FINIS Tip Of The Week: Body Dolphin Progression

BodyDolphin

Welcome to the “FINIS Tip of the Week.” Swimming World will be bringing you a topic that we’ll explore with drills and concepts for you to implement with your team on a regular basis. While certain weeks may be more appropriate for specific levels of swimming (club, high school, college, or masters), each tip is meant to be flexible for your needs and inclusive for all levels of swimming.

This week’s tip is is a dolphin kick body position drill progression with a snorkel. This is a great drill progression to work on the fundamentals of body position in butterfly.

The progression can be broken down into three parts, all of which require a snorkel. To start, simply dolphin kick down the length of the pool with a snorkel with arms at your side. Think of this more as a “body dolphin” movement that just a straight dolphin kick. You should be thinking about using your chest, core, and legs together to get down the pool, mimicking the whole body engagement you want when swimming butterfly.

Focus on pressing the chest forward, getting the hips high, and snapping the legs at the end of the kick. The undulation in this stage should be a bit exaggerated, and using the snorkel will let the swimmer focus on finding the whole body connection in their dolphin kick without worrying about lifting the head to breathe.

The next step of the progression is to bring the arms in front. At this stage, practice a small scull with the hands at the beginning of each undulation, sweeping the hands out to a “Y” position as if you are starting a butterfly pull at the start of each undulation. The focus should still be on finding connection across your whole body, with the hands in front helping to mimic the body position you’ll find when actually swimming butterfly.

Finally, add in a single arm pull after every three body dolphins. Focus on making the transition into the pull as smooth as possible, using your entire body during the stroke and not just the arms. After each pull it may take a moment to reset and find your rhythm, and that is fine! Use this drill to slow butterfly down and work on the mechanics of proper undulation to find a smooth, efficient stroke. 

All swimming and dryland training and instruction should be performed under the supervision of a qualified coach or instructor, and in circumstances that ensure the safety of participants.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x