When I swam in high school I never had any instruction from a coach. Our coach's philosophy was if you wanted better times you had to swim faster. Technique was never mentioned.
I just got back into swimming last year and have talked to several swmmers at the club I workout at. One mentioned USMS which brought me here. I have read several of the training articles and have applied some of them to my workouts. My times have improved but I still have a long way to go.
My concern now is flip turns. I have been doing open turns and log a time of around 37 minutes for 2000 meters. I know I can dramatically improve that time if I did flip turns but my flip turns leave be gasping for air. I turn head down at the wall and use arms and legs to ball up and create the turn all the while exhaling every bit of air in my lungs. I exhale to that degree to keep water out of my nose as I have a slight allergy to chlorine and it leaves my nose burning if water gets in. When I complete the turn it leaves me exhausted and I can't keep the pace I do when I use open turns.
I know there has to be a better way to do a flip turn where I won't be gasping for air when I complete it. Does anyone know of a website or book or something that analyzes the flip turn so I can rid myself of this problem?
Thanks,
Julie
Parents
Former Member
Julie,
USMS has videos you can rent and the one titled "ASCTA 21st Century Swimming Volume 6: Starts, Turns and Finishes" is pretty good. It's taught by Josh Davis. He walks through how to do a flip turn and gives tips. Go to Merchandise link, to Videos, to Video Lending Library. There is at least one other turns video in addition to the one I mention above.
I used to expend my air and energy doing flip turns (or attempting them) until I watched this video and then did some further reading and asking other swimmers. I learned the amount of energy used by your arms and legs is minimal but the more important movement is when you tuck your head down and the rest of the body follows in the tuck. Of course, I often see more experienced swimmers who do them looking effortlessly.
I noticed at the Olympic trials that many of those swimmers don't even breath after their flip turn until their 2nd or 3rd or 4th stroke in freestyle. I generally breath on my 1st stroke right now.
Dan
Julie,
USMS has videos you can rent and the one titled "ASCTA 21st Century Swimming Volume 6: Starts, Turns and Finishes" is pretty good. It's taught by Josh Davis. He walks through how to do a flip turn and gives tips. Go to Merchandise link, to Videos, to Video Lending Library. There is at least one other turns video in addition to the one I mention above.
I used to expend my air and energy doing flip turns (or attempting them) until I watched this video and then did some further reading and asking other swimmers. I learned the amount of energy used by your arms and legs is minimal but the more important movement is when you tuck your head down and the rest of the body follows in the tuck. Of course, I often see more experienced swimmers who do them looking effortlessly.
I noticed at the Olympic trials that many of those swimmers don't even breath after their flip turn until their 2nd or 3rd or 4th stroke in freestyle. I generally breath on my 1st stroke right now.
Dan
