Swim Butterfly in WEST Swimming Technique

In Water World in particular, and WEST swimming in general, we believe in matching the swimming style to the person, according to age, gender, flexibility and elasticity level, pain types and more. In the Butterfly Stroke course we take into account the least common denominator to allow learning the Butterfly swimming style the easiest way possible, while applying minimal pressure to the joints and protecting the neck and lower back.

Is this possible? Absolutely! Try and see how easy it is!

Workout set up:

WEST butterfly curriculum is based on a total of 4 workouts; each one consists of 7 different sets which build up the WEST swimming butterfly technique.

Every workout must be completed at exactly 3 times,if you swim 3 times a week, swim 2 times freestyle in order to loosen your shoulders and one time butterfly, if your train 4 times a week? swim 2 times butterfly and 2 times freestyle. The workout has a descending format and combines freestyle drills and stretching in order to allow maximum muscle looseness and lengthening.

Instructions

Swim 4*25 dolphin kick, close to water surface until you run out of air, then go freestyle to complete each 25m. 30 sec break between 25's.

Main Emphasis

We want to use the neck as little as possible as long with elevating and lowering the pelvis.

Procedure

Stand up, take a breath and start a dolphin motion at medium pace on the water surface. Our head dives to about 30 cm below the water surface followed by our body, when the head is up the pelvis is down and vice versa. This way, our legs are dragged with a slight flexion that helps advancing in the water.

Exercise objective

The purpose of this West swimming exercise is to produce gentle wave movements without kicking our legs and allow the pelvic movement to produce advancement while the rest of the body is kept loose. A strong legs kick when the head is up, pelvis is down and legs are up, arches the back too much for those who aren’t flexible. This is why moving the legs strongly at this stage can cause unnecessary strain to the lower back and even injure the back and neck. This exercise is also the basic step in the butterfly stroke.

Instructions

Swim 4*25 underwater kicking + stream line with fins. If you run out of air, go up take one breath and dive back in 0.5m beneath water surface. 45 sec rest between 25's.

Main Emphasis

It's very important to keep your stream line w straight arms, keeping in mind pelvic movement (up and down).

Procedure

Dolphin motion, arms in arrow using fins

We place our arms in an arrow position, upper palm is placed on the lower back hand, and maintain a straight arrow as much as our flexibility allows us. If we are flexible, we will keep our head between our arms and if we are less flexible, we will place our arms below our head while keeping our elbows straight and locked throughout the movement. We do the dolphin motion at medium to high pace and let our body go up and down using the fins to aid the up and down pelvic motion until we run out of air. Our arms are kept in an arrow position throughout the movement.

At this point, we can probably dive through the entire length of a 25 m pool, but if for any reason we ran out of air, we flip on our back as we did in the previous exercises without working our neck, take a breath and dive back in the water.

Exercise objective

To teach us the correct way to leave the wall, how to control the arrow depth relative to the head and how to let the arms lead the movement, instead of the head or neck. Loosening the head when our arms are in arrow position, will lead us to the next exercises without any pressure on our neck or back.

Instructions

20 dolphin kick with shoulder shake up+ standing up. You dolphin kick till you run out of air, then stand up gently, as well as standing up next to each wall.

Main Emphasis

On every down- way kick shake up your shoulders twice, trying to relax the shoulders and neck. Do not use your neck while standing up by the wall.

Procedure

Dolphin with a gentle shoulder shake + flipping & standing with fins

We dolphin swim underwater, in an up and down pelvic motion at about 1/2 m deep underwater. Unlike the regular dolphin motion some of you may know, here we loosen the neck and let our head lead the movement. We use the body to lower the head down, but when going up we try not to work with our legs, but instead slowly shake our shoulders twice. Once we run out of air, we exhale through our nose, flip on our back without working our neck, take a big breath of air and go back to the dolphin motion and shoulders shake, until the end of the pool.

Exercise objective

To produce a dolphin motion, while loosening the neck and back in order to achieve a loose pelvis. The shaking movement will allow you to practice the dolphin motion for a longer period of time, so you can strengthen your abdominal muscles, flex the pelvis and learn West technique butterfly stroke faster and without unnecessary pain.

At this stage it is important not to try to stand with the fins when the head is facing forward, which might produce unnecessary pressure to the back and neck and undo the loosening we've achieved, but instead flip on our back before standing.

Every workout should be practiced 3 times before going on to the next workout, even if you think 2 is enough.

Instructions

Swim 4*50 butterfly/ freestlye one arm pulling, breathing forward every stroke, alternating the arms, and having the non pulling arm extended forward and straight.

