When teaching butterfly it is best to focus on isolating arm and leg movements. This is before utilising a number of butterfly stroke drills when it comes to learning the butterfly stroke. Here, we discuss ways to develop the correct full butterfly stroke.
The first Olympic 200 meters butterfly gold medal on record was won by William Yorzyk of USA in 2 minutes 19.3 seconds at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. Japanese swimmer Takashi Ishimoto was second. In the women’s event, the first Olympic butterfly race was a 100 meters butterfly won by Shelly Mann in a time of 1 minute 11 seconds at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne Australia.
Learning the Butterfly Stroke
Modern butterfly has come a long way since early butterfly was with a breaststroke kick. Butterfly swimming is the hardest stroke to swim over long distances as it requires rhythm, strength and endurance. The most important element in teaching butterfly is to first establish the dolphin rhythm. There are a number of ways to teach beginner swimmers this butterfly rhythm so that the double dolphin action used in modern butterfly swimming becomes automatic and ingrained into the stroke.
The Laurie Lawrence method of teaching butterfly focuses on isolating arm and leg movements before utilising a number of butterfly stroke drills to develop the correct full stroke butterfly.
Learning to Swim as a Positive Experience
There are a number of skills that you need to understand and learn how to teach important elements of the learn to swim process, even if you are a parent.
Here are 7 important skills that you need to learn to help your child;
- Teaching young children butterfly,
- Butterfly Kicks,
- Butterfly Arms,
- Importance of Butterfly drills,
- Getting the rhythm right,
- Full stroke breathing Butterfly,
- Building endurance,
Now take a look at this short video to give you an overview of what you need to know
Well done, that is the first step to having better preparation and equipped with the knowledge and skills to assist your little one through to becoming a confident and happy little swimmer.
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