So....here's the thing:
I'm actually getting decent at flipturns. I screw a few of them up, but I always know what I did wrong. The ratio of good flips to bad flips keeps going up. But, because there are usually some bad flips along the way, I haven't set any PRs yet when using flips. I'm at 1:25 100m with (some bad) flips, vs 1:22 with decent open-turns. My 50m is hi-39sec vice hi-38sec.
However....
When flipping, of course we are not breathing through the approach, turn, and pushoff. This is not a problem for me in a hard 50m/100m. But in a hard 400m, I'm dying, Man!! The accumulation of not breathing for this period every 25m has me GASPING after 200m. I crave that open-turn breath.
Maybe I will learn to handle this, but I dunno.
Even if you flip well, should you sometimes do open turns because of the oxygen situation?
I would suspect that if your flip turns are genuinely slower than your open turns, you aren't "flipping" right. And given that you refer to them as "flips," I'm guessing you are focusing to much on spinning around and not enough on getting your feet on the wall and pushing off. The flip turn is a bit of a misnomer for some people - it isn't meant to be a big tuck somersault like you'd do in tumbling or something. Any chance you could video yourself?
I would suspect that if your flip turns are genuinely slower than your open turns, you aren't "flipping" right. And given that you refer to them as "flips," I'm guessing you are focusing to much on spinning around and not enough on getting your feet on the wall and pushing off. The flip turn is a bit of a misnomer for some people - it isn't meant to be a big tuck somersault like you'd do in tumbling or something. Any chance you could video yourself?
