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
Former Member
Hey Hursute -- Thanks for the link to that video clip!
Jules -- One thing about flip turns as compared to an open turn is that you get an extra breath at the wall on the open turn. So yes, you're gonna have to build up some new stamina to accommodate the loss of a breath on the flip turn.
A common mistake a lot of people make on a flip turn is to poke their arms out at 90 degrees to your body and spin them around to help them flip over. Once they've flipped, they then have to expend the time (and energy!) to get their arms back in line with their body.
You can see from the video in Hursute's link that the guy keeps his arms parallel to his body. Before he flips he ends up with both arms at his side. And then his chin tuck and a subtle dolphin kick (plus his momentum) do the work to get his body over. And once he flips, his arms are already almost completely in front of him and ready to go.
And notice that his feet hit the wall pretty much while he's still on his back. I find that the more I am on my back when I hit the wall, the less I've sunk in the water. But if I try to rotate while I'm flipping, I start ending up too deep.
Originally posted by Guvnah
And notice that his feet hit the wall pretty much while he's still on his back. I find that the more I am on my back when I hit the wall, the less I've sunk in the water. But if I try to rotate while I'm flipping, I start ending up too deep.
Don't rotate until after you've pushed off the wall. Makes for a faster turn. You should be pushing off on your back/side. Then rotating on to your stomach as you start your kick.
You bet, Doc!
And, in fact, I think that Total Immersion teaches swimmers to be far more rotated in the water on your stroke than the average swimmer does. So instead of having to rotate 180 degrees after pushing off, under that discipline you're really only rotating 90 anyway.
Two days ago, while at the pool working out, I realized that I cannot for the life of me do a flip-turn! I kept on trying and trying, only to not even "roll" and once I nearly got it, but managed to get a little bit of water in my left ear (I successfully shook the water out immidiately) and was wondering if there are an downloadable video clips on how to do a flip turn?
I'd like to know how to do flip turns
