Fly Foray

[bx]

I started practising butterfly a few months ago and it's tremendously exciting!

Can't get my arms out of the water, but one day I will.
Doing it with breastroke arms is still great fun.

I manage to move a tremendous amount of water around, and out of, the pool. So I think I'm doing very well!

[CoachBobM]

Not being able to get your arms out of the water is usually caused by not pulsing up enough on your body dolphin.


Bob

[IngeA]

Often the cause is that you begin with the arm stroke too early.
Give the body the time to come up itself. The body wants to come up. Just before your had is breaking the surface begin with the arm stroke.
So you don't have to work your body out of the deep, you only need to assist the natural buoyancy.

Best regards
Inge

[bx]

Thanks Bob and Inge. Will try and report back when successful!

[bx]

Progress report: Can now get arms out of water and breathe. Much as in freestyle, the trick that worked for me was to engage glutes and stiffen the body during recovery so I'm more like a surfboard. Also actively engaging back muscles to help raise arms. Basic stuff, but nice to make a bit of progress.

[CoachBobM]

Congratulations! Keep us informed on your progress!


Bob

Congrats!
I also make progress an area I focus on lately is to keep the hips flexors (especially the rectus femoris) relaxed. It applies to all strokes when you kick but it is particularly relevant to fly.

[bx]

Originally Posted by liolio

Congrats!
I also make progress an area I focus on lately is to keep the hips flexors (especially the rectus femoris) relaxed. It applies to all strokes when you kick but it is particularly relevant to fly.

Thanks for the tip, liolio. I noticed I had too much hip bend after the dive, where I could easily see my feet low in the water, so I remembered your post and deliberately relaxed the hips, keeping the legs higher.

I only do 10-15mins of butterfly at the end of my swims.

[bx]

Coming along a bit better now. If I concentrate on breathing with mouth low to surface and neck as long and aligned with spine as possible, the less effort it takes. This is going to end up being my favourite stroke (in a few years)!

Originally Posted by bx

Coming along a bit better now. If I concentrate on breathing with mouth low to surface and neck as long and aligned with spine as possible, the less effort it takes. This is going to end up being my favourite stroke (in a few years)!

Indeed there is something attractive to it, a halo of some sort.
I'm not sure it will be my favorite stroke as I like moving efficiently and the extend to which butterfly can be made efficient seems limited to relatively high level of exertion.

I love dolphin kick and whole body undulation though the feeling is incredible after a good ^push at the wall.