Considerations of the Butterfly Kick Based on Hydrodynamical Experiments

In recent years the consideration of the propulsion in competitive swimming has been focused on the contribution by the upper limbs. A comprehensive overview of the force production by hands and arms has been worked out, since COUNSILMAN (1971) applied the “Bernoulli or Lift Principle” to human propulsion in water. Based on this principle the understanding of the swimming techniques increased, resulting in different learning steps and better swimming results. Moreover, the introduction of the lift force into the biomechanics of swimming permitted a more realistic assumption of the forces produced by the hands. SCHLEIHAUF (1979) and WOOD (1979) presented figures of hydrodynamical coefficients on which calculations have been based (SCHLEIHAUF, 1984).