Breaststroke Leg Kick When Swimming Butterfly Stroke

I would like some advice about a problem with breaststroke leg kicks when swimming the butterfly stroke. My son is 11 years old and has problems learning butterflies. Every time he goes up to breathe, he kicks breaststroke with his legs. He has a hard time stopping doing this. What can he do?

It is important first to understand why your son is using a breaststroke leg kick each time he breathes for butterfly. Both butterfly stroke and breaststroke are simultaneous strokes; in other words, the legs kick simultaneously, and the arms pull simultaneously. If he is competent and strong at breaststroke, he only does what comes naturally when he needs to breathe.

A strong butterfly leg kick is needed to give the body enough lift for the head and face to exit the water so that a breath can be taken. Swimming using a kickboard or float to isolate the leg kick whilst adding the breathing technique will help to isolate the problem. Get your son to ensure he can feel his ankles and feet touching together, especially when he takes a breath.

Also, he may want to try using a Monofin as this will not only help strengthen his leg kick and body movement, but it will be impossible to kick breaststroke as the monofin keeps the feet locked in place. Click here to see an example of a monofin.

There are several leg kicking exercises suitable to help strength and power. Combining them with breathing but without the arms will help to isolate and fix the problem. The exercises are contained in my ebook How To Swim Butterfly, which can be downloaded instantly. Click the link below for more details.

The book also contains exercises to focus on all aspects of the butterfly stroke, including timing and coordination, which can lead to mistimed leg kicks and the need to kick breaststroke instead.

Conserve Energy Swimming Butterfly Stroke

Okay, so here’s the deal. I need to conserve energy swimming butterfly stroke. I'm tall, got broad shoulders and long legs, so my school chose me as my B-Team U15 butterfly swimmer. I'm very fast, but I get exhausted very fast. Any help on how to conserve energy while swimming?

Energy consumption during swimming is affected by three main areas: your pace, your swimming technique and your fitness level.

I know what you're thinking: yeah, they are all pretty obvious. True, but when they are all finely honed, they work together to make you a very slick, efficient and successful swimmer. No magic pill or single secret technique will make you a better swimmer overnight. It will take a little practice.

Let’s deal with the most obvious one first: your butterfly swimming technique. Efficient butterfly stroke comes from a good body position and strong undulating movement. Combine this with a powerful kick and long stretch over the water with the arms to make the whole stroke action longer, and you will have a more efficient swimming stroke.

Your fitness level is the next most obvious; training and laps will boost and elevate your stamina and recovery rate.
Butterfly stroke is the most energy-consuming of all swimming strokes because it requires the most physical movement. Large ballistic movements of large muscle groups constantly over a distance requires tremendous strength and stamina. This level of fitness can be achieved through training longer distances.

The pace you swim at will ultimately determine how much energy you will have towards the end of your swim. You must conserve some for your final length, ideally when your competitors are running low on energy too. If you have more than the other swimmers in the race, you have the advantage.

Good pace comes with practice; when used correctly, it can tactically outsmart your opponents. But, you must have the fitness and swimming technique finely tuned first if you can pace yourself cleverly.

Just another thought: just because you are tall with broad shoulders and long legs, this does not mean you are suited only to the swimming butterfly stroke. Your height and stature will give you an advantage in front crawl, breaststroke and backstroke.

My ebook How To Swim Butterfly contains 16 separate swimming exercises to help all parts of butterfly stroke technique, including body position, breathing and timing. You can download it, print out the parts you need and take them to your pool to try out. Click below for more details.

Learn Butterfly Swimming Stroke

I would like to learn butterfly swimming stroke and want some information about how to kick, how to use the arms, butterfly breathing and any videos you may have.

Butterfly swimming stroke is arguably the most physically demanding swimming stroke. It is rarely swum recreationally and is usually left to competitive swimmers to master.

However, there is no reason why you cannot learn how to swim butterfly stroke. The first and most important part of learning is the leg kick and body movement. You must perfect the dolphin leg kick and undulating body movement, which is essential to achieving a powerful butterfly stroke. There are many exercises to help master this most important stroke element, using a kickboard and other learning aids.

The next stage is to add the powerful arm action in time with the leg kick and body movement. If your leg kick is powerful enough, the arm action will be made easier as the arms have to recover over the surface of the water. This is a fast, explosive action that demands great stamina.

Breathing should occur every stroke with the head facing forwards as breathing occurs during breaststroke.

My eBook ‘How To Swim Butterfly’ contains 16 separate exercises covering all aspects of the basic stroke and can be downloaded instantly. They are very easy exercises to understand and even easier to try out in the pool. Click below for more details.

The Simple Butterfly Stroke Book

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