How do you build endurance for butterfly swimming?

I run but mostly swim almost everyday for an hour, use a drag suit, and have trained with paddles and fins. I just recently began to swim competitively for my high school and am wondering how to do the butterfly for a 100 yard race? I've got the style in my muscle memory and the kick. My stroke's good but I get way too tired, especially off the turns. For some reason, slowing down and then having to kick underwater 9 times without oxygen burns me out. Help! Also, do push-ups or crunches help?|||butterfly is one of those most demanding strokes next to... believe or not breast stroke. fly is a short axis stroke meaning it requires you to use your core which is one of the main body parts you need for swimming.





to swim fly you need broad shoulders, long arms, small legs, strong core, strong will, and amazing technique. if your not blessed with these gifts you can learn to compensate. for the most part i would recommend more swimming, in general. if you're practicing an hour a day you're missing out on great opportunities.





swimming doesn't mean that because you use certain things you'll get faster. fliers have to understand how to grip the water and how to move quickly while doing so. when you swim fly you should be taking two kicks per one stroke, the best way is one strong kick when your hands enter and one when your hands are pulling down at about your ab level you do this to provide constant movement with your kick. as for your hips they should be coming out of the water, but naturally, as part of an undulating movement of the body that starts with the abs and goes down the the feet. let your hips drop but not to far and keep your legs going no matter how tiring a race can get. most importantly get a complete stroke every time that reaches out, although extremely tiring and difficult to do when you start to fade it teaches you endurance, commitment and builds shoulder strength. i can't completely describe butterfly to you as it should feel because 1) i don't know it perfectly yet and 2) you need to feel somethings for yourself





there are things i could type over the internet, like drills, to help you with your fly but unless someone was there to tell you you were doing it right or wrong it wouldn't be much help. in the long run keep the arms long and feel smooth. not too much undulation but make sure its there. fast turns!!! if you slow down your stroke falls apart. don't underwater kick unless you know how it'll affect your race, start with a decent number of dolphin kicks at the beginning of the race and adjust as your body needs oxygen. breathe! every other or every other two your body need the oxygen for a race like that.





for training like i said the most you can do is increase the time in the pool. but to improve what you already do, make sure you get full reaches on your arms without disturbing your stroke. swim lots of endurance freestyle to familiarize yourself with the discomfort of a hard race. get every chance to do fly when your coach offers your group "stroke". talk to your coach about your problem too, no one knows better than him/her cause i can't really offer good advice over the internet w/o seeing your fly and the improvements you make over time.





get some abs in and develops shoulder back and tricep muscles. work hard and keep up the good work. keep committed and especially with butterfly know the difference between discomfort and pain, because that will change how you do and how much you can do of fly|||if 100s are tiring for you, start with 25s. after those seem super easy go to 50s. when you are comfortable to go 75s and etc. crunches and push ups can help but dont go crazy because your muscles will hurt. even though you are swimming butterfly, do some freestyle because butterfly is really tiring. (i would know. my coach makes me swim 500 butterflys almost every monday :( ) so keep practicing and u will get better. i did this and it helped because even though my best event is butterfly, in practice i can barely swim a 50 fly without feeling tired but in a meet i somehow have more endurence. so in your meet u will probably have more endurence with swimming|||Okay im a butterfly swimmer for a really tough coach.





we first began with a set of really fast 25s with fins (kicking underwater as far as possible





then we did sets of butterfly kicks with kickboards and fins but these were 200s alternating on your stomach and on your back. about 10 of them - these are a lot of fun!!!





then we did sets of 50 sprints butterfly with fins.


these were on about 50 seconds b/c we diddnt use fins





then we did 4 200 flys with fins


this helped me out alot|||When I was in high school, our coach would make us do like 4 sets of 25 push-ups and sit-ups before practice just to like warm up, he didn't want us to get all tired before getting in. That will strengthen your core. I swam the 100 yd fly every single meet and it was a b*$%h to swim. My suggestion is to build up endurance by doing drills: a one arm fly, kicking, etc. Reverse IM sets and pyramid sets (where you start out slow and then ascend in speed) are good too. My coach told me that in a 100 fly race you have to make sure your butt comes up (should be able to see it above the water) as your arms come down and pull, that will naturally give you more of a flow. This is what I used to do, I would go like at 70% of my max. speed for the first 25 yds, then I would increase that, if you start out by sprinting 100% suring the first 25, you'll be dead during the last one. Well, you don't have to kick 9 times, that depends on the swimmer and how powerful your kick because if your kick is pretty good you should keep it longer underwater, if not only take it as fas as you think your streamline aloows you to. What is your breathing pattern? that may be causing the extreme fatigue also. It's up to you, but in my case I founf that breathing every other stroke was best for me so I could keep my speed and stamina, some people take two, some breathe every stroke. You won't get disqualified for your breathign pattern, just make sure you do the turns right. Hope it helps, you're lucky im sitting here at school really bored.