Butterfly : Fastest Yet hardest Swimming Stroke
Here is how the butterfly stroke compares with 2 other FINA-regulated swimming styles re their individual top speeds : butterfly – 2.18 meters per second backstroke – 2.04 meters per second breaststroke – 1.84 meters per second Another point of comparison between the butterfly and the other swimming styles is the degree of difficulty at which each is performed. For instance, the backstroke and breaststroke styles can be performed with relative ease even with an imperfect technique. But the same cannot be expounded of the butterfly, which needs exemplary system.
Noobs swear that butterfly is extremely tricky to learn, and expert swimmers and swimming coaches agree it is the most tough swimming stroke indeed. The style involves swimming on the breast while pulling and pushing both arms at “exactly” the same time. Note the focus on the word precisely ; the technique is regarded poor if the arms aren’t moving completely in unison. Swimmers are unanimous in exclaiming the problem in the butterfly style lies in the recovery phase, when all the obligatory over-water moves need to be done synchronously. This indicates that in that single motion, the swimmer has to take a fast breath while at the same time lifting out of the water entirely his head, arms, shoulders, and part of his chest. A defective system will not be overwhelmed by the swimmer’s only physical strength.
Also during competition, the butterfly swimmer isn’t permitted to swim underwater, except for the 1st stroke after the start ( in which the swimmer is authorized up to fifteen meters of swimming underwater before his head breaks the surface ) and after each turn. Another distinguishing feature of the stroke is the kick accompanying it – the dolphin kick. Here, the legs also move in unison, using a totally different set of muscles : a forceful up and down kick brings the shoulders above the surface, while the reverse of this kick sequence brings the shoulders back under the surface. Though the butterfly swimming stroke is understood to have once been employed in a contest for the 1st time in 1933, the dolphin kick was only developed 2 years after. The combined windmill-like movement of the arms and the fishtail-like kicks are the keys to the development of this very fast, albeit quite troublesome, swimming style.