I have a student who is struggling with flipturns!

2 suggestions 1) The easiest - Every swimmer does not need to do flip turns. For fitness swimmers the focus should be on swimming, flip turns are a bonus. Teach the swimmer good open turns (low to the water, streamline…) 2) Flip turn drill using lane lines– a. Have the swimmer perpendicular to a lane line, holding the lane line hands close together, palms up and in a streamline position on the surface b. The swimmer pulls himself over the lane line, whilst kicking and continues until his hands, still holding the lane line, are at his side c. At this point the swimmer flips (chin tuck…) while still holding onto the lane rope d. The swimmer should end up on his back with arms extended overhead in somewhat of a streamline position I find this turn drill helps swimmers who have a tendency to flail their arms as they turn and don’t get their arms up and streamlined before pushing off.

I tell him to tuck his chin on his chest, keep his head straight, hands and arms at his side, legs up to chest in cannon ball, but no matter what, he really struggles to get his head and upper chest down away from the surface of the water, and then his legs straighten out behind him and it's all over. Get him to think "flip," not "somersault." I don't bring "legs up to chest in cannon ball" at all, and I doubt I'd get around if I did. I bring my head to my knees by bending sharply at the hips while my legs are still straight, and bend the knees to bring the feet toward the backside only as I am already well on the way to being upside-down. Abs initiate the movement, with some assist from hip flexors for an especially snappy turn. I also don't keep my hands at my sides. I bend my elbows to bring my hands to my head at the same time as I am bending at the hips to bring my head to my knees. People with really tight hamstrings probably have a lot of trouble with flip turns. Can your student bring his head to his knees with his legs more or less straight when he is standing or sitting? I don't remember learning flip-turns, but I did teach my dad to do them. We started, as quicksilver suggests, by swimming to the middle and flipping there until he understood how to go over rather than just straight down.

What if you stand beside him in the water and actually turn him over?

That is a good suggestion. For a few classes every session, we all get in the water with the students. Everyone except me, however, because I am hearing impaired and need to wear aids to hear. My struggling student started the session late, after he could've been helped by one of the other instructors in the water.

How fast a swimmer is he? I find most people who have trouble flipping over aren't swimming fast enough to have enough momentum to complete the flip turn. Make sure he doesn't slow down going into the wall and wearing flippers should help. goswim also has a series of videos on how to learn how to do a flip turn which might be helpful: Swimming - Turns - Freestyle Flip Turn Step #1 - YouTube Swimming - Turns - Freestyle Flip Turn Step #2 - YouTube Swimming - Freestyle Flip Turn Step #3 - YouTube Swimming - Turns - Freestyle Flip Turn Step #4 - YouTube Swimming - Turns - Freestyle Flip Turn Step #5 - YouTube

He's very new, so not very fast yet. Right now, we're just trying to master the somersault, then we'll tackle pushing off the wall for the complete flipturn movement. Thanks for the links! And flippers- what an excellent idea! Why didn't I think of that?

That may well be too much detail. Away from wall: get hips over the head. That's it. Refine later. :) So I've been a pre-competitive swim coach since May now. I love it! However, I have a student in one of my lower level classes who is really struggling with learning flipturns. No matter what I suggest or what approach I take, class after class, he is rarely able to progress to doing half of a somersault, let alone a full somersault (which he has never done). I tell him to tuck his chin on his chest, keep his head straight, hands and arms at his side, legs up to chest in cannon ball, but no matter what, he really struggles to get his head and upper chest down away from the surface of the water, and then his legs straighten out behind him and it's all over. Swinging kickboards out to his side as he initiates the maneuver has rarely helped. What are your suggestions? I am stumped. :sad:

You could have your student swim towards the middle of the pool and then flip. Sometimes new swimmers tend to be leery of slamming their feet into the gutter. Once there's no wall to be worried about, the tumble action becomes more and more second nature. Then your student can take their new found skill and move onto the wall. With trial and error they can figure out exactly when to roll into the flip. I've always taught my kids to use their leading hand as the guide to judge the proper distance between their head and the wall. When the stretched out arm gives an idea of how close they are, they can pull it towards their torso and use that energy to help initiate the flip.

I was never good at flip turns as a kid, but re-taught myself to do them as an adult. My "aha" moment came when I started thinking of it as leading with my head through the turn, rather than my arms. I just thought, "arms loose by sides, tuck chin to chest" - with momentum that should flip you over, details of form can be worked on later. Also, since your student is new to turns...could water up the nose be an issue? I used to have problems with that, and in trying to get the turn (and the feeling of drowning) over with, I would end up flailing my arms around. I found that humming a song (I used the national anthem) during turns solved the problem almost immediately, it helped me to breathe out my nose steadily and without panicking. Don't have to do that anymore, but it was really useful at the time :) .

Swinging kickboards out to his side as he initiates the maneuver has rarely helped. I coach adult onset swimmers in flip turns every year. I can't picture what your are saying with the kickboards. I start with a noodle, the person is laying face down on the surface. They are holding on to the noodle at hip height underneath them. They push into the water with their hands as they hold the noodle and over they go. Most people seem to get hung up on this stage until we work on it with the noodle to show them where the leverage comes from. I seem to remember that USMS swimmer had this sequence published a while back.