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 learned to swim as a kid, but didn't swim competitively or anything. I'd go to the pool and do laps when I was in the Army, but did mostly breaststroke and/or free with open turns.
During the summer between years in college, I started swimming at a local college. I was about 22 or 23 at the time. Most of the time I was the only one in the pool, the lifeguard was bored, and she started giving me 1-1 training. I'm not saying I became a perfect swimmer from this, but I went from poor to somewhat mediocre. ;)
When it came time for flipturns, she had me start on an end and turn in the middle of the pool (where you don't push on anything). After doing that for a while, I finally worked up the courage to do it against a real wall. Once I became comfortable with that (we're probably talking 2-3 weeks), then her advice was to work my way up to doing all of my freestyle with flipturns.
I'm guessing I probably swam 2000 to 2500 per swim then, with 90% as freestyle. Most of that freestyle was straight swims; I'd do something like one flip for every 4-5 turns, then one for every 3, then every 2, until I was doing it all the time. I'm guessing this took another 2-3 weeks before I felt comfortable flipping on every turn.
I do remember that when I went back to my college and did lap swim a few people said that I looked much better.
When I started grad school after that, there was a swimming group (kind of like masters) that I joined, and knowing flipturns helped immensely. Then of course once I was a part of a real USMS group.
Most of my swimming now is focused on open water. There are (normally) no walls, so no flipping. But when I'm in a pool I still do flipturns without even thinking. I think that is key--just get in the habit of doing them, and they really don't become a big deal.
And full disclosure--I do have asthma, and occasionally have breathing problems while swimming (although it is pretty rare, and has been a long time since I remember it happening). I don't think the asthma has had any impact on my ability to flip.
I learned to swim as a kid, but didn't swim competitively or anything. I'd go to the pool and do laps when I was in the Army, but did mostly breaststroke and/or free with open turns.
During the summer between years in college, I started swimming at a local college. I was about 22 or 23 at the time. Most of the time I was the only one in the pool, the lifeguard was bored, and she started giving me 1-1 training. I'm not saying I became a perfect swimmer from this, but I went from poor to somewhat mediocre. ;)
When it came time for flipturns, she had me start on an end and turn in the middle of the pool (where you don't push on anything). After doing that for a while, I finally worked up the courage to do it against a real wall. Once I became comfortable with that (we're probably talking 2-3 weeks), then her advice was to work my way up to doing all of my freestyle with flipturns.
I'm guessing I probably swam 2000 to 2500 per swim then, with 90% as freestyle. Most of that freestyle was straight swims; I'd do something like one flip for every 4-5 turns, then one for every 3, then every 2, until I was doing it all the time. I'm guessing this took another 2-3 weeks before I felt comfortable flipping on every turn.
I do remember that when I went back to my college and did lap swim a few people said that I looked much better.
When I started grad school after that, there was a swimming group (kind of like masters) that I joined, and knowing flipturns helped immensely. Then of course once I was a part of a real USMS group.
Most of my swimming now is focused on open water. There are (normally) no walls, so no flipping. But when I'm in a pool I still do flipturns without even thinking. I think that is key--just get in the habit of doing them, and they really don't become a big deal.
And full disclosure--I do have asthma, and occasionally have breathing problems while swimming (although it is pretty rare, and has been a long time since I remember it happening). I don't think the asthma has had any impact on my ability to flip.
