Welcome Back! Today, we are going to discuss something that’s not often talked about within Butterfly Races: Butterfly Breakouts! As a Butterflier myself, I have a special place in my heart for this stroke and this is an area that I struggled with as an athlete. I want to digest what I have learned from my own swimming days to now, how I coach to get your athletes faster in the pool. Let’s get started!
What is a Butterfly Breakout?
The breakout of any stroke is the point at which a swimmer is transitioning from being under the water to over. It’s super important that swimmers try to optimize their breakout point, by attempting to breakout before they hit the same speed underwater – as they would swim on the surface. It’s important to note that anytime swimmers push off a wall or go from the blocks, they speed they create is higher than their surface speed. Couple that a few Dolphin or Flutter Kicks and/or a Breaststroke Pullout and now – we’re talking about trying to maintain that higher speed for a bit longer. Hopefully though, it is not too long – otherwise, swimmers could be underwater swimming SLOWER than they do on the surface. Definitely not an ideal scenario.
It’s also important to note that the breakout happens in conjunction with the first pull, which is actually the strongest pull of any given lap. We already wrote a blog discussing this entirely, so if you’re looking to better understand why – click here.
What Does All This Mean?
That it is important for Butterfliers to figure out their optimum breakout point AND use that first pull to their advantage to get themselves FLYING onto the surface (pun intended). So how exactly do you do that? Watch the video below:
As the video states, the easiest way to know whether your swimmers are kicking both their first and second kicks on their Butterfly breakouts is to record them on video. I often find the swimmers who struggle with hitting that second kick – don’t feel they are not doing it. Also, there is a lot of different variations in knee bend on that second kick seen too.
With having a video to review with your swimmer, it will help you see whether a second kick is actually happening and how much knee bend they do or do not have.
We have dissected on our blog before that the second kick in EVERY Butterfly stroke is super important – so be sure to coach your swimmers to not miss this initial one every lap.
Until Next Time,
Abbie Fish
One Response
Excellent 👋👋👋