(2) Palm up recovery
In these clips I want you to watch my hands. It’s a little thing, but what you do with your hands and wrists during the recovery has a big effect on how fast you swim butterfly. This swimmer has palms facing down on the recovery. She has to lift her arms way out to get her hands out of the water and this creates lots of tension in her shoulders. This kind of recovery makes it hard work to swim butterfly. Notice how I keep the palms facing the sky for as long as possible. When my palms facing up, my shoulders are more stable. When my palms are facing up, my arms stay more relax on the recovery and I save energy. Let’s take a look of the recovery from the front. When my palms facing up, my recovery stays low and balance. One way to practice a palm-up recovery is with single arm drills. Keep one arm out at front, and set up the rhythm with your body as you swim butterfly with the other arm. Remember to take 2 kicks per stroke. This swimmer is doing one arm drill, but looks more than freestyle than butterfly. Keep the palm facing the sky for as long as possible. Practice with your right arm on one length, then switch to your left arm on next length. Then take 2 strokes with one arm, 2 the other arm, then 2 strokes of butterfly. Focusing on keeping the palms facing the sky for as long as possible. You can do lots of variations on this drill. But the main thing is to think about keeping your palms up as you recovery your arms.
(3) Send it forward
Sometimes we get so caught on pulling hard and kicking fast that we forget which way we’re supposed to go when we swim. It’s forward. Take a look on my hands again on this clip. And tell me what you think my goal is. If you said to get to the end of the pool. You’re absolutely right. The hands give it away. One of the big thing I think about when I swim butterfly is getting my hands out front as fast as I can. I actually think about throwing them towards the other end of the pool. Watch out how this set out my rhythm. I set the rhythm with front part of my stroke as opposed to the back part of my stroke. I am throwing my arms forward. But notice I am not crashing them into the water. My hands enter softly and gently. Notice that they also stay near the surface even though my head and chest go down. This swimmer maybe thinking about getting to the other end, but her hands take her down to the bottom, she is sending her energy down rather than sending it forward. As a result, she spends lots of energy and time diving down and then climbing back up to air. (这儿有一句视频质量不好,被卡掉了)。 When your hands enter the water, your chest should go deep, but your hands should stay high. Think about send your fingertips to the other end, not down the bottom. Let’s take a look of the hand entry from above water. I mentioned that you need think about how the hands enter, you also need to think about where they enter. If your hands are too far apart like mine are here, it’s hard to get much distance per stroke. And it’s hard to anchor your hands and hold on(视频质量不好,又有词被卡掉了)。 If your hands are too close together on the entry as mine are here, it’s hard to get high enough tempo going with your body, your rhythm will be too slow. Here is the entry point I found that is most comfortable and effective for me. Notice that my hands are shoulder width apart. There is no entry point that is right for every swimmer. Everyone’s body is a little bit different. You have to experiment to find the entry point that’s right for you and lets you go fast. Your coach can help you do this. You know you got it right when your arms fall into the rhythm of the body naturally. But remember the goal is to send it forward