Swimming Butterfly - 3 Easy Steps
Butterfly has a reputation for being the hardest swimming stroke, but there’s no reason why it can’t be learnt by all ability levels, even beginners. It's often overlooked by most people, who usually favour one or all of the other 3 strokes; backstroke, breaststroke and front crawl.
The benefits of swimming butterfly are huge, it requires a powerful acceleration of the arms which can build strong shoulders and back muscles. The core muscles are constantly engaged to create the 'dolphin like' leg kick.
Butterfly is often over-complicated. The stroke can be simplified by breaking it down into 3 key areas
- The Recovery - as the arms 'fly' over the top of the water
- The Pull - the propulsive underwater arm action
- The kick - a dolphin like, undulation from the hips
Once each part has been practiced, it's just a case of putting all the pieces together and focusing on the timing of the stroke.