Body Position for the Butterfly Stroke

Video Transcript

"PHILLIP TORIELLO: Hello and welcome to Expert Village. I'm Phillip Toriello from the Avila Bay Athletic Club. The butterfly body and shoulder position. The butterfly body position is really quite simple. You're going to be lying down in a prone position with your body completely flat on top of the water, like this. You want to have your face, when it's in the water, looking straight down at the bottom; again, for hydrodynamic purposes. Your arm and shoulder motion are flat and square. There's really no option to turn your body or any reason to turn your body. You're just going to be flat and square as you're utilizing both of your arms, which is going to be a symmetrical, balanced stroke. During this stroke, your arm motion and your leg motion are going to keep your body completely balanced in the water, unlike, for example, your freestyle where it's one arm is turning your body one way, the other arm is turning your body the other way. None of that is necessary 'cause basically the whole purpose of butterfly is to have one strong, square, symmetrical stroke."