Wednesday Workout

Firmly established as the trickiest stroke for swimmers to conquer, butterfly is commonly saved to learn last. A short axis stroke like breaststroke, butterfly relies on a teeter totter motion between hips and shoulders - the shoulders come up, the hips go down and vice versa. Often one of the biggest issues for young swimmers learning butterfly is their lack of upper body strength to "pull" their bodies out of the water for each stroke and breath. Butterfly, if done right, does not rely as much on upper body strength as it does on core strength. The teeter totter rocking is powered by the core, a core that helps to shoot the shoulders out of the water so that each stroke and breath requires arm strength primarily for the underwater pull (not the recovery).

In case you weren't sure, this Wednesday Workout is a fly day!

500 free warm up

10 x 75 (25 dolphin kick on back, 25 breaststroke, 25 dolphin kick on back)

200 breaststroke easy

10 x 50 fly drill (1 pull, 5 kicks, 1 pull, 4 kicks, 1 pull, 3 kicks, 1 pull, 2 kicks, 1 pull, 2 kicks...until you reach the wall and repeat)

200 breaststroke easy

10 x 25 breaststroke pull (using the pull buoy, allow your legs a slight dolphin kick)

2 x 25 fly sprint (take the least amount of breaths possible)

5 x 25 breaststroke pull and dolphin kick

2 x 25 fly sprint (take the least amount of breaths possible)

300 cool down

* Dolphin kick on the back is an excellent core workout. To really challenge yourself, try kicking in a streamline position on your back.