Here are two common facts about the butterfly stroke:
It is the most taxing of the four competitive strokes,
and it is nearly impossible to swim slowly at the regular cadence.
I have two reasons why every swimmer, even triathletes, should master the butterfly: It is really cool to swim well, and swimming it well improves your freestyle (and even breaststroke).
This post is not about how to learn the butterfly—that’s a whole other journey. I want to address those swimmers who are coming to the sport later, who maybe have had some instruction in butterfly but struggle when practice calls for it. If you learned the stroke in age group years, you should be able to manage once again with some conditioning, training and drills.
Over 70 years old and regularly compete in butterfly events, even 200m/yd butterfly, even long course. Besides being old, I’m carrying around an extra 30 pounds. The secret to my success is what I call Old Guy Butterfly, aka Triple-kick Butterfly, aka Survival Fly. It’s understood to be a drill, but you can swim it legally in competition, and you’ll see it often at Masters swims, especially us old guys..
Normal butterfly consists of two kicks for each cycle. As the name Triple-kick Butterfly implies, this method uses three (or four) kicks per stroke cycle. It’s not as fast, but you make swimming butterfly for an extended period of time manageable, even for a 200.
Start with a normal pull-out and butterfly stroke, but as you recover hold your arms out in front and add one (or two) kicks in that position. Then pull underwater, recover and hold the position again. Once you master this, you can swim greater distances in butterfly without becoming completely exhausted.
Final note on butterfly: If you find your stroke falling apart at the end of a length or set, don’t keep swimming. Trying to manage a broken butterfly doesn’t help you get better. Revert to freestyle, or a 1-arm drill, or transfer to Old Guy Fly.
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