This week we are adding in a bit of butterfly to our workouts. Butterfly can also be a great tool to help build strength for freestyle. The most important piece of butterfly is to make sure the timing is correct and realizing that the kick actually is the backbone of the stroke. Focus on your core to start the engagement of the kick, not the hips or knees.

One tool I like to use is super fly (thanks to Rich Axtell coach of Minuteman Masters for teaching me this when I was swimming with him). Super Fly is doing strokes of butterfly off the wall (each and every wall), it can be amended by adding more strokes to make it harder, but 4 strokes short course yards and 6 strokes long course meters is a great starting point.

Warmup

2x
200 swim
100 kick
200 as 25 right arm/25 both arms/25 left arm/25 both arms/50 catch up/50 swim

HR Set

8 x 50 as
2 as 50 build free on :10 rest
2 as 50 strong butterfly kick on :10 rest
2 as 50 build free on :10 rest
2 as 50 free with hard dolphin kicks off the wall on :10 rest

Main Set

1-2 rounds of:
200 as super fly on :10 rest
4 x 50 as 3 strokes right arm/3 strokes left arm/3 strokes both arms on :10 rest
100 butterfly kick on your back – focus on full body movement from the core all the way down to the toes – the butterfly kick is a lick cracking a whip
2 x 100 gentle aerobic build freestyle on :10 rest
4 x 50 as 25 choice of drill (butterfly or freestyle)/ 25 swim on :10 rest

Warm Down

100 kick
200 choice