The butterfly is the most complicated stroke to swim properly, because it requires more stamina, greater flexible strength and better coordination.
The first two are more closely interrelated for swimming the stroke properly, so let’s see why.
One of the most common mistakes when swimming this style, and something that certainly makes it harder to swim for a long time without stopping, is the lack of a leg kick during the arm stroke.
As we have seen, there are two leg kicks but most people learning this stroke only make one. This makes swimming the butterfly more tiring and less efficient.
The first leg kick, performed just as your hands enter the water, is the shorter and less powerful of the two.
At this point your speed is at its lowest, because your hands slow down your body’s forward motion as they enter the water; here the leg kick cancels out the braking effect of your arms and raises your hips, so that you can pull properly with your hands (fig.1)
fig 1
The second leg kick, performed as you complete the pull phase, is longer and more powerful than the first and helps push up your hips that have been “pushed down” by the movement of your arms (fig. 2).
fig. 2
This extremely long and energetic gesture, combined with the final part of…
