Week 3 Drill of the Week: Single-Arm Butterfly

Hello Swim Families!

Single-arm butterfly is Coach Reid’s single-most favorite drill of all time. This drill literally fixed my butterfly. Between the ages of 14 and 15 I swam thousands of laps of this drill.

It works.

Here’s why.

Often, swimmers get stuck at the end of their stroke cycle, meaning, as their hands are passing their hips they stall and therefore greatly slow their forward progression. A snap of the head sharply downward and forward as the arms are coming over during the recovery also helps dramatically in this respect--it generates momentum to help the arms get over the water with much less effort than just "muscling through" the recovery; however, it is important to note that in single-arm butterfly, swimmers’ breath to the side while keeping the arm they are not using out in front for balance.

In normal butterfly, swimmers breathe to the front. Side-breathing is a technical aspect that can be used to great effect in butterfly, but it’s not for everybody—we only teach it on a case-by-case basis.

If there’s one phrase to take away from single-arm butterfly, it’s this:

Hips up before hands enter!

That means also getting the face back in the water—via a sharp snap of the head, led by the chin—just as the hands exit the water, initiating the recovery of the stroke (the portion where the arms move forward).

We will do this drill a lot this summer… next fall… next spring… next summer. This is one of the Marlins’ foundational drills. Expect to see a lot of it—because, despite or perhaps because of its simplicity—it is one of if not the best butterfly drill.

See you at the pool!

-Coach Reid