nice, smooth dolphin and when we were talking she asked if I ever practiced one arm. Obviously I hadn't yet, so I asked her to show me her drill. She was using leading arm for the unmoving one, and her body wave was elegant to see. I will be trying this the next time I swim!

Brian

[shuumai]

Originally Posted by Suddethb

Today I did a mile freestyle for warm up and then alternated a lap of free and a lap of fly for most of the next three miles. I had a total of 50 laps fly in this workout.

That's impressive, but I'm curious why people swim that way. Do you only do distance swimming, or do you work on speed as well?

[Suddethb]

I mostly like to add miles each week, so much of my swimming is gentler. But for Fly, I'm trying to work on style and endurance first and then speed it up over time. I'm 48, and will be able eligible for "senior olympics" at 50. I only learned the butterfly stroke in a class in October/November, about the same time I bought the Betterfly DVD.

As part of my class in November, I did try a "standing start" racing fly lap (50 yards), and made 43 seconds. The "racing" dive from the side and dolphins cut many seconds from my time of course. I am averaging 1 minute 5 seconds when I go slow for endurance. Last Thursday I tried an in the pool start sprint and did a 46! That is a really good improvement in my sprint speed, so I'm going to keep working slow with good form and then checking the improvement in sprint speed over time. I think that my slow work is toning my core so when I ask for performance pace, I'm less likely to be injured by moving past what my body is ready for.

I'm tracking my workouts at BuckeyeOutdoors.com (SuddethB or Butterflyswmr).

[shuumai]

Originally Posted by Suddethb

I mostly like to add miles each week, so much of my swimming is gentler. But for Fly, I'm trying to work on style and endurance first and then speed it up over time. I'm 48, and will be able eligible for "senior olympics" at 50. I only learned the butterfly stroke in a class in October/November, about the same time I bought the Betterfly DVD.

As part of my class in November, I did try a "standing start" racing fly lap (25 yards), and made 43 seconds. The "racing" dive from the side and dolphins cut many seconds from my time of course. I am averaging 1 minute 5 seconds when I go slow for endurance. Last Thursday I tried an in the pool start sprint and did a 46! That is a really good improvement in my sprint speed, so I'm going to keep working slow with good form and then checking the improvement in sprint speed over time. I think that my slow work is toning my core so when I ask for performance pace, I'm less likely to be injured by moving past what my body is ready for.

I'm tracking my workouts at BuckeyeOutdoors.com (SuddethB or Butterflyswmr).

Ah, makes sense. By "lap" do you mean 25 up and 25 back for a total of 50?

[Jamwhite]

I have played with different styles of one-arm fly, and there are two which I particularly like.

One-arm forward with arm straight and one-arm forward with arm bent. The first helps me practice the feeling of a straight-arm entry, while the second lets me practice soft hands.

I personally do not like doing one arm fly with my other arm to the side, I cannot stop myself from doing a long-axis side-to-side rock.

The advantage that I have found in one arm fly is that it helps you develop you dolphin rhythm with the arm motion.