When developing butterfly, flotation aids and other equipment should not be used as they prevent the natural wave action of the body and can strain the back muscles.

The following tables identify some progressive activities to develop the components of butterfly (legs, arms, breathing & timing).

bUTTERFLY bODY & lEG aCTION

ACTIVITIES
  • Moving the body in a wave like action whilst standing, aiming to push a floating object as far as possible.
  • Moving over and under noodles.
  • From a push and glide position on the back, body movement with arms held straight by the sides of the body.
  • Push and glide underwater and perform the body movement through a sunken hoop.
TEACHING POINTS
  • Legs together.
  • Flick your feet.
  • Body moves like a wave.
CONSIDERATIONS
  • Spending sufficient time on developing the correct body movement will help to support the rest of the stroke later on.
  • ​The movement of the body is paramount and the leg action should compliment this.
  • Ensure participants keep their arms above their heads, in line with shoulders when jumping over objects and moving underwater.
  • Keeping the distance short is important to start with, then slowly building the distance to help ensure the quality of the body and leg action is maintained.

BUTTERFLY ARM ACTION

ACTIVITIES
  • Standing in shallow water, carrying out the arm action (this could be completed on poolside).
  • ​Walking in shallow water, performing the butterfly arm action.
  • From a push and glide position, one full stroke cycle, gradually adding the number of cycles.
TEACHING POINTS
  • Straight arm.
  • Arm passes close to the ear.
  • Little finger enters first.
  • Head stays still.
CONSIDERATIONS​
  • Participants should be encouraged to place their faces in the water.
  • Keeping the time/distance short to start with will prevent the participants from needing to breathe and therefore help to ensure the quality of the arm action.
  • Repeating activities and slowly building the distance travelled will ensure the quality of the arm action is maintained.

Butterfly BREATHING

ACTIVITIES​
  • Standing in shallow water, perform the arm and breathing action.
  • Walking in shallow water, perform the arm and breathing action.
  • From a push and glide position, full stroke introducing one breathing cycle.
  • From a push and glide position, full stroke introducing a breath on alternative cycles.
TEACHING POINTS
  • Raise your head as the hands push to your hips.
  • Keep chin in the water.
  • Return your head straight after taking a breath.
CONSIDERATIONS
  • Repeating activities and slowly building the distance travelled and number of breaths to be taken will ensure the quality of the breathing action is maintained.
  • ​Participants should experience a variety of breathing patterns in order to find out which one best suits them.

BUTTERFLY Timing

ACTIVITIES​​
  • From a push and glide position, carry out full stroke butterfly (breathing every arm action).
  • From a push and glide position, full stroke butterfly and experiment with different breathing patterns.
TEACHING POINTS
  • Maintain a continuous leg kick.
  • Maintain a continuous arm action.
  • Kick your arms in and kick your arms out.
  • ​Maintain a regular breathing pattern.
CONSIDERATIONS
  • Slowly building the distance travelled will ensure the quality of the stroke is maintained.

Back Crawl

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