Breaking the
50 Fly American
Record

In October 2021 at the FINA World Cup in Budapest, I swam a 21.99 in the short course meters 50 butterfly — breaking Caeleb Dressel's American record of 22.04 and becoming the sixth man in history to go sub-22 in the event. It was one of the swims I'm most proud of in my career, not just because of the number, but because of everything that went into it.

I want to break it down for you — not just to talk about my own race, but because the things that made that swim fast are the same things that will make your 50 fly faster, regardless of what level you're swimming at right now.

What the 50 Fly Actually Is

People think the 50 fly is just about being explosive. Turn your brain off, hit the water, and go. That's not wrong — it is explosive. But the swimmers who go the fastest in this event aren't the ones who just try harder off the block. They're the ones who have an exceptionally clear technical plan and can execute it at full throttle without falling apart.

In a short course pool, the 50 butterfly is two laps — a dive and two lengths. You get one underwater off the start and one underwater off the turn. That's it. In a race that takes me under 22 seconds, those two underwaters represent an enormous percentage of the total race. If you're not maximizing your dolphin kick off every wall, you are leaving time on the table. Full stop.

The Start: Going Long to Make the Math Work

My underwater off the dive in Budapest was close to — or beyond — 15 meters. That's not an accident and it's not just about being good at dolphin kick. It's a deliberate race strategy built around one very specific goal: get close enough to the far wall that I can make it in exactly 5 strokes.

Here's the logic. In a 25-meter pool, your breakout point defines your stroke count. Full stop. If I surface at 10 meters, I have 15 meters of surface swimming to cover — that might be 6 or 7 strokes for me. If I push that underwater to nearly 15 meters, I've got 10 meters left — and at my stroke length, that's 5 strokes to the wall. Five powerful, controlled strokes instead of six or seven slightly more desperate ones. The underwater is doing the work so my surface swimming doesn't have to.

But there's more to it than distance. Going that deep into the lap on the dive only makes sense if two things are true: your dolphin kick is actually faster than your surface speed at that distance (mine is), and you can surface into a clean first stroke without gasping or breaking your rhythm. If either of those isn't true for you, a 15-meter underwater will cost you time, not save it.

In the lane next to me was Szebasztian Szabo — one of the best 50 fly swimmers in the world. He broke out around 13-14 meters and took 6 strokes to the wall. That's a totally valid race plan, and it nearly worked — he finished 0.25 seconds behind me. His approach had less risk, less reliance on underwater speed, and cleaner stroke mechanics off a slightly earlier breakout. My approach was longer, more aggressive, and leaned harder on my underwater as a weapon. Both are legitimate. The question is which plan fits your body, your kick, and your stroke length.

If I were to ever chase that swim again — which I won't, I'm retired, it's over — the improvement would probably come from perfecting an even shorter, more explosive kickout on the dive and nailing the wall timing better. The 15-meter push is hard to execute perfectly every time. A slightly shorter underwater with a cleaner entry into that first stroke might actually be faster. The sweet spot between underwater distance and breakout quality is where the time lives.

Key start mechanics for the 50 fly:

• Tight streamline entry — hands stacked, head neutral, no splashing through your entry
• Hit your dolphin kick immediately at entry before you lose momentum
• Know your stroke length — your breakout point should be calculated backward from the wall, not chosen by feel
• Surface into your first stroke with control, not desperation — a panicked breakout burns the advantage you just built

The Underwater Dolphin Kick: My Entire Career in One Skill

If there's one technical element that defines my career as a swimmer, it's the underwater dolphin kick. I've been doing it my whole life — I learned it bodysurfing as a kid in Huntington Beach before I even knew what competitive swimming was. The feeling of propelling yourself through water with your hips and core is just natural to me.

But I didn't just get lucky. I've spent thousands of hours refining my dolphin kick underwater, watching video of myself, making micro-adjustments to my amplitude, my tempo, my core engagement. In Budapest, I pushed nearly 15 meters underwater off the dive — that's what allowed me to make it to the first wall in 5 strokes. The kick isn't just a skill. In my race plan, it's the foundation everything else is built on.

The dolphin kick isn't a leg movement. That's the first misconception I correct with every swimmer I work with at private lessons or at swim clinics. It initiates from the core. Your hips drive the movement. Your legs follow. If you're kicking with your knees bent like you're pedaling a bicycle underwater, you're generating drag and wasting energy. The motion should be fluid, powerful, and come from a long, connected kinetic chain from your lats all the way through your toes.

