Butterfly Body Position Drills

Ball Float 

Establishing a great body position starts with the understanding how your lungs support you in the water. The air in your lungs allows you to float, and floating is the foundation of an effective body position for butterfly.  

To do ball float, take a deep breath and then grab your knees and allow yourself to settle in the water. You should be able to float at or near the surface of the water with no effort. Feel the support of your lungs holding you at the surface. 

Aqua Jumping Jacks 

Once you can feel the support of your lungs in the water, learn to use that flotation to improve your position and control that position while your limbs are moving.  

To do aqua jumping jacks, start in ball float. Once you settle in the water, extend your arms and legs straight. Then move them up and down on the surface of the water, just as you would do a jumping jack on land. Do as many repetitions as you can before needing to breathe. To increase the challenge, perform very fast and very slow motions. 

Skate Drill 

Skate drill can be used for multiple purposes, including to improve your breath and maintain a great body position throughout your breath while swimming butterfly. 

To do this drill, start with your arms straight out in front. Do a quick kick as you begin your pull. As you get into your pull, start your breath and try to skate your chin forward at the surface. The goal is to avoid lifting and disrupting your body position. Stay as low as you can while breathing comfortably. 

One-Arm Butterfly With Flutter Kick and Nonstroking Arm Extended 

Butterfly can be challenging because you need to undulate to swim well, but too much undulation can slow you down. 

To help you control the amount of undulation you create, do one-arm butterfly with flutter kick and your nonstroking arm extended in front of you. Doing flutter kick instead of butterfly kick and keeping your nonstroking arm in front of you flattens out your body. While doing this drill, keep the remainder of your stroke as much like regular butterfly as possible. 

Doing this drill with one arm makes working through body-position difficulties easier. 

One-Arm Butterfly With Flutter Kick and Nonstroking Arm Down 

One-arm butterfly with flutter kick and nonstroking arm down emphasizes a flatter butterfly by using a flutter kick. But because your nonstroking arm is now by your side, controlling your undulation at the front of your stroke when your hand enters becomes more difficult. 

To do this drill, swim one-arm butterfly with a flutter kick and your nonstroking arm by your side. The goal is to remain as level as possible while doing the drill, using flutter kick to flatten out your stroke. Keep your arm movements as much like butterfly as possible. 

Doing this drill with one arm makes working through body-position difficulties easier. 

One-Arm Butterfly With Nonstroking Arm Extended 

One-arm butterfly with nonstroking arm extended controls how much you undulate. Having one arm forward throughout the drill flattens out your stroke, reinforcing the concept of controlling your undulation and staying level. 

To do this drill, swim one-arm butterfly with your nonstroking arm extended in front of you. The goal is to use your kick to lift your hips in the water while maintaining a level body position. 

Doing this drill with one arm makes working through body-position difficulties easier. 

One-Arm Butterfly With Nonstroking Arm Down 

Doing one-arm butterfly with nonstroking arm down allows you to increase how much you undulate when your stroking arm enters the water.  

To do this drill, swim one-arm butterfly with your nonstroking arm at your side. If you struggle to get your hips up when your stroking arm enters the water, use this opportunity to reestablish a great body position by getting your hips up. If you tend to undulate too much, use this as a challenge to control your undulation. 

Doing this drill with one arm makes working through body-position difficulties easier. 

Alternating Breathing Patterns 

Your breath can cause many problems with your butterfly body position if you breathe at the wrong time or lift your body too high to breathe. The problem is that feeling the impact of your breath can be difficult. 

By swimming butterfly with different breathing patterns (such as every stroke for a while and then breathing as little as possible for a while), understanding the impact of breathing on your body position becomes easier. Feeling that impact makes change easier. 

Butterfly With Flutter Kick 

Butterfly with flutter kick can help you maintain a flatter and tighter body position on the surface. If you have too much up-and-down motion in your stroke, flutter kick will quickly remove it.  

To do this drill, swim butterfly with a flutter kick. Swim with the same rhythm that you would use with a butterfly kick while staying level in the water.  

Head-up Butterfly 

An effective strategy for learning to achieve a great butterfly body position is to do drills that make achieving a great body position harder. Head-up butterfly does that. 

To do this drill, swim butterfly with your head up, maintaining a stable head position out of the water. Doing so pushes your hips down, causing you to develop skills to kick hard and work hard to maintain your body position. When you put your head back down, you can use those skills to establish an even better position, one that will be much easier to maintain.