High-Fly Tempo Drill

I like this drill for any style flyer at almost any level. If you want to increase the tempo and get your swimmer undulating quicker, recovering faster, and catching immediately with no hesitation, this is one of the best drills.

First, have your swimmer float out about arms distance from the wall. Have them do vertical butterfly kicking with their arms down at the side for about 5-10 seconds. If you go any longer then they can tire quickly and you won't see the results you are looking for. The vertical kick forces the swimmer to optimize their amplitude and tempo in order to keep their face out of the water. Once you feel that they have the right speed have them grab the wall and quickly go for a lap of high intensity fly. I like to remind them to try to match the speed of their undulation to the speed they were able to achieve in their vertical kicking.