Stuck at swimming - butterfly

[ZebraF]

DD7 loves swimming and has been in stage 5 since October last year. She has really good technique for front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke, and has passed everything in stage 5 except the butterfly, she just can’t manage it. She has a good dolphin kick but as soon as she’s expected to do the arms at the same time it all falls apart. She had two 1:1 lessons with her teacher this week and after the second one the teacher basically said she’s finding it difficult because she’s too small/not strong enough, and won’t be able to do it until she’s bigger.
I’m now wondering if I’m wasting time and money taking her for weekly lessons if the only thing left to pass that stage is a stroke she physically can’t do because she’s too small. DD loves swimming and I take her every weekend to a public swimming session so she will still be swimming regularly if the lessons stop.
I don’t really know anything about swimming, especially butterfly which is a stroke I have never done. (I only ever did breaststroke as a kid and taught myself to do front crawl recently after watching DD learning it!) Is the teacher correct to say it’s a matter of waiting for her to get bigger and stronger or should I try to find a different teacher?

I think stage 5 can be a tough one as they need to get all the strokes right, both my boys got stuck there, my younger one for 2 years because of breaststroke. Once he got it he flew through the other stages in weeks and joined a club.

I guess it depends how strong a swimmer she is otherwise and what you want her to get out of the lessons. Maybe when you go swimming with her focus on doing lengths and building stamina on the other strokes, which might help build her strength to help with the fly. It is a tough stroke.

Being small shouldn't stop her getting it. It's just a difficult one to get. If she keeps practising she'll manage it.

Is she practicing in fins so she can get the hang of the timing with a bit of extra oomf behind her? DS joined a swimming club at 7 and at that point they only did fly in fins.

I decided to stop dd's swimming lessons at butterfly as wtf needs it? It just seemed such a waste of time when I'd rather she perfected other strokes and swimming longer distances

As with all sports children reach a barrier that prevents them moving forward. This is how elite sports competitors are identified. Only a tiny percentage of children will perfect each sport to the level needed to be competitive, the rest are left to feel as though they have failed and invariably drop out.
She's very young, I'd have a proper think about why you want her to perfect this stroke at this age. What's the purpose of it?

The lessons will make her a stronger and more confident swimmer. But yes she probably does just need to get bigger arms for butterfly…

It’s not a waste of time to take her because she’ll get better at the other strokes / it’s good to practice / being a good swimmer is good.

I haven’t swum butterfly for decades, but I think I’d have been more like 9 or 10 when I started it - you need a v strong core.

If she puts her arms behind her, can she reach and hold her hands with her arms straight? If she can, fly should be no problem. Coordination can be a struggle, though - does she get to practise arms with a float or pull-buoy between her legs, so she doesn't have to think about legs as well? If she can get her arms while doing that, then she can work on putting the two together - but if she's small, she may need to grow a bit.

If it were me, I'd carry on with lessons, but you are not me and may be balancing other factors.

Not in the UK, but when both of my DC (at different times) struggled and became stuck at a level longer than their peers, because of one issue, I called the swim school out on it.

I politely, but very firmly asked them what their strategy was to help my child since they'd been stuck for X time & weren't improving. Each time my child got private lessons and/or extra lessons.

If they didn't I would've taken them out or gone elsewhere. Staying at the same level while watching others progress was devastating for them. My DD7 only just went up a level after almost a year - she cried each time she didn't go up, knowing she was struggling & behind the pack.

Butterfly??? age 7??? What for??? It's ridiculous!!! I don't imagine for a moment the other young children are doing it well or properly- it's a stroke that takes great strength. Watch the other children and see if they are basically just having a go and managing to move forward, rather than aiming for a perfect stroke.
I was a competitive swimmer as a child and do masters swimming now. That's a ridiculous swimming scheme that demands butterfly at that age. Swim England are always harping on about keeping children swimming and making lessons fun but these prescriptive levels with their tick box approach are boring and rigid- and in this instance misguided.
(If you want to cultivate the necessary strength, get her doing push ups!)

I build up butterfly by the component parts when coaching the younger swimmers. I get them to keep fins on as well as they help. Start with the kick, breathing up and down. Once that rhythm has been established, bring arms in one at a time before all together.

