Butterfly - Misty Hyman

Important Note to the Viewer

LESSONS: 10 VIDEOS

Two Kicks Per Stroke

Rhythm and timing are so important in butterfly. When you get the rhythm and timing just right, it can feel like you’re FLYING through the water. COMMON ERROR If you get it a little bit wrong, you can feel like an eagle with a broken wing…. When I want to work on my timing and rhythm, I think about taking TWO KICKS PER STROKE. Let’s watch this in slow motion. I kick here…as my hands enter the water…. And I kick again here…as my hands exit the water. I kick my hands in…. And kick my hands out…. Two kicks per stroke. Let’s look even closer. Let’s watch that from under water. As my hands enter the water, I kick DOWN with my feet and my hips go UP. During the pull, my feet go UP and actually DISAPPEAR, which means they’re just above the surface. I try to get them just above the water so that I get maximum power on the SECOND kick, which happens here. The second kick starts when my hands are at my hips. I kick down and accelerate my hands into the recovery. Notice that my hips don’t go up quite so much with the second kick, and that my feet don’t disappear this time – they’re just below the surface. Let’s watch the timing again. Kick the hands in…kick the hands out. COMMON ERRORS At clinics, I sometimes see swimmers – especially younger swimmers – taking just one kick per armstroke, as this swimmer is doing. I also see swimmers who take two kicks per stroke, but who take the second kick when the hands are still out front, rather than when the hands are at the hips. If you have trouble with your timing, or if you take just one kick per stroke, I recommend that you wear some fins. Fins are great during the learning phase for butterfly. They can give you just a little bit more power, and will help you develop the correct body motion and rhythm for a smooth stroke. When you practice butterfly, it’s important not to let yourself struggle. It may make you stronger, but all you’ll be doing is practicing bad technique. Wear fins until you develop good technique. Another trick during the learning phase is to take just two or three PERFECT strokes of fly per length…and then switch to freestyle. This is a lot more effective than taking 9 or 10 IMPERFECT strokes. Let’s take another look at the kick. As I take my two kicks, I think about kicking from the sternum, not from the knees. I think about using my entire body for the kick – not just my legs. But I’m still thinking about TWO KICKS PER STROKE. If I swim with my entire body, I have more power than if I use just my legs. It lets my body flow more smoothly through the water – more like a real dolphin. I try to set up a rhythm with my body – a two-kicks-per-stroke rhythm – and then fit the arms and the legs into the rhythm. One more thing to notice about the kick is that the toes should be pointed. This reduces drag, and helps you get maximum range and power from your kick. Here’s a drill that I like to use for rhythm. It’s real simple, and it’s called Kick Four, Swim One. Remember: Take two kicks per stroke, but make sure you kick from the sternum and use your entire body, not just your legs.

Send It Forward - Misty

Send It Forward

Trailer

The best way for you to improve as a swimmer is to listen to your coach. However, even the best coach can’t watch every swimmer all the time, so your success will depend on your attention to detail. In this video, I’ll share with you the six most important things I think about when I swim butterfly. These are the six key focus points that work for me – and that I teach to swimmers at my clinics. I’ve learned these focus points and techniques from some of the best coaches and teachers in swimming – people like Bob Gillett, Bill Boomer, and Ross Gerry. And I didn’t learn them overnight. I’ve spent thousands of hours perfecting each one, and I’m still learning. When you try these things for yourself, it’s best not to think about all of them at the same time, but rather, focus on one specific thing each day. When you work on one or more of these techniques, it should be in addition to what your coach is asking you to do, not in place of. All great swimmers will tell you: Don’t just do what’s asked of you. Always do just a little bit more. Swim with commitment and focus, and try every day to give everything you have. OK. Let’s go swim butterfly.

Credits

This is the beginning. Now it's up to you to add focus to your training! Go Swim Butterfly with Misty Hyman Starring Misty Hyman Concept Misty Hyman Glenn Mills Barbara Hummel Script Barbara Hummel Narration Misty Hyman Production & Filming Glenn Mills Post Production, Film Editing, and Music Glenn Mills Swimming Back and Forth Misty Hyman Special Thanks to Brophy College Preparatory, Phoenix, AZ Karyn Vella & Dennis Pursley for generous use of their pool Special Thanks to The Carter Community Building Association (CCBA), Lebanon, NH for generous use of their pool Special Thanks to Our Swimmers (Rachel, Elizabeth, Carolyn, Hannah, Rebecca, Elise, Tamara, Sandy, Madison, Ari, Evan, Kerry) Special Thanks to Premiere Management Group (Evan Morgenstein & Bobby Brewer) Watch for more products at www.goswim.tv Go Swim Butterfly with Misty Hyman Copyright (c) 2004 by Go Swim Productions, LLC. All rights reserved.

Go Swim Butterfly

For the final section of the video, we feel there’s no better way to learn than just to watch some full lengths of butterfly. Try to pick out the things we focused on. Am I taking two kicks per stroke? Are my palms up on the recovery? Am I sending my arms and my energy forward rather than down? Do I give it up in the back? Am I breathing low and early? And do I look like a dolphin? Try to pick out the things I’m doing right…or try to find the things that I could do even better. No matter what level of swimmer you are, the goal is always to learn and try to improve…so you can swim even faster.

Think Like a Dolphin

One of the easiest ways to improve your butterfly is to think like a dolphin – and try to move through the water just like they do. Have some fun with this. Take a deep breath, dive deep, and imagine that you’re porpoising through the water with a powerful tail in place of your feet. Try to use your entire body as you dolphin through the water. Start the kick with your sternum, and let it flow all the way through your body, down to your toes. When I’m really thinking about swimming like a dolphin, my body looks like a sine wave as it moves down the pool. Let’s watch this is in freeze frame. As I start each new stroke, my hands are high, my chest is low, my hips are at the surface, and my feet kick deep. My body describes…or looks like…a wave. At the end of each stroke – just for an instant – my body is in a straight line. Not very dolphin-like, but I’m poised to get into a new sine wave during the recovery. Here’s the new sine wave. My arms are out of the water, but my hands are getting ready to enter out front. My chest is high, my knees are low, and my feet are at the surface. Just an instant later, my hands enter the water, I take my first kick, and my body is back in the original sine wave. This sine wave…or porpoise…movement is how I generate power. I use my entire body to move forward – just like a dolphin would do. One other thing to notice is that, even though my body is undulating, it’s almost always horizontal in the water. I try not to let the sine wave get too big…or to let it travel uphill. I do this by keeping my head and arms low on the recovery, and by sending my hands forward, not down, as they enter. COMMON ERRORS Here’s a swimmer whose sine wave is too BIG. Notice how she spends too much time diving down and then climbing back up again. When I think about swimming like a dolphin, I think about sending my body through one hole in the water. This slow-motion clip will show what I mean. My head enters the water and starts through the hole. My chest follows right behind…then my torso…then my hips flow through the hole…then my knees, and finally my feet. Everything flows through the same hole and along the same line or sine wave. And notice that everything goes forward rather than up and down. This is what coaches mean when they talk about good body alignment for butterfly. It’s all about keeping your sine wave horizontal, and sending your body FORWARD through one hole in the water. Your coach is right: Good body alignment will help you reduce drag and swim faster. Here’s a fun drill you can try when you have some free time at the pool. It’s called Head-Lead Body Dolphin, and it’s perfect for helping you feel like a dolphin in the water. If you have trouble moving forward on this drill, just put on some fins and try again. Start with your hands at your sides. Press in at your chest and then release your chest. As you press in with your chest, your hips will come up. Try not to kick too much from your knees; just let the legs flow with the rhythm of your body. Repeat the press and release until you feel you are flowing through the water. To have a good body dolphin and a good butterfly, it’s essential to have strength in your core body – in your abs. So you should do all the situps your coach tells you to do – and then some more. Here’s something that I do at my clinics to demonstrate core body control and how important it is to a fast butterfly. If you can learn to do this, you’re on your way to a really dolphin-like butterfly.

Breathe Low and Early

Some swimmers look as if they could swim butterfly all day long. Part of this is due to body build and flexibility. Part of it is due to good technique and knowing how to focus on the right things. But a big part of effortless butterfly is how you breathe. Let’s slow this down and look at how and where I’m getting air. Let’s look first at my eyes. Notice how I’m looking down at the water when I come up for air. My head stays low, my chin and mouth just barely clear the surface, and I find my air in a pocket that’s formed just above the water. COMMON ERRORS This swimmer is looking forward – toward the other end of the pool -- when she comes up for air. When the head comes this high out of the water, something else has to sink…and it’s usually the legs. This makes butterfly so much harder than it has to be. If you keep your head low and your eyes down when you come up for air, your hips will ride higher and your legs won’t sink. Here’s a side view. The breath comes…here…and my hips stay near the surface. You can see this even better from the surface. Notice how I stay low for the breath. And that my hips don’t sink when I breathe. I stay in a horizontal position, and this makes it easier to finish the pull and take my second kick. Notice that I also breathe early – just as I start to pull. COMMON ERRORS This swimmer waits too long to start the breath. Her arms have already started to pull before she comes up for air. If you breathe too late, it interferes with the rhythm of your stroke and the alignment of your body. Notice how this swimmer is struggling to find a rhythm, and is almost vertical in the water. By starting the breath early, you’ll get a better breath and a cleaner breath. Notice here that I start the breath as soon as I start the insweep of my pull. COMMON ERRORS If you start the breath too late, as this swimmer is doing, you must use your arms to push up to air. If you start the breath early -- at the same time as you start the pull -- you can use your arms to send you forward. One question that swimmers ask me all the time is…How often should I breathe in butterfly? What’s the best pattern? My answer is that there IS no answer. There are lots of breathing patterns that work. You just need to experiment and decide which one feels best to you. What counts is that you find a pattern that lets you swim without interrupting your body rhythm. In this clip, I’m breathing on every other stroke. This is the pattern that I use when I swim the 100 fly. It lets me maintain a fast body rhythm, without too many interruptions for the breath. It lets me stay quick and flowing. If you breathe on every other stroke, make sure that you keep your body rhythm the same for each stroke. In this next clip, I’m breathing two up, one down. This is the pattern that I use in the 200 fly. It lets me get air a little more often, but still lets me keep a fast rhythm. In this clip, I’m breathing every stroke. I don’t use this pattern very often, but that doesn’t mean it’s not right for YOU. You need to experiment and work with your coach to decide which breathing pattern is best for you in each event.

Release the Hands Early

Many swimmers think that a big pull is the most powerful pull, but this isn’t always true in butterfly. COMMON ERRORS Here’s something that I see quite a lot when I watch age-group swimmers. They pull all the way back with their arms…and then get stuck. They pull so far back that it’s hard to get their arms and shoulders out of the water for a clean, quick recovery. Taking a big pull like this may feel powerful, but it can interrupt your body rhythm and actually slow down your timing. In butterfly, you want to set your rhythm and timing with your body, not with your arms or legs. This usually means that you need to take a shorter, faster pull – a pull that matches your body motion. When I want to work on a faster armstroke, I think about giving it up in the back. I think about anchoring my hands. Then I sweep them in toward my chest. Then I send them out to the sides, rather than back toward my hips. Let’s watch this in slow motion. The hands anchor high…then sweep in…then flare out to the sides. My hands are accelerating as they leave the water, and I feel like I’m throwing them toward the other end of the pool. It may look as if I’m pushing my hands back to my hips, but I’m really thrusting them out to the sides. Here’s a clip where I’m taking as big a pull as I can, and where I’m trying to push back to my hips. See the difference? Here I’m pushing back to the hips. Here I’m giving it up in the back. Notice that here my body rhythm stays smooth and steady. No interruptions. The rhythm stays quick. I’m giving it up in the back so that I can set my rhythm with my body and set it with the front part of my stroke.

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. COMMON ERRORS This swimmer has her palms facing down on the recovery. She has to lift her arms way up to get her hands out of the water, and this creates a lot of tension in her shoulders. This kind of recovery makes it HARD WORK to swim butterfly. Notice how I keep my palms facing the sky for as long as possible. When my palms are facing UP, my shoulders are more stable. When my palms are facing UP, my arms stay more relaxed on the recovery, and I save energy. Let’s take a look at the recovery from the front. When my palms are facing UP, my recovery stays low and balanced. One way to practice a palm-up recovery is with single-arm drills. Keep one arm out in front, and set up a rhythm with your body as you swim butterfly with the other arm. Remember to take two kicks per stroke. COMMON ERRORS This swimmer is doing a one-arm drill, but it looks more like freestyle than butterfly. She’s not using her whole body. She’s kicking just with her legs. See how the knees are bent? Keep your arm relaxed and low as it sweeps over the water. 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 the next length. Then take two strokes with one arm, two with the other arm, then two strokes of butterfly, focusing on keeping the palms up 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 recover your arms.