Teaching Butterfly 1 Guy Edson American Swimming Coaches Association Current coach of really challenged swimmers Former Complicator of strokes Former Creator of the Fonzi Butterfly Notice the Title, please Just 4 Big Points 2 POINT ONE Your job is to teach them to swim LESS butterfly. Point TWO Do Not Overcomplicate The Stroke Point THREE Do not incorporate the kick into the beginning of the full stroke progression Point FOUR Get them off the blocks and half way down the pool in 3 strokes POINT ONE 3 Establish Alignment And Balance And A Stabilizing Kick At The Beginning Of Every Swim/Drill. Why? Presentation 1
4 Benny Neilson Olympic Bronze Medalist and classic butterfly Misty Hyman Gold Medalist 5 Phelps 6 6 Presentation 2
Vivid Imagery 7 A Squashed Raisin Or a Watermelon What Happened to the Raisin? 8 Good Age Group Butterfly 9 Presentation 3
10 For those of us who do not have Phelps to Coach What are the differences between Little Miss Top 10, and Neilson, and Hyman, and Phelps? They have more in common -- Basics is Basics Basic Butterfly: What to Look For 11 Set up hands enter outside the shoulders Stroke width and pattern matches athlete s swimming strength Modern Stroke pattern is drag oriented with a slight taper inward fingers forward, fingers back Chest down, hips up Continued next slide Basic Butterfly: What to Look For 12 Head out before the hands, in before the entry End of stroke rounded out for novice kick hands in, Kick hands out (kick in, kick out) Little finger first on recovery Minimal splash Chin plowing the water Breathing every other stroke for most Presentation 4
Butterfly is a Body Stroke 13 If there is not enough stretch at the end/beginning of the stroke In other words, the swimmer just pulls, pulls, pulls Then there isn t enough time for the body to be involved and the stroke becomes arm dominated AND UPHILL ONLY If there is too much stretch then swimmers tend to kick, kick-pull with the hands out front and the stroke becomes legs/kick dominated. Body Driven Chest Down, Hips Up 14 15 Butterfly Key words Out before, in before Hinge your head Your Head DIAPPEARS and your hips APPEAR (pretend you breathe through your butt - JL) The chest goes down, the hips go up Chest before the hands Fingers forward, fingers back As the hands go in the hips go up Kick in, kick out Presentation 5
Vivid Imagery 16 On the breath you exxxxtendddd your neck like a giraffe Vivid Imagery Part 2 17 After the breath you bring your head in like a turtle. Giraffe, Turtle Giraffe, Turtle 18 Presentation 6
Quiz 19 Just 4 things and you get it all. What was number 1? Your job is to teach them to swim LESS butterfly. Butterfly science 20 Flatter is faster Splash equals slow Speaking of Science 21 Einstein said, Make everything as simple as possible, but not any simpler. Therefore (next slide) Presentation 7
22 Point TWO Do Not Overcomplicate The Stroke Do not overload the swimmer Do not ask the novice swimmer to swim with an advanced stroke pattern Do NOT be like Mike You may end up with Fonzi Butterfly! The Result of Information Overload 23 Fonzi Butterfly Butterfly is 24 SIMPLE Presentation 8
4/20/2017 Teaching Butterfly: the fine print 25 This progression violates all known swimming principles This progression gives Terry Laughlin heartburn. This progression leaves Bill Boomer speechless. But Bill Sweetenham likes it. And for me it works. So I humbly present this as a suggestion. Teaching Strategies 26 There is no straight line progression Teach all kinds of dolphin kicking all the time Teach the timing first with basic arms Kick If you ve done the timing and the body position, the legs will be there. Teach more advanced arms later Let Talk about Kicking 27 All ways, all the time Starting with wigglers, building to holding the line examples next Presentation 9
Butterfly Kick wigglers 28 Butterfly Kick, Wigglers 29 Fish on Vacation 30 Presentation 10
Fish on Vacation 31 Fish on Vacation with Fins 32 Kick with Board, head down 33 Presentation 11
Kicking on middle of board 34 Kicking on middle of board 35 Kicking on top of the board 36 Presentation 12
Kicking on top of the board 37 Quiz 38 What are points 1 and 2 of 4? 1. Teach them to swim LESS butterfly 2. Do not overcomplicate the stroke 3. 4. Point THREE 39 Do not incorporate the kick into the beginning of the full stroke progression Presentation 13
40 Timing Progression Keep it Simple! 1. "pull up, stop" just once 2. pull up, stop 3 times 3. pull up, dive 3 times Pull Up, Stop 41 Pull Up, Stop 42 Presentation 14
Pull Up Stop, 3 times 43 Pull up Stop, 3 times, sorta 44 Pull Up, Stop, 3 times 45 Presentation 15
Pull Up, Stop, 3 times 46 Interspersed with Water Time 47 Do Lots of On Deck Drills with Arm Strokes, Recovery (especially little finger forward), and Timing. Deck Practice 48 Presentation 16
Deck Practice 49 Sweeping Behind 50 Pull Up, Dive 3 Times 51 Presentation 17
52 And for the boys Pull Up, Duck (under the lane line) And during all this.. 53 Work on all types of dolphin kicking. But. Do not introduce kicking as part of the whole stroke too early. Make it Stick 54 1. Teach them to swim less butterfly 2. Don t over complicate the stroke 3. Do not introduce kicking as part of the whole stroke too early. Presentation 18
Next Step in the Progression 55 One arm fly - chest before the hands, Key words Kick hands in, kick hands out, Kick in, kick out head comes out before the hands, in before Out before, in before Fly: Chest before the hands 56 Butterfly is a 57 Stroke of the mind Presentation 19
Drills 58 Click to add text Point FOUR 59 Get them off the blocks and half way down the pool in 3 strokes (See Point Number ONE) Fly from Dive, Well sorta 60 Presentation 20
Fly from Dive, Well sorta 61 Fly from Dive 62 Fly From Dive 63 Presentation 21
Let s Review the Progression 64 1. All kinds of kicking all the time 2. They repeat the key words all the time 3. On the deck arms 4. Floating to pull up, stop 5. pull up, stop x 3 6. pull up dive x 3 7. One arm fly, 12 ½ s to 50 s 8. Half way down the pool in 3 strokes or less 9. Olympic Trials cuts Teaching Butterfly is 65 A PIECE OF CAKE Thanks! Presentation 22