Who is doing/teaching this?

I sent this to our masters team & one of the guys said his 12 year old is doing this in meets.

I think it's legal. I think he dives down as he approaches the wall and touches quite far under the water. This sets up the flip.

Maybe its illegal for him but as far as our rulebook is concerned it is within all the rules (for now, right? ). No, should be legal for him and us as long as he's touching with both hands simultaneously. Stewart's concern was that he didn't actually ever touch.

I disagree. The turn shown in this video is phenomenally fast and there's no way an open turn can match it. I just wonder if it's somewhat physiologically limited. Perhaps this kid's build enables him to pull this off effectively where others would never be able to execute it as well. I viewed the youngster using normal turns in another url for another im. Maybe its illegal for him but as far as our rulebook is concerned it is within all the rules (for now, right? ). My legs would land on the deck if tried it. I wonder if he pushed before flipping

It's legal, but you need to commit to practicing it and that is a tricky proposition for a coach to commit to practicing it.

NEAT!!! Thanks rtodd! That is one of the many things I love about swimming ― how much we all get to use our minds, thinking and developing improvements.

It seems as if he does brush his hands down at the wall when he flips.

I'm wondering if there are any tricks to not smashing your feet? (Like others noted, maybe pushing off with your arms before your feet come all the way around, touching low on the wall...?) It's obvious from the video that done right, that the fly flip turn is crazy fast. Some folks here must remember when you had to touch the wall with your hand in freestyle even if you did a flip turn. From another thread Allen Stark wrote: The turn rule was changed about 1965 so that you didn't have to touch with your hand first in free.Until then many people didn't flip,especially in the longer distances as the speed difference wasn't worth the air lost.After the rule change everyone flipped in free. A related turn that I haven't seen since I returned to swimming is flipping at the backstroke to breaststroke transition in an IM. For me, I felt it took a lot of extra energy without much (or any) increase in speed. Is that the general consensus now?

I used to do the bk to br flip & it was cool BUT, I don't think I gained any time in using it.

For fly I stick with open turns, but one of the coaches is trying this in practice. I don't think I like the results so far. This is what I try to teach the older kids for back to ***. I call it the flat spin. http://youtu.be/-UZ2FWEJzUA