Set Of The Week: Warming Up Butterfly

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Welcome to Swimming World’s Set of the Week! This week’s set is a warm-up set for butterfly that is perfect for getting your athletes settled into their strokes. This set should be done after about 1000 yards of warm-up as a transition into your main set. Take a look at the set below and the description that follows:

4 x 100 as 25 fly kick – 50 front scull – 25 swim on 1:45

8 x 25’s butterfly drill on :30

#1-2: 3 R, 3 L, 3 full

#3-4: 2 R, 2 L, 2 full

#5-6: 1 R, 1 L, 1 full

#7-8: full stroke, drive forward

4 x 50’s butterfly descend 1-4 on 1:00

#1: drill

#2: drill/swim

#3: build

#4: fast

This set begins with 4 x 100’s that mix together kick, scull, and swim to let your swimmers check into their body position and wake up the front and back ends of their stroke. Again, this set should be coming right after a good 1000 of warm up, so your encourage your athletes to get up and moving to start getting settled into their strokes.

The 8 x 25’s that follow are all butterfly drill, and follow a single arm progression that is meant to get your swimmers driving forward in their butterfly (as opposed to up and down) while also helping them build into a consistent stroke tempo. When completing the single arm portions of the drill, make sure your swimmers have one arm in front to help balance but also to help establish a long body position that is focused on driving forward. As swimmers move from the 3 R, 3 L, 3 full drill down to 1 R, 1 L, 1 full drill their tempo should naturally increase as their switching between strokes faster.

The set ends with 4 x 50’s building into some fast butterfly, starting with their choice of drill and ending with a full 50 fast. Again the point of this set is to get your swimmers totally settled into their fly stroke so they be ready to go for the upcoming main set. Make sure they are focused on driving forward in their strokes, keeping their hips high and using their whole body to maintain consistent and efficient butterfly. Happy swimming!

All swimming and dryland training and instruction should be performed under the supervision of a qualified coach or instructor, and in circumstances that ensure the safety of participants.

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