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?
- Forget everything you read about UDK off the walls (no offense ORCA). At your skill level, it is better to work on a good streamline push-off that takes you out to the flags without kicking or stroking) before surfacing.
(snip)
Better to be comfortable than distressed.
I assume you mean me, and not ORCA, since I brought it up. To clarify, I mention it only to help the OP better train to learn to cope with the periods of oxygen deprivation during a swim. I don't mean to work on it as a skill, so to speak, but conditioning. I, too, had issues with flip turns when I started swimming a couple of years ago for the same reasons. I actually do very few of them during my warm up. But as I carried my underwaters further and further, the flip turn because less and less a source of exhaustion. Which - anecdotally - fell in line with your last point. For me, once I was comfortable not breathing for several seconds from increasing my time underwater, the flip turn came much more naturally.
I guess I'd put it like this. Getting teh steps to a turn right are hard, and require concentration. It is hard to concentrate when you are worried about breathing the whole time. If you can take care of the mind screaming at you to breathe, then focusing on the technique becomes easier.
Again, YMMV. I'm a solo swimmer so I've had to play with things to figure out what works best for me, so those answers may not be in line with what a coached swimmer would experience.
- Forget everything you read about UDK off the walls (no offense ORCA). At your skill level, it is better to work on a good streamline push-off that takes you out to the flags without kicking or stroking) before surfacing.
(snip)
Better to be comfortable than distressed.
I assume you mean me, and not ORCA, since I brought it up. To clarify, I mention it only to help the OP better train to learn to cope with the periods of oxygen deprivation during a swim. I don't mean to work on it as a skill, so to speak, but conditioning. I, too, had issues with flip turns when I started swimming a couple of years ago for the same reasons. I actually do very few of them during my warm up. But as I carried my underwaters further and further, the flip turn because less and less a source of exhaustion. Which - anecdotally - fell in line with your last point. For me, once I was comfortable not breathing for several seconds from increasing my time underwater, the flip turn came much more naturally.
I guess I'd put it like this. Getting teh steps to a turn right are hard, and require concentration. It is hard to concentrate when you are worried about breathing the whole time. If you can take care of the mind screaming at you to breathe, then focusing on the technique becomes easier.
Again, YMMV. I'm a solo swimmer so I've had to play with things to figure out what works best for me, so those answers may not be in line with what a coached swimmer would experience.
