How To Swim Butterfly Stroke

Learning how to swim butterfly stroke can be complicated. It is one of the most difficult swimming strokes to learn and it takes time to get the timing right. You may want to practice the arm and leg movements separately and then look to put them together after you have both of them down.

1. Make sure you have the right equipment. Because of the complicated nature of the butterfly stroke, you may need some equipment to help you single out the arms or legs to practice with. If you have a kickboard, that will help you be able to practice the kick. If you have the leg floats, you will be able to put on in between your knees to keep your body afloat while you work on your arms.
2. Get in the pool and get warmed up. Before you start working on how to swim butterfly stroke, you wan to swim at least a few laps freestyle or with the breaststroke. This gets your blood flowing and prepares your body to get moving on something new.
3. Start with the legs. Out of the two parts of the butterfly stroke, the leg kicks are more simple. You are going to keep your legs together and bending at the knees, kick up and down. Many people refer to this as the dolphin kick because it does resemble what it looks like to see a dolphin swimming, using its tail. The motion begins as high up as the waist.
4. Stand in the water, leaning over slightly so that your arms are outstretched above the surface of the water. Begin with your arms out to either side of you, with your palms facing in front of you. You are going to reach them out (like you are doing a shoulder roll) and over your head like you are diving in.
5. Your head goes into the water. At the same time as your arms enter the water, you are going to move them into a circle under the water towards your body. Then, when they reach your body, you are going to move them back out of the water, to the position that you originally started. It is at the point that your head will come out of the water for you to get a breath for the butterfly stroke.
6. Now comes the timing. Arms go in and pull the water towards you. Kick your legs and as you do, your head, upper body, and arms come out of the water. As you put them back in, kick again. This can be a real challenge and it will take time to get it all together for the butterfly stroke.

Knowing how to swim butterfly stroke is difficult, but stick with it until you are comfortable with swimming several laps this way.