Butterfly Stroke

Question
My daughter swims for the YMCA, she's a hard working swimmer who has asthma (not severe) who has qualified for districts the past few years.  She's turning 12 and moved up in age group this year.  She's only 1 second off making district time in the 50 Fly and 2 seconds behind in the 50 back but hasn't been able to break that time.  She only has one meet left to make it to districts and she's feeling a bit discouraged.  I know her starts and flips could improve.  She doesn't breath through her flips and only breaths every other stroke.  Her starts could improve.  But any advice you have would be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Hi John,

I can't really give much advice from the information you've provided me but I will try my best. For her flip turns, you can make sure she nails her dolphin kicks in her streamline before she rises up to the water. Try experimenting to see if her times vary from the distances of her streamline. Perhaps she could try resurfacing farther from normal, as that may improve her times slightly. For the 50 Fly event, if she can, she can also alter her breathing to every 3 strokes or however many to lessen the time she resurfaces to breathe. This of course, will have to be experimented with because she will tire much faster with less breaths. Like I mentioned before, the dolphin streamline kicks are very important in every stroke and especially swimming events like the 50 Fly. As for backstroke, if she hasn't learned already, there is a backstroke flip turn that could be implemented to increase speed. That is, to count the number of strokes it takes from the flags to the wall, then flipping on your stomach 1 stroke away from the wall and doing a regular flip turn onto her back. Also make sure she eats healthy and gets enough sleep the days before the meet.

If she is unable to make district times for the 12 year old age group, don't give up, there are still more times to be broken in the higher age groups. Practice makes perfect, and the more time your daughter puts into her training, the more results she will get out of it. If she is serious about competitive swimming, you could always sign her up for an intense swim club that specifically focuses on 2-3 hours of training a day just for these swim meets.

I hope I have helped in the least.