I am still new to swimming, so as practicing at the local pool I noticed that people do turns in freestyle differently.Some do a turn when you kinda do the somersault and some just sort of dive in and then just flip over on their side and then push off the wall.Obviously I cannot do either right now so I was wondering which one is the best to do and what is the exact way to do it.
Thanks.
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Former Member
Originally posted by Guvnah
... In fact, as I am flipping, I am already extending my legs outward toward the wall so that, on my best turns I am almost fully (if not entirely fully extended) when my feet hit the wall. I have not reall noticed how much of the spring off the wall is in my legs as opposed to just my feet, but I would say that almost all of my spring comes from my calf muscles and my feet, not my quads and hamstrings. And yes, at the point I push off, I am still on my back.
After posting this, I did some visualization about what happens as my feet hit the wall and I remembered some more details.
My feet actually hit the water significantly before they hit the wall. And yes, I am fully extended at that moment. The way I flip allows me to maintain pretty good forward momentum towards the wall, and my toes are pointed towards the wall. (A side benefit to this is that I NEVER hit the top of the wall with my feet or heels.)
As my toes touch the wall I actually bend my legs slightly and glide a small amount closer to the wall so that I can get extra spring off the wall. I "catch" myself and stop my momentum into the wall with the flex in my knees and hips, and quickly push off. I do nothing to start my rotation until the very last touch of my toes, and that's where the "finesse" I mentioned before comes in.
Originally posted by Guvnah
... In fact, as I am flipping, I am already extending my legs outward toward the wall so that, on my best turns I am almost fully (if not entirely fully extended) when my feet hit the wall. I have not reall noticed how much of the spring off the wall is in my legs as opposed to just my feet, but I would say that almost all of my spring comes from my calf muscles and my feet, not my quads and hamstrings. And yes, at the point I push off, I am still on my back.
After posting this, I did some visualization about what happens as my feet hit the wall and I remembered some more details.
My feet actually hit the water significantly before they hit the wall. And yes, I am fully extended at that moment. The way I flip allows me to maintain pretty good forward momentum towards the wall, and my toes are pointed towards the wall. (A side benefit to this is that I NEVER hit the top of the wall with my feet or heels.)
As my toes touch the wall I actually bend my legs slightly and glide a small amount closer to the wall so that I can get extra spring off the wall. I "catch" myself and stop my momentum into the wall with the flex in my knees and hips, and quickly push off. I do nothing to start my rotation until the very last touch of my toes, and that's where the "finesse" I mentioned before comes in.