Thank you all for your advice. I know very little about swimming so it is good to know a bit more. Our local swimming club also does lessons and we went along last night to try it out. They put her in with the lowest junior squad swimmers and even though she was the youngest there she held her own in front crawl, backstroke and breaststroke.They didn’t do any butterfly. The head coach said they would happily put her in that group and they don’t expect butterfly at this age, just to have an understanding of the dolphin kick, which she has. She loved the session and wants to go again, and I definitely want her to carry on swimming, so I think we will try the club sessions - they are half an hour once a week and it seemed very friendly. We will carry on with stage 5 lessons too until the end of term and then decide what to do.

Sounds like a good plan. Our club doesn't take them that young nor as early as stage 5 but it really is club dependent. Good luck, she'll crack it in good time. One of my DC had zero coordination at that age and he's now regional finals level at fly.

Finding the right club is key. Ours was very competitive and didn't take kids until all levels were completed. The training was relentless lengths to build stamina and speed, and constant correcting of form and technique. It almost sucked all the joy out of swimming for dd in end, but she moved to synchro and lifeguard training which were more fun and did well there.
Your daughter sounds like a talented little fish though, it's lovely when they're passionate about something isn't it.

It sounds very short-sighted stopping a child from progressing and improving their swimming in general just because they are not yetr ready for one, very specific technique.

Incidentally my daughter is unable/banned from ever attempting butterfly because of her hypermobile shoulders that are very susceptible to subluxes.

The coach is right. Butterfly needs a certain amount of strength to pull with arm kick with legs in order to catch some air. Do not pressure her please. Let her try for her own amusement in a small pool, she will love it when strong enough!

I thought stage 5 was just butterfly kick. No one can do butterfly properly in stage 5 that’s insane.

she will love it when strong enough

well not necessarily……

I took my DC out of swimming for 4-12 month spells, once they got to point I could relax with my back turned on them. Then put them back in again sporadically so they could relearn & learn anew. I am happy with the sporadic approach we had to swim lessons. They are all good swimmers. I didn't learn to swim a stroke until adulthood.

ps: and butterfly is hard! It's ok to get stuck on that one for a while.

Thanks everyone. We have switched to swimming with the club and it’s fantastic, she loves it! They did some races last week to prepare the older kids for an upcoming gala. She won the 50m breaststroke and was 2nd in backstroke, in a group of kids 2 years older than her. She can’t dive off blocks yet or do turns, but she still caught up with them!
They do a little bit of butterfly in some sessions but the main part of the session is working on another stroke, then they put butterfly in at the end. And there’s no pressure to have to succeed with it or you can’t move up!
I spoke with her stage 5 lesson teacher again and was told DD doesn’t listen. It looks to me like she’s bored and the group is big so she does switch off at times while she's waiting to swim. It helped make my mind up to switch to the club where DD is 100% happy and listening - it is like watching a totally different swimmer!

That's good news. She'll soon get the hang of it if she's happier there too

Maybe you didn’t learn it well enough?

I used to swim competitively and we started with butterfly (arms+legs, kicks are a basic skill underwater for breaststroke turns) when I was around 8 years old. Old school, with legs in rubber bands, so you need to pull with arms like crazy or you can’t catch a breath. It was all about survival and gulping for air and I hated it, so once I had a chance I specialised in freestroke and breaststroke, just to avoid butterfly to the extent possible. I did it when I had to during trainings, but I considered it a torture and I only
competed in the other three styles.

I must have been 13 or 14 already, when I spent a summer at a large lake and I was with a gang impressed by me going out a mile in the morning for a swim. They persuaded me to show off a bit and do butterfly for them and this time, it just clicked: I never enjoyed swimming
more. Butterfly should be called hydrofoil🙃

That’s when I realised that I have always had the right style, but it takes a certain strength to pull out for air and a strong kick for
momentum to keep the hydrofoil afloat. It’s a bit like Forest Gump: you can go and watch it with an 8 year old and it will be fine, but to really appreciate it you need a bit of maturity (in this case, strength) which only comes with a certain age.

OP, congrats to your DC! Swimming competitively can be a ruthless undertaking, so those medals really shine!

Thanks for the explanation.

Not everyone ever learns to love butterfly and it isn’t required to be a good swimmer. Some club swimmers even never properly master it.

Maybe the OP’s daughter will who knows?