How to actually improve your dolphin kick:

• Do it in warm-up, every single practice. This is the most important thing I can tell you. I've done 15 meters underwater on every warm-up rep for my entire career. It's not exciting. That's why most swimmers skip it. Don't skip it.
• Video yourself from the side. You cannot feel what you look like underwater. Get footage. Watch it. Adjust. Repeat.
• Work on core flexibility. Tight hips = a restricted kick. Yoga, hip flexor work, and thoracic mobility training all directly translate to a better dolphin kick.
• Vary the tempo in practice. Long, slow kicks for feel. Short, fast kicks for power. Train both.
• Count your kicks. Know how many kicks you take off each wall. Track it. Improve it.

The Turn: Backward-Engineering Your Stroke Count

The turn in a short course 50 fly is where the race is either protected or lost. And the most important decision you make at the turn isn't how fast you flip — it's where you choose to break out.

On the way back in Budapest, I surfaced earlier than I did off the dive — around 13-14 meters, similar to where Szabo had broken out on the first lap. Why? Because the math demanded it. Coming off the turn, I needed exactly 6 strokes to the finish wall. Not 5, not 7. Six. A clean 6-stroke finish at full speed, hitting the wall in full extension on stroke 6, is faster than any alternative. If I push the underwater too far and only have 4 strokes left, I'm cramped into the wall. If I surface too early and have 7 strokes, I'm racing for an extra cycle under fatigue and potentially mistiming my finish.

This is the concept most coaches don't teach and most swimmers never think about: your breakout point is not a distance, it's a calculation. You work backward from the wall. How many strokes do I want to take? What is my stroke length at race pace? That tells you exactly where to surface. The underwater exists to get you to that precise breakout point — no more, no less.

Getting this wrong is one of the most common ways swimmers lose time in short course butterfly. You'll see it constantly — a swimmer breaks out and glides slightly into the wall, or reaches for an ugly half-stroke at the end because the count didn't work out. Those are fixable problems. They're planning problems, not strength problems. You can fix them in practice right now by counting every rep and adjusting your breakout until the math is clean every time.

A perfect butterfly turn also has almost no deceleration into the wall. You sight the wall early, take your last stroke at the right distance, hit both hands simultaneously — it's butterfly, always two hands — tuck fast, push off in a tight streamline, and launch directly into your kick. The whole sequence should feel like a slingshot. If you feel yourself coasting into the wall or floating to the surface after the push, you're losing time that has nothing to do with fitness.

Turn checklist for the short course 50 fly:

• Know your stroke count before you race — count it in practice until it's automatic
• Work backward: decide your stroke count first, then set your breakout distance to match
• Two-hand touch, every time — a one-hand butterfly touch is a DQ waiting to happen
• Tight tuck, fast rotation — don't drift through the turn
• Push off in full streamline and hit your kick before you lose push-off speed
• Finish on a full stroke in extension — never glide into the wall, never reach

The Surface Swim: Controlled Aggression

The 50 fly is unique because unlike the 100, you don't have to pace yourself at all. You are going as hard as you possibly can from the moment you leave the block. But "going hard" doesn't mean losing your stroke mechanics. This is where a lot of age group swimmers fall apart — they go out guns blazing and their butterfly falls apart by the 35-meter mark.

Strong butterfly technique under fatigue is a training adaptation, not a talent. You have to train at race pace and faster in practice. You have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. The best thing you can do is go to practice with the intention of holding your technique together when your body is screaming at you to give up form for effort. Effort and technique are not opposites — they train together.

Surface butterfly cues I use:

• High elbow catch — set it early before you pull, don't let your hands slip
• Hips up on the recovery — butterfly is a wave, not a flat stroke
• Keep your head down — the temptation to look up kills your hip drive
• Breathe every stroke in a 50 — don't try to be a hero and hold your breath, you'll die at the finish
• Drive through the finish — don't glide into the wall, attack it

What This Means for Your Swimmer

You don't have to be chasing an American record for this stuff to apply to you. Every element of a world-class 50 fly — the start, the underwater, the turn, the surface mechanics — exists on a spectrum. Wherever you are on that spectrum right now, there's a version of each of these things you can improve.

I've taught dolphin kick technique and butterfly mechanics to swimmers at every level — age groupers just learning the event, high school swimmers trying to break a minute in the 100 fly, and collegiate athletes looking to drop time at NCAAs. The fundamentals are the same. The feel for good butterfly is learnable. It just takes focused work and someone who can show you what to look for.

If you want to work on any of this in person, I offer private lessons in Santa Cruz, CA and run butterfly and technique clinics throughout California. Come swim with me.

The Bottom Line

The 21.99 in Budapest didn't come from one thing. It came from a decade of consistent underwater work in warm-up, thousands of turn reps, relentless attention to dolphin kick mechanics, and a career spent racing short course meters against the best in the world. The American record was the result — the process is available to every swimmer willing to put in the work.

Start with your dolphin kick. Do it in warm-up tomorrow. Count your kicks. Watch the video. That's where it begins.