The butterfly effect

I'm finally getting the hang of the butterfly stroke.

Of the four swimming techniques, the butterfly is the most difficult to master.

It takes a combination of elegance, coordination and explosive power.

My instructor Dolphin Lee said it took him six months to get his butterfly right.

But, said Lee, once you're able to get it right, it will be most rewarding. While the breaststroke is known as the most relaxing style and the freestyle as the fastest, the butterfly has a reputation as the sexiest swimming style out there, especially for men.

A swimmer looks majestic soaring above the water with his arms spread wide. In terms of what it does to your body, a butterfly swimmer also tends to bulk up in the shoulder area.

"Nanti ramai perempuan minat oo.." Lee kept telling me.

That was good enough a reason for me.

So, November last year, I began learning the butterfly from Lee.

The first thing you must learn is something called dolphin kick (not invented by Dolphin Lee). It involves kicking both legs while they are closely together.

And it's not just about a kick. The rest of your body too -- your arms, your torso -- need to be flexible so that you move through the water in a streamlined, elegant manner, like a dolphin.

It was SO difficult to do!

Instead of a dolphin, I must've looked like an ulat bulu trying to wade its way through water.

After a few weeks, we moved to the next phase of the training -- the arms.

This is the part that most people don't get to see -- what happens with the arms underwater. So what does the swimmer do with his arms? Well, he draws a quick gigantic heart shape.

This, combined with the dolphin kick, are what propels the swimmer to sort of fly above the water.

The arm movement proved to be most taxing on the body, because you simply cannot do it like a pondan. You need to be powerful and committed.

The good news is with enough practice, it gets easier as the shoulder muscles get progressively bigger.

In my case, after so many months of training, yes it does feel easier now to lunge above the water.

Funnily enough, I hated the butterfly in the beginning but now I like it. It is easier than even the freestyle.