How to Do a Perfect Butterfly Turn – A Complete Guide
Mastering a butterfly turn is essential for maximizing speed and efficiency in your race. While a powerful stroke is key, starts and turns play a critical role in ensuring a smooth and fast performance. In this video, Kaylee from MySwimPro breaks down the fundamental techniques for executing a perfect butterfly turn, including proper hand placement, body positioning, and streamlining.
Key Takeaways:
• Perfecting Your Start: Lean forward, grip the block firmly, and explode into the water to maintain momentum.
• Underwater Dolphin Kick: Maintain a tight streamline and take 3-4 powerful kicks before surfacing.
• Executing a Fast Turn: Always touch with two hands, keep your body low, and push off efficiently like a trampoline.
• Nailing the Finish: Time your strokes to hit the wall with full extension and speed, keeping your head down.
Watch the full video to refine your butterfly start, turns, and finish and take your race to the next level! 🏊♂️💨
Core Points
Butterfly Start Technique: The key to a successful butterfly start involves leaning forward to maximize propulsion when diving off the block. Leaning back is often a mistake as it only increases the distance that a swimmer has to travel through the air before entering the water.
Foot Placement on the Block: Swimmers can choose to have both feet on the block or stagger one foot behind to facilitate a stronger push off. The primary goal is to generate explosive energy as they dive into the water.
Underwater Dolphin Kick: An important aspect of butterfly swimming is using the underwater dolphin kick effectively. After diving, swimmers should perform three or four dolphin kicks in a streamlined position before surfacing to start their butterfly strokes.
Maintaining Streamlined Position: It is crucial for swimmers to keep their arms together and streamline their bodies after diving into the pool to minimize drag. Any spreading of arms will lead to resistance that slows them down, detracting from the advantage gained from a strong dive.
Strokes Before Breath: After surfacing, swimmers should aim to take two full strokes before breathing. This practice helps maintain speed and proper body position in the water.
Butterfly Turn Fundamentals: When approaching the wall for a turn, swimmers must touch with both hands to avoid disqualification. Engaging the wall should be smooth and swift, likened to bouncing off a trampoline to facilitate a quick transition back into the water.
Finishing Technique: Timing and positioning are crucial for finishing a butterfly swim. Swimmers must count their strokes leading up to the wall to ensure they can finish with arms stretched out and head down, enhancing forward momentum.
Workout Focus on Turns: A specific training drill can enhance reaction times and improve turn execution. Swimmers should practice staying low to the water during turns to facilitate a fast return to swimming.
Practical Drill for Arms and Body Positioning: A mnemonic—“elbow your brother and call your mother”—helps swimmers remember the arm positioning during turns. This drill encourages swimmers to keep their arms close to their bodies and streamline into the water after the turn.
Practice Locations: Swimmers are encouraged to practice turns both at the wall and in the middle of the pool to refine their technique and identify areas where they may be creating unnecessary drag.
Key Conclusions
Efficiency Through Technique: Mastering the specific techniques for starts, strokes, and turns significantly impacts a swimmer’s performance in the butterfly race. A focus on efficient movement can reduce the overall time needed to complete races.
Importance of Streamlining: Streamlining is a fundamental skill in butterfly swimming. The more efficiently a swimmer can position their body, particularly after starts and turns, the faster they can swim through the water.
Athletic Preparation: Preparing for swimming events requires practice and understanding of various aspects, from starts to finishes, to ensure that swimmers can execute their skills under competitive conditions.
Monitoring Progress: Swimmers should track their progress through workouts and drills, ensuring they are working on their weaknesses and fine-tuning their skills continuously.
Continuous Learning: Engaging with instructional materials, such as videos and apps specialized for swimmers, helps individuals at all skill levels to improve their technique and maintain motivation.
Community Engagement: Participating in discussions or providing feedback on swimming platforms can enrich the learning experience, allowing swimmers to benefit from shared insights and experiences.
Focus on Speed Maintenance: Throughout a butterfly race, swimmers need to proactively work on maintaining speed, especially during the latter parts when fatigue can affect performance.
Conclusion of Training: Successful completion of butterfly swimming also depends on maintaining discipline during practice, ensuring every individual drill reinforces necessary skills for competition.
Focus on Mindset: Maintaining a positive and motivated mindset is crucial for swimmers to push through challenges and improve their performances systematically.
Encouragement of Skill Proficiency: The integration of skills learned in practice into competitive settings is emphasized as crucial for developing proficient swimmers.
Important Details
Detailed Instructions on Starts: Divers should aim to explode off the block while holding tightly for leverage, which enhances their power upon entry into the water.
Physical Strategy: Swimmers should keep their legs together tightly and squeeze their ears on entry to create the least amount of water resistance possible.
Underwater Strategy: Using the underwater dolphin kick effectively allows swimmers to maintain momentum before transitioning into the butterfly.
Post-Dive Breathing: Swimmers are advised against taking a breath immediately after surfacing, as this can slow them down; instead, focusing on their stroke rhythm is crucial.
Turn Execution: Practicing turn techniques regularly helps swimmers develop quick reflexes while ensuring compliance with competitive standards.
Stroke Counting: Swimmers should develop a habit of counting strokes leading to the wall to ensure optimal positioning for finishing their race.
Finishing Technique: Ensuring the arms are out in front and the head remains down during the final touch can significantly affect overall race timing.
Drills for Practice: Detailed drills to practice including emphasizing low body positioning and proper arm movement when turning can vastly improve swiftness in transitions.
Learning from Mistakes: Handling mistakes such as incorrect touch or poor posture during turns is crucial for development and should be viewed as an opportunity for growth.
Resource Utilization: Swimmers are encouraged to utilize digital resources like the training app mentioned, which provides personalized workouts suited to enhance individual capabilities.
