Go on YouTube & search for a video for the butterfly kick - tipping drill (received that info awhile back from my friend LKuderna). I'm going to guide some of the kids I coach in the summer to the same thing to help them "get" it.

A couple of quick things:

1. Butterfly is a real "timing" stroke. There are actually 2 kicks, the more powerful 1 should come as your arms are starting to pull down after entering the water so that the kick helps propel you forward.

2. It's a MUCH stronger kick when the feet are together & acting as 1 giant flipper. You can either splurge for a monofin to practice with, or go the way I learned - tie a shoelace around your ankles to hold them together. It doesn't need to be really tight, just enough to keep the feet from drifting apart.

3. The overall sensation of the stroke is like what you see when you hold the end of a rope or hose & snap it - that wave that travels down the length of it. That's kind of what you want your body to do.

Hope this helps a little, it's tough to try to help without being able to see you swim......

I like to think of the butterfly stroke as riding your own wave. when I start out doing the butterfly I start by going deep at first almost skimming the bottom of the pool dolphin kicKing the whole time using my abs and then angling my hands upward so that I come to the surface quickly. now I bring my arms over the surface for the catch. I can feel it in my hips right after the catch that I'm squeezing my abdominal muscles to bunch for the kick. The kick is a softer kick to get started and then a deeper kick to propel.

the butterfly stroke takes me longer than any other stroke except the side stroke but the workout is easily 3 times is hard maybe 4 times is hard as any of the other strokes.

Kick, KICK! it probably took me 4 months to develop a form for this where I was feeling strong. And where I was not inhaling my own waves. Just keep at it.

I love fly because it's such a technical stroke. Butterfly is essentail the same arm pull as freestyle except you are pulling both arms at the same time and adding two dolphin kicks between pulls. I did this drill to help me establish my fly:

Begin by pushing off the wall and streamlining without kicking. Perform a big dolphin kick followed by a smaller dolphin kick and then freestyle pull with one arm while the other arm remains streched in a streamline position. Another big doplhin kick followed by a smaller dophin kick and then alternate to a freestyle pull with the other arm while the first arm remains foward in a streamlined position.

So it looks like: Push off wall, big kick, little kick, rt arm pull, big kick, little kick, left arm pull, big kick, little kick, rt. arm pull etc.

I know it's hard to explain in words but htis drill really helped me out!

I love fly because it's such a technical stroke. Butterfly is essentail the same arm pull as freestyle except you are pulling both arms at the same time and adding two dolphin kicks between pulls. I did this drill to help me establish my fly:

Begin by pushing off the wall and streamlining without kicking. Perform a big dolphin kick followed by a smaller dolphin kick and then freestyle pull with one arm while the other arm remains streched in a streamline position. Another big doplhin kick followed by a smaller dophin kick and then alternate to a freestyle pull with the other arm while the first arm remains foward in a streamlined position.

So it looks like: Push off wall, big kick, little kick, rt arm pull, big kick, little kick, left arm pull, big kick, little kick, rt. arm pull etc.

I know it's hard to explain in words but htis drill really helped me out!

I agree with this. A one-armed butterfly drill really helps get the feel of the timing between the pull and the kicks.