Nausea after flip-turn

Hi!

     I learned to do flip-turn this week. I was so nauseous afterward. I actually threw up a bit after I got out of the pool. Does anyone also have an experience like this?  This had never happened to me before.  I'm learning flip-turn, so my turn wasn't straight. I'm in my 40s and just went back to swimming this year. I swam regularly as a teenager. I was never able to do flip-turn when I was a kid. But I liked to do somersaults in the pool. I didn't feel nauseous at all after doing somersaults in my childhood. However, I always get motion sickness when I ride a car/bus/airplane/helicopter.  I'm seeking suggestions as to how to learn flip-turn and avoid nausea. Or the structure of my ear/body makes me not suitable for flip-turn, maybe I'd better give it up? I would like to listen to your suggestions!  

  • You may have Meniere's.  I used to be able to do flip turns as a high school swimmer; however, as an adult, I can no longer do them for this reason.  For some reason, the inner ear fluid in my ears is such that I am able to do the old-style backstroke turns without a problem.

    My suggestion would be to have an ear exam with an Ear/Nose/Throat doctor to see what's going on.

    Good luck!

  • It's possible that your body just needs to get used to doing somersaults again.  I have a synchronized swimming background and in my 50s I wasn't doing any synchro for about 8 months.  The first time I went to synchro practice again after that 8 months, I was upside down and doing spins, and got really nauseous!  That was odd because I'd been doing flip turns and going upside down all my life with normal workouts and synchro workouts!  I was able to get back to doing the synchro moves, but started out slowly.  And even now after every swim workout, I go upside down and turn around, just so my body remembers what it feels like.  You may be able to adjust as well, by not doing a lot of flip turns to begin with.  Try only a couple one day, for a couple practices and then add some more as long as you're not feeling bad.  See if you can ease into it.