No. Every swimmer knows that the butterfly never gets easy. But it does get less hard. And, apparently, more popular. Wall Street Journal writer and fitness swimmer Kevin Helliker reports that "in an age of ultramarathons, Ironman triathlons and crowds chugging up
Mount Everest, long-distance butterfly swimming is becoming a new and
less-crowded frontier for fitness fanatics.It's also hugely advantageous, because fly swimming, as it's known,
requires enormous strengthening of every muscle in the body,
particularly the core muscles in the abdomen and back."
How hard is it to make the butterfly less hard? Read Helliker's piece here, or watch the video below.
he is doing butterfly kick with a break stroke legs… that’s not butterfly.. it’s not only a DQ in high schools but US Swimming. An 8 and under would get disqualified for doing that..
Although I understand, as a former competitive swimmer, why he altered the form of the butterfly, what he is doing only vagely resembles the stroke I well remember and actually enjoyed during my competitve days.
His broken rhythm appears to make the stroke much more difficult and tiresome. He was not using the doubled kick to propel himself and his armstroke appeared so weak as to be worthless.
You should not have to prepare yourself for one hour of swimming with two hours of progress weight resistant training in the gym however, if he lifts the way he swims he might want to find a “coach” or personal trainer for both activities.
Simply put, I am not and was not impressed. I will keep swimming butterfly in the smooth manner that I was taught to swim the same which is a good enough exercise for me.
…but breaststoke kick is legal in US Masters competition.
Nothing new here! Back in the Eighties, two friends of mine, ientical twins, Jonathan and James DiDonato, the “Tiger Twins”, almost swam from the Bahamas to South FLorida doing the Butterfly. They had to abandon their attempt at 40+ miles because of unfavorable currents. They were also able to swim around Manhattan a few years before that (27+ miles.) An article about long distance Butterfly without mentioning them makes me wonder!!