Tom Ponting swam for the same club as me, 4th 2Fly in Seoul.
Long distance fly is a strange animal. I could smash Shamek Peitucha in training for any fly over 100m but he was the NCAA champ / Cdn Record Holder and I was 2nd at what is now known as CIS champs.
Supposedly Phelps did 150s leading into US Nats (instead of 100s) and it seems to have helped.
Currently training to break the Cdn M35-39 SCM record this spring… stands at 2.10.49 Phillipe Pomminville. I think I can go sub 2.10 if my knee and IT Band stay healthy. Masters PB 2.12.9
Question for all you that were serious butterflyers some 15-20 years ago…how much can you do now and at what pace? I was never very good, but now I just don’t have the strength. Best I can muster (after 4-6 weeks of regular fly) is a set of 4x100, finishing around 1:20 (SCY), and I’m cooked afterwards. It’s really remarkable how much swimming speed I’ve lost over the years relative to biking and running.
Yep. There was a point/counterpoint on it in the USMS magazine a couple issues ago…
Actually, i think that recent debate was about allowing 1-arm fly as legal in USMS meets, not breast kick, which has been legal for many yrs. I remember b/c the woman arguing against the 1-arm fly said “where does it stop? We’re already allowing breast kick in the fly races…”. Personally, doing breast kick when swimming fly just messes up my rhythm, better to just stick with dolphin kick for me. I think fly is just something you have to practice; like anything, the more you do it, the easier it becomes:)
I don’t do much fly in training anymore, lots of one arm though. My 200 is about 22 secs off my PB from 24 years ago (2:30 the last time I tried it) but my 100 is only about 3 secs slower at 1:00.8 now. That’s all SCM.
I never do anything over a 75 fly in training, and mostly just 25’s and occasionally 50’s. It’s too hard now.
Someone on another board posted a link to a video Mary Meagher’s last world record in the 200 fly. (beautiful stroke technique and she seriously would have gone a 2:03 or faster with modern turn technique)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lmCEjE0if0
And from the discussion of the vid:
“I got to see her swim a 1500 fly one year at Belmont Shores. She was in a guys heat and swimming for Mark Shubert (1983, I think) taking a year off from Cal to train for the Olympics. My coach and I sat in the bleachers watching her counter hold up 11’s or 13’s and figured out the counter was holding up her splits. Shubert had a deal with her that if she broke 18 minutes he’d buy her dinner. She did it. My coach and I sat there in awe.”
Jill - Thanks for that link!!! I watched her '84 oly final also, which came up next on youtube. Mary T was truly old-school: no goggles in either race. And, goes w/o saying but obv she had a super smooth fly. The silver medalist in the 100 fly at the '84 oly, Jenna Johnson, teaches and coaches at a YMCA about 2.5 miles from my house:)
She was and still is something special.
80 miles of Butterfly, that’s the English Channel three times with a bit to spare.
I swim with a couple retired jet fighter pilots, both can do decent butterfly I suck at it. During IM sets I can’t wait to tell them our lane is a NO FLY ZONE!
At a masters meet a couple years ago a guy swam the 500 free but did butterfly. I think there was a USMS challenge going around, some were swimming longer distances fly. I can do 25 OK, when I do 50 my stroke is renamed to clutterfly…
So you joined slowtwitch to revive a 6 year old thread?
Have seen this guy swim multiple times in person (10k up in Harbor Shores, Michigan and Big Shoulders a few times)…his stroke would maybe be legal in a pool race. He’s definitely got it dialed in for the long-distance OWS fly though!