Turns

To everything, turn, turn. There is a season, turn, turn. I have always believed that the best way to improve your turn is to turn. Do thousands of them. I could not tell you how many turns I've done just this past week, let alone a life time of swimminig. Are you swimming into the wal or coasting. Also, remember with free, turns don't have to be perfiect. As my fathe r used to say, "Perfection, seldom acheived, often ignored."

Originally posted by Draconis ...some of them just seem to glide into their turns with no speed at all, but they build up huge momentum during the turn, finishing the turn with their legs almost straight and very far away from the wall, but still be able to get a good pushoff that's not deep at all. So, how do I get my tumble turn to work? How can I turn fast enough and with my legs relatively straight? Maybe other people are different, but when I flip with straight-ish legs, it is because I've let my mind wander. Straight legs will cause you to rotate slower than a tuck, and your push-off will probably suffer. (It takes more effort, so it feels like a more powerful turn. Much like more water resistance makes you feel like you are swimming faster, even though you may not be.) When you say "no speed at all", are you looking at their upper body, or their hips? They are probably transfering their "whole-body" speed to just their hips and legs. If you dive slightly with the upper body, and can get your hips still moving forward at the surface, that will naturally cause you to rotate. What might help you is to swim to mid-pool (far away from the walls), and practice flips. Practice doing a full 360 or a double 720 sommersault. Once you get comfortable with that, then you can go back to the walls and find what works for your turn.

Every time you are in a lane next to someone of similar speed, in your head make every flip a race from the final, pre-flip stroke to the breakout. After beating them, let them catch you, match strokes, and do it again on the next wall. This doesn't interfere with a regular workout, and I guarantee it will have you thinking about your turns and getting over and off the wall quickly. It also will drive the person next to you nuts. It's even better if they are a little faster swimmer than you.

great description of a turn. The one thing that strikes me about your description is something my coach said to me... but not in so many words "When you plant your feet on the wall you should be on your back staring at the ceiling (or sky)..." One day as I was thinking about what she had said as I was doing a turn I suddendly realized... ceiling, what ceiling? Instinctively, I was closing my eyes as I excelerated into the wall. Well, why shouldn't I? When you are about to run into something you close your eyes. The next turn I forced myself to I kept my eyes open. I didn't see the ceiling, I saw the side of the pool to my right. That's when I realized why I wasn't going over straight. It was because I had my eyes closed and the lack of visual feedback didn't help me to get into the right position. The next turn I did more slowly and when I felt my feet on the wall, I corrected where I was looking and memorized how that position felt. After several more attempts of getting into the right position to push off the wall and memorizing how it felt I started going over straight. I can now flip WITH my eyes closed. It takes practice. Swim out past the flags, swim towards the wall, flip, streamline, push, twist and glide... try to glide a little bit further each time. From the point you stop, turn around and swim back toward the wall. Repeat numerous times. Lainey

Try setting up your turn more consciously. Accelerate into the wall, don't wait for the wall to come to you. Both arms should be at your side as your head dips down. You should try to feel like you are falling into the turn, not wrestling the turn. Transfer of momentum is what its all about..... fast in..... fast out. As you head dips down..... hands should come up toward the face as your arms bend at the elbows. This allows you to counter balance and help pull your feet coming over the top even faster. Do not look at your feet touching the wall when you are on your back. If you do you will have to straighten you head up when you push off. Remember, the tighter the spin the faster the spin. Big floppy legs are inefficient. Get you head down as you come in and stay tight in a ball as you turn. Try to think of letting your knees and thighs fall downward on to your stomach as they come over the top. Hands and forearms pull toward your face as you go into the turn initially helping to accelerate your spin and then extend behind your neck and stretch above your head as you push off. Note the initial push off is actually on your back and then rotate on to your stomach as you are leaving the wall. When you plant your feet on the wall you should be on your back staring at the ceiling (or sky)... not your feet. Try to fall into your turns more effortlessly...... stay tight in a ball for faster spin ...... and plant your feet deep enough for a long underwater escape. Remember.... when you're old, turns are the only way to beat someone that actually trains...... :-) John Smith

Okay thanks everyone for the advice. I think the problem was my dolphin kick just before the turn - I think I did it too early. Today I tried doing one after I began to turn. NOW my turns feel like they're faster and I have more momentum turning. Will keep on practicing the turns and thanks again for the advice. Any further advice is welcome too.

GoToSwimWorldMagazine.com The premium, look at the archives for freestyle. There are several good turn pictures.

I am by no means the fastest swimmer around and many of the members here have forgotten more about swimming than I will probably ever know. However, I have found that the quickest way through a turn is to make it one continual motion...no hesitation before pushing off of the wall. I heard somewhere to imagine that the wall is scorching hot and you don't want your feet spending a lengthy period of time there, sounds like good advice. I make a small dolphin kick as I enter the turn and tuck in preparation for the flip. As I flip over with my legs tucked in I am already anticipating when my feet will be in the right position to launch me from the wall. I often feel that my turn is the fastest part of my lap or race. What is so great about turns is that doing them right does not take any more energy that doing them poorly (in fact a poor turn saps more stamina from you than a good turn). Because of this I practice doing my turns correctly with every lap I swim during practice. I also find that a fast turn is easier to perform than a slow turn. Even when I am swimming at a slow pace I will still tend to make my turn in an agressive manner. Something that helped me get my turns nailed down was to watch the wall as my feet dropped into the water. by doing this you will know when the time is right to plant your feet and blast off from the wall. When I first started it was quite common for me to either push myself towards the pool bottom or directly up to the surface. Good luck.

Okay, thanks everyone. I've been practising the turn a lot during my swims and I think I"m getting the hang of it. Just one question though: I read somewhere (and I've seen really good swimmers do this too) that during the turn the angle between the thigh and the calf (so the knee part) should be