Taking the same exercise and moving it over onto your stomach, you'll notice that the chest presses down. The hips go up, the knees go down and the feet go up. So there's all these opposing motions, but it starts with a ripple from the chest.

The other important thing to notice is how the head is fairly stationary. If anything, as you press the chest in, the chin can release forward ever so slightly. This is going to make breathing easier on the first series. The swimmer didn't breathe on this next series as she presses in. She's going to lift the chin forward and simply rise up to air. Now, this is all to be done in rhythm. You don't want the rhythm to change when you go to breath.  You’ll notice that she's not using her hands to push herself up to air. This is a reaction of the body rising.

When we think of how the body interacts with the water, we have to understand that the lungs have air, they're buoyant. They want to come up. So as we press them in, we force the hips to go up. Now, the hips are heavy. They want to fall. So by setting up this opposing action of the chest down in the hips up, you almost just have to relax in the next stage to allow the hips to fall and the chest to rise.

So remember, by pressing the chest down, the hips will rise. And then by relaxing, the chest will come up and the hips will fall. This starts the natural movement of the body for butterfly.

Sign In to watch video

Body dolphin on your stomach