Flip Turns Can U get Hurt? Tips Please!

Don't worry that you start out a little far. It takes practice when I first did flip turns on freestyle it was the lack of oxgen that effective me. I had not done them in 27 years. I still do backstroke now with an open turn

Make sure your goggles lenses are not misted over!

You mentioned the swimmers who make it look easy. Have you tried watching what they do, but under water? I've noticed that flip turns seem to vary in the details from swimmer to swimmer, but the differences are not readily apparent from the pool deck. All you can see from above the surface is cheeks, feet, splash. Next time you're in the pool and there are swimmers who make it look easy swimming around you, stop, dunk, and watch them. Make a note of where their hands are, how their bodies are positioned when their feet hit the wall, etc. Then try to emulate them. You also mentioned that you do them slowly. They'll probably get remarkably easier when you get the confidence in your position to do them faster. I find that if I flip too slowly I'll sink too much, end up in entirely the wrong place and get a bad push off the wall. Then again, I usually do open turns, because I don't compete and don't really need the time edge. I can do them, quite well in fact, but I'm just lazy. :D I'm interested to see if anyone has an answer to your question about the benefits of flip turns to lap swimmers if you're not competing, 'cuz I don't know them if there are.

As your skills in swimming advance, you'll learn that most of your power should come from your "core"-- your torso and thru the hips. That's why great swimmers have that distinct shape with big lats and flat abs. Those abs help heave those legs over during flip turns. So becoming proficient at flip turns can add to the power of your core, just like sit-ups or crunches will do. You can also practice hard, fast flips away from the wall so you can get the flip down without worry of hitting your heels on the gutter. I find it very difficult to do a flip turn slowly. Momentum will help get the legs over.

AND keep your eyes open! I think it is a natural thing for a person to close their eyes, or at least blink, because that cross on the wall is coming up awfully fast. I use to close my eyes just as I was tucking for the flip and would always wabble over to the left. I force myself to keep my eyes open now and I go over straight every time. Also seeing, as well as feeling, 'where' I was in the turn, as opposed to just feeling where I was, when I first started learning to do the flip turn helped a lot. I started out practicing just doing a complete flip way back from the wall then I moved up closer to the wall. Once I felt comfortable flipping up-close, I practiced flipping over, 'stopping' when I was on my back, planting my feet on the wall with my knees and hips in the correct postion, and pushing off on my back. I learned the importance of being streamed lined pushing off on my back. Its like puting on breaks if you aren't stretched out completely FLAT with your head between your arms. Then the next logical thing to practice was pushing off and twisting to prone. I did all of this practice at the wall, being just far enough back that I might take one stroke before I filpped over. After I got comfortable with it at the wall thats when I moved back, outside the flags a little ways and started approaching the wall at a slow to moderate pace. It didn't take long before I felt ready to approach the wall swimming fast. Everyone is right... the oxygen debt is the worse part of the flip so be careful not to get in the habit of popping your head up just before the flip to sneak a little breath.

Open Turns? Do You mean going to the wall and just turning and coming back? Also How do you keep water from your nose when flipping? Breathing out thru the nose? I can flip if I am in deep water and not too much speed now but had to get a nose pinch. I could answer my own question about is it really needed by saying that I have been swimming laps for 20 plus years and just "Do my Own Thing" but was intrested in any value there may be in the flip turn from others. It is fun to do them in a way and in time I am sure I will improve. I would add to others that may see this thread and want to start these flip turns to take them easy and build up the speed with practice. I will take the tip to look at the swimmers underwater to see how they do these turns.

Originally posted by Shaky Then again, I usually do open turns, because I don't compete and don't really need the time edge. I can do them, quite well in fact, but I'm just lazy. :D I'm interested to see if anyone has an answer to your question about the benefits of flip turns to lap swimmers if you're not competing, 'cuz I don't know them if there are. What I'm about to say may be heresy in this forum, but I'll say it anyway :) . I think Shaky make a good point -- flip turns are mainly a competitive technique and they're not mandatory even in competition. In fact, many swimmers use open turns in races. The main benefit is to shave a little time off. So it seems to me that a beginning swimmer -- particularly one not interested in competing -- who really feels uncomfortable with them would be better off focusing on good basic swimming technique rather than be intimidated by more "advanced" skills. Those can be learned if and when he or she gets the urge to compete (or just to look cool :) ).

This may sound strange, but one of the advantages of flip turns for me is that they help my back. I have chronic lower back problems, and, contrary to what you might think, my back feels better after I do several flip turns in a workout (the first one is usually pretty uncomfortable, but after that everything's stretched out and my back feels better). I realize this is probably NOT the case for most people with lower back problems, but doing flip turns works for me. The main reason to use them, though, is that they don't provide as much rest as doing open turns (yes, an open turn means you swim up to the wall, grab it with your hands, turn around, and push off with your feet). Doing flip turns allows you to have a more continuous, therefore more vigorous, workout. If you're getting a vigorous enough workout just making it up and down the pool, you probably don't need the extra effort of doing a flip turn. As you surmised, the way to keep water from going up your nose while doing a flip turn is to exhale while you're flipping. Works well once you get the hang of it!

I am laughing because I have seen exactly the same thing, splashy flips by swimmers that were not "really fast" and thought they were doing this to show off. Now I dont care about my swim speed and I dont bother to count my laps either. I swim for the exercise benefit and I do get a laugh out of some of the swimmers who think they are trying out for the olympic team and get way too serious. I can understand people wanting to be like Olympic swimmers and competeing against others in their age group and not realizing how much splash they put up. Actually we all would take a lesson or two if we saw ourselves on video tape swimming.

Originally posted by MegSmath As you surmised, the way to keep water from going up your nose while doing a flip turn is to exhale while you're flipping. Works well once you get the hang of it! I'm guessing lapswimmr will have less of a problem with water up the nose when he/she speeds up the flip. If you do them more quickly, there's less time upside down for the water to rush in, and you lose less air trying to exhale to keep it out. There was also a mention of "show offing." It's funny that it was brought up, because I've recently noticed a number of people at my pool who seem to get some sort of big thrill out of making the biggest splash they can with their flip turns. I'm not just talking about a good, solid flip that gets you back toward the middle of the pool in a hurry. There's one guy who brings his legs WAY up out of the water and slams them down with as much force as he can muster, such that his body is almost straightened out already upon impact. I've seen him send kick boards and bouys resting on the gutter sailing across the deck on a wave. He has upended little old ladies with that flip. Okay, not really. But ironically, although his turns look impressive, he wastes a lot of time and energy in them, and I actually get off the wall much faster with my open turns. For that matter, the same thing goes with splashy strokes. We have people here who don't seem to think they're working out unless each arm smacks the water hard enough that the resulting splash reaches the ceiling. It's like they have some vendetta against the water and are bent on beating it into submission. You can hear them in there from down the street: SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! Okay, I'm exaggerating again, you have to get inside the building to hear them. What I've noticed with both these types of show offs is that if there aren't many people in the pool, they seem to ease off. I usually just ignore them, but occasionally one will try to pace off me, and I can see and feel them plowing alongside me for a lap or so, with the lane ropes bobbing frantically as if they're trying to get out of the way. I want to tell them that they'd get a lot more distance and speed if they'd smooth it out; but since it's not really my place to tell anybody else how to swim, I just content myself to outrun them.:D Then, of course, there are the ones who don't just smack the water, but also the other swimmers. :( See my signature...