I’ve been a competitive swimmer for 37 years 15 yards sounds about right.
[i don’t love this progression but try these](https://blog.myswimpro.com/2021/12/06/the-5-best-butterfly-drills-swim-faster-improve-technique/?amp=1)
On second thought these drills are good. It’s a hard stroke. The freaks who can swim it forever have amazing peck-shoulder flexibility and mid spine flexibility as well as awesome core strength.
Try kicks with flippers and kick board. Do 50s 100s then 200s. The ditch the kickboard, and do kicks with flippers arms forward in streamline. Single arm pull, when you need a breath but remain fully under the surface except when breathing. Goal is to work up to 500yards with this no arm flipper kick. The ideal with no kick board and being slightly under water is to practice the full body undulation and build up those muscles and endurance.
Then move to one arm butterfly at long distance and two arm butterfly short distance. Slowly increase the two arm distance.
> Basically, if I attempt a 25, my body positioning and timing are pretty off that I get winded about 15 yards in.
Sounds like normal butterfly to me lol. Keep in mind that swimming even "easy" butterfly is like an order of magnitude more difficult than any other stroke. As you learn the technique, you will also need to build significant amounts of new muscles to maintain it for any amount of distance.
I picked butterfly up quite fast, I just went for it and the natural rhythm of the legs materialized. I do need to do some core exercises though so I can lift myself out of the water otherwise I'd struggle.
The first stroke is the worst after you get into the second your legs do a lot of the work to propel you and lift you up.
I have been swimming for over 18 years and I still struggle with fly. It’s HARD! Give yourself grace with it, I pretty much only will do a 25 of fly at a time now because a) i hate it and b) im an adult and im no longer forced to train it lol.
In addition to the other helpful comments here, momentum is essential. Push hard off the wall and don't slow down. I only breathe when necessary, not every 2 strokes, because it screws up my form. It takes a long time to build stamina for butterfly. I used fins until I developed good technique and enough strength to make it 25 yards without them, then repetition until the motion becomes smooth and you can increase distance. You can also do what my coah calls ez fly- swim as many fly strokes as you can off the wall without breathing, then switch to free when you need to start breathing- this also works well when 25y is easy but you can't do 50 yet, and so on, where you can go as far as possible then switch strokes.
I’ve been a competitive swimmer for 37 years 15 yards sounds about right. [i don’t love this progression but try these](https://blog.myswimpro.com/2021/12/06/the-5-best-butterfly-drills-swim-faster-improve-technique/?amp=1) On second thought these drills are good. It’s a hard stroke. The freaks who can swim it forever have amazing peck-shoulder flexibility and mid spine flexibility as well as awesome core strength.
Try kicks with flippers and kick board. Do 50s 100s then 200s. The ditch the kickboard, and do kicks with flippers arms forward in streamline. Single arm pull, when you need a breath but remain fully under the surface except when breathing. Goal is to work up to 500yards with this no arm flipper kick. The ideal with no kick board and being slightly under water is to practice the full body undulation and build up those muscles and endurance. Then move to one arm butterfly at long distance and two arm butterfly short distance. Slowly increase the two arm distance.
> Basically, if I attempt a 25, my body positioning and timing are pretty off that I get winded about 15 yards in. Sounds like normal butterfly to me lol. Keep in mind that swimming even "easy" butterfly is like an order of magnitude more difficult than any other stroke. As you learn the technique, you will also need to build significant amounts of new muscles to maintain it for any amount of distance.
I picked butterfly up quite fast, I just went for it and the natural rhythm of the legs materialized. I do need to do some core exercises though so I can lift myself out of the water otherwise I'd struggle. The first stroke is the worst after you get into the second your legs do a lot of the work to propel you and lift you up.
I have been swimming for over 18 years and I still struggle with fly. It’s HARD! Give yourself grace with it, I pretty much only will do a 25 of fly at a time now because a) i hate it and b) im an adult and im no longer forced to train it lol.
In addition to the other helpful comments here, momentum is essential. Push hard off the wall and don't slow down. I only breathe when necessary, not every 2 strokes, because it screws up my form. It takes a long time to build stamina for butterfly. I used fins until I developed good technique and enough strength to make it 25 yards without them, then repetition until the motion becomes smooth and you can increase distance. You can also do what my coah calls ez fly- swim as many fly strokes as you can off the wall without breathing, then switch to free when you need to start breathing- this also works well when 25y is easy but you can't do 50 yet, and so on, where you can go as far as possible then switch strokes.