Main Emphasis

Procedure

This exercise is similar to the previous one. We dive with our arms in an arrow position using fins, our head is about 1/2 m deep under water, only this time once we started floating and our palms have reached about 20 cm below the water surface, we start pulling with one arm till we end the pull with our hand reaching our thigh, at which point our head should be above water. We breathe the moment we take our head out, recover our arm over the water and while throwing the arm forward, go back to the arrow position and dive back down to the right depth.

Exercise objective

To use the pull in perfect timing in order to lift the head above the water to breathe, without straining our shoulder or neck.

This exercise is an excellent preparation for the butterfly stroke and is very good for butterfly swimmers who suffer shoulder pains or freestyle swimmers who use force when swimming and are not loose enough.

Instructions

Swim 4*100 with fins. 1st 25 butterfly pulling no breathing. 2nd 25 butterfly pulling with breathing every stroke.

50 loose and easy freestyle, up to 12 strokes per lap.

Main Emphasis

Procedure

We dive with our head about 1/2 m deep under water, and contrary to "Arm Butterfly" where we glide in an arrow, here we glide with almost no legwork with our arms straight and open wider than our shoulders width. If we are less flexible, we will open our arms even wider. Once our arms have reached about 20cm below the water surface, we start pulling with both arms till our palms reach our outer thigh, the body rise up and the head is nearly out of the water. Just before the head exits the water, we dive back down to a head depth of about 1/2 m and wait for the glide.

Exercise objective

To prepare us for the pull and strengthen specific muscles without the neck strain resulting from lifting the arms and keeping the head above water. In this exercise we do not practice catching water or pulling, but simply move our arms from the front end to the back.

This exercise is excellent for swimmers who suffer shoulder pains; it strengthens the muscles surrounding the shoulders with the arms remaining under water.

Instructions

Swim 4*100 with fins. 1st 25 butterfly pulling no breathing. 2nd 25 butterfly pulling with breathing every stroke.

50 loose and easy freestyle, up to 12 strokes per lap.

Main Emphasis

Procedure

We dive with our head about 1/2 m deep under water, and contrary to "Arm Butterfly" where we glide in an arrow, here we glide with almost no legwork with our arms straight and open wider than our shoulders width. If we are less flexible, we will open our arms even wider. Once our arms have reached about 20cm below the water surface, we start pulling with both arms till our palms reach our outer thigh, the body rise up and the head is nearly out of the water. Just before the head exits the water, we dive back down to a head depth of about 1/2 m and wait for the glide.

Exercise objective

To prepare us for the pull and strengthen specific muscles without the neck strain resulting from lifting the arms and keeping the head above water. In this exercise we do not practice catching water or pulling, but simply move our arms from the front end to the back.

This exercise is excellent for swimmers who suffer shoulder pains; it strengthens the muscles surrounding the shoulders with the arms remaining under water.

Instructions

Swim 4*100 easy freestyle with no fins. 45 sec break between 100's.

Main Emphasis

Every workout should be practiced exactly 3 times before going on to the next workout, even if you think 2 is enough.

Instructions

Swim 4*25 butterfly with fins. Long, nice and easy butterfly with a 3 sec glide every stroke, but instead of closing your arms, keep them a bit wider than shoulder width.

Main Emphasis

Make sure you dive 0.5m below water surface and start pulling as soon as your arms reach water level (about 20 cm below water level).

Procedure

Having learned the glide, the wave, how to protect the neck and shoulders and use our muscles instead of the lower back and neck, we can move on to the full butterfly style. We start with a slow butterfly swim. We dive forward with our arms a bit wider than our shoulders width, to a head depth of about 1/2 m. Once our palms have reached about 20 cm below the water surface, we start a relatively fast pull while lifting our head to breathe, as we did in the "Butterfly Pull" exercise, only this time, instead of stopping when our thumb reach our thigh, we recover our arms over the water and enter them into the water again open slightly wider than our shoulders width.

Having practiced with fins, we recommend you try swimming without fins. You should know that the transition to swimming without fins can be difficult and frustrating at first, but it's a part of the process and after some practice it all becomes looser and easier.

Exercise objective

To produce the butterfly motion as part of the wave and without straining the shoulders. The slow and deep motion also enable us to swim a greater distance in butterfly and this is why the long butterfly style fits those who are familiar with the style and wish to swim in a long, slow and effortless way.

Every workout should be practiced exactly 3 times before going on to the next workout, even if you think 2 is enough.