Welcome to the “Drill of the Week” sponsored by The Fitter and Faster Swim Tour presented by Swimoutlet.com. Swimming World will be bringing you a drill, concept, or tip that you can implement with your team on a regular basis. While certain weeks may be more appropriate for specific levels of swimming (club, high school, college, or masters), Drill Of The Week excerpts are meant to be flexible for your needs and inclusive for all levels of swimming.
This week’s drill is a progression of single arm butterfly, one of the most popular and commonly seen butterfly drills. In this drill progression, swimmer’s will move from 3 strokes on each side, to 2 strokes on each side, to just 1 stroke on each side. Check out the video below to see the progression.
This progression can be done in a few different ways. For beginners, it may be helpful to make each stage of the progression a single 25. On the 3 right, 3 left, 3 double progression, focus on a good catch with each stroke, high hips, and a powerful chest press at the end of each stroke. This sets up a good feel for the water and lets your swimmers build into their strokes. As you move toward 2 strokes and 1 stroke on each side, the focus can move more towards high tempo and finding a fluid connection between each movement.
For more advanced swimmers, you can have them adjust the number of strokes they are taking within a single length of the pool. In other words, they would do their first portion as 3 right, 3 left, 3 double, then 2 right, 2 left, 2 double, and finally as 1 right, 1 left, 1 double. This is particularly effective in a long course pool, when there is more room to fully complete the progression within a single length.
Regardless of how you utilize this drill, single arm butterfly is great for all levels of swimmers. It isolates each arm pull to zero in on getting the best catch possible while also working on whole body undulation, high hips, and pressing forward with your chest. It is a great way to find your stroke in warm-up or in the middle of high level aerobic work. Happy swimming!
Lockie Jones