My best advice without seeing your stroke or being in the water right now to see what the heck I do is to be concious of keeping your butt as high as possible in the water, especially when you lift your head for a breath. And when you breathe you should try to only bend the neck up enough to catch your breath (read: don't lift your chest outta the water).

Sorry, not sure if that's helpful at all. I'm not a coach so don't know how to word these things, I can only show them Best thing to do is ask your instructor during classes to watch your stroke and offer advice. Or if you know any competitive swimmers who are flyers :P I wish you luck! It's a fairly difficult stroke to completely master, but it's my fave :noway:

I am a competitive swimmer (US Master) who studies Shaw Method and Total Immersion... I love to swim the butterfly. Here's what I recommend:

1. Take it slow--nothing should be hurried, frantic or rushed. This is a beautiful, intelligent and graceful stroke. Try to feel that at all times!

2. Work on body dolphin drills until you can really move across the water using only your body's undulation (refer to the Youtube link below).

3. Incorporate a breath into the undulation using a small breast stroke scull in front of you.

Try to get your undulations to a point where you can feel the water lifting your chest and head to air during each body undulation cycle. Your arms and legs should not be the main propulsive forces which bring you to air. That will tire you out! Your lungs are buoyant---let the natural buoyancy lift your chest and face up.

4. Practice Breast-a-fly (breast stroke arms and breathing with a butterfly kick), breathing each stroke. Then alternate one butterfly arm recovery (non-breathing) with a breast arm recovery (breathing).

5. When swimming full stroke, your face should be looking down, even when you breathe (you will be looking right at the water). Any tilt of the head up for air should be very slight, if at all. This protects your neck from strain and injury. Practice this during the breast stroke arm part of the breast-a-fly (or during straight breast stroke) because it is less frighting, and you will figure out how much space you need between your face and the water to avoid inhaling it.

6. When swimming butterfly, you need take a quick (sneaky) breath, making sure your face is back in the water by the time your hands emerge near your hips.

You should focus on patiently holding the water in front of you with your hands until the undulation cycle lifts your chest and head to the surface. When your face is close to air, begin your arm pull, but the arms should not feel like they are pushing water behind you. It should feel like your body is slipping over your hands (again using the buoyancy of your lungs to your advantage). Take a quick breath (looking down or slightly forward), as hands slip under you, making sure that by the time your hands reach your hips, your head is already submerged again.

This will save you tons of energy on your breathing and allow you to have a gentle, unhurried arm recovery.

I recommend watching Total Immersion or Shaw Method videos. Here is a link to the Shaw Method: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QRElrG-NtQ

If all else fails get a cheap underwater camera from amazon.com and have someone film you from the surface and under the water. Upload the videos to Youtube and post a link.

My old coach used to make me do body dolphin drills underwater. I remember thinking at the time that if Patrick Duffy could do it, so could I ;p

I'm a swim coach and have been a water safety instructor in the past. it's really difficult to know what to fix without seeing what you are doing.
But remember to keep your undulations (dolphin rolls) smooth and fluid, using your sternum bone as the driving force behind your rolls (I say roll and not kick here because the kick starts with your sternum and finishes with your feet). I would tell kids it's like being a wet noodle in boiling water, as they would roll with there chests, their feet would wick the water.

Practice your rolls with your hands up on the surface of the water in front of you (hand lead travel) to really help work this. You should feel like a little bird can walk from the nape of your neck to your lower back without getting wet. (Keep your head relaxed, but still).
Butterfly is the hardest and takes the most insurance from any of the 4 main strokes.
*to get the breathing down, it's all practice. However, you want to breathe as you are pulling your sternum back (arching your back and letting your hips drop just a little bit). During this, your hand might start going up a bit. Keep your head engaged and it should pop out of the water to "sneak" some air.
*Your hands will pull down to the sides your butt. Force them to really pull the water and throw them forward, back into a "SUPERMAN" pose. As you do so, use you should be going back into the "downward" part of your roll.
Repeat.

Once you get the steps down, refine them. focus on making only small movements up and down and going toward your destination.

****I hope this helps... sorry if it is kind of winded or confusing****
Best of luck.
And when in doubt, tape yourself.

take it step by step, butterfly drills will work wonders in time....
dolphin dives, texas kicks (butterfly kick on your back), streamlines, and slow paced butterfly.

sources;
I'm a butterfly competitor.