Competitive Butterfly Stroke Swimming Tips

I would like some competitive butterfly stroke swimming tips. I am thirteen years old and have been swimming since I was five. I have been to nationals for the 400 Individual medley, and 1650, and I have even placed at state. But with these great achievements, I wish to improve my butterfly. It has always been my absolute worst stroke; it slows down my races sometimes. I am doing an " I-search " English report, and my topic is the butterfly. This website has been helping me out so far, but do you think you have any more exciting extra butterfly tips for my report? Do you have any helpful websites? And how do I not get tired after the first lap?

It is always nice to hear from a competitive swimmer, especially one that competes in Individual Medley. You are to be commended on your achievements in such a demanding event.

Butterfly is the most physically demanding swimming stroke as it requires tremendous power and strength. The undulating body action combined with the powerful leg kick is tiring enough. It combines it with breathing and simultaneously recovering your arms over the water, and you have a swimming stroke that even Michael Phelps finds tough compared with the other three strokes!

As a thirteen-year-old female, your body is still developing its strength and power and will continue growing and developing for a few more years. Your butterfly stroke technique will grow and develop with you as long as you continue to swim regularly.

The key to getting your butterfly stamina to match your other strokes is to train it more than the other strokes. Any athlete of a multi-discipline event will tell you it is more important to train your weakness. Most competitive swimmers specialise in one swimming stroke, but the individual medley swimmer has to be strong in all four swimming strokes, and they will always have a weakness.

It is important to focus on the intensity of your butterfly swims and not just your technique. Combining some short-distance sprint work with long-distance swimming will help boost your stamina. Maybe swim an IM as part of your training, but double the distance for butterfly, so your standard butterfly distance will begin to become easier.

In a nutshell, you must push your boundaries and take yourself out of your comfort zone; your strength and stamina will grow. It is an old saying, no pain, no gain!

Before you take my advice and put it into practice, you must consult your swimming coach. He or she will know best how to apply it. More importantly, you must respect your age and your young developing body. It has much growing and developing left to do; sometimes, punishing it too much can do more harm than good.

About your I-search report, my eBook How To Swim Butterfly contains 16 separate exercises that all contain diagrams, technique tips and focus points, all of which are not available to read on our website without downloading. For more information, click the link below.

Land Exercises To Improve Butterfly Stroke

Could you recommend any land exercises to improve butterfly stroke? My daughter is on a High School Varsity swim team, and her butterfly stroke is good, except for needing to improve her leg kick. I am a personal trainer and would love to do some land work with her. Are there any exercises that could help improve her speed?

A lot will depend on which aspects of her butterfly stroke need improving. You say she needs to improve her leg kick but improving leg kick alone will not necessarily help increase her speed.

It's All In The Body Movement

Butterfly leg kick is the result of the undulating wave action of the body , which initiates at the top of the head.

The main component of that undulation is the movement of the hips. The legs complete the movement with a powerful contraction of the hamstrings, followed instantly by the quadriceps.

Gain Power From Plyometrics

Regarding land-based training, increasing power in the legs can be achieved with plyometric training. As a personal trainer, you do not need me to explain the science and techniques behind plyometric training.

Plyometric squats and any two-footed jumpings will help increase power in the quads and hamstrings. Plyometric lunges and bounding will be useful, but as butterfly leg kick is a simultaneous leg kick, two-footed exercises will be more specific and relevant.

Core Training Adds To The Power

The abdominal muscles play a huge part in the undulating wave action and, more specifically, in the powerful hip movement.

Be sure to train the core muscles using crunches and twists. Ensure they are balanced with appropriate lower back exercises to strengthen the erector spinal muscles, such as frontal raises.

Flexibility Training Is Essential

In addition to all of this, take time to focus on flexibility. Whilst power and speed are important in butterfly; flexibility is equally important. Adequate movement of the head, neck, spine, hips, knees and ankles is vital to execute a smooth-flowing movement through the water. Stretch the appropriate muscles and use PNF stretching on any muscle groups that are tighter than they should be.

All of the advice I have detailed above is general advice and might be appropriate to your daughter butterfly swimming stroke, without seeing her swim. It is, therefore, vitally important that you consult with her Swim Coach before you undertake any land-based exercises. Whilst they may seem appropriate and helpful, there is always the chance that you could do more harm than good.

With you as a personal trainer working with her Swim Coach, I do not doubt that her butterfly stroke will improve and her speed will increase.

Basic Pool Based Exercises

My popular book How To Swim Butterfly contains over 16 separate swimming exercises to help all parts of butterfly stroke, including the body position and leg kick. You can download it, print out the parts you need and take them to your pool to try out.

The Simple Butterfly Stroke Book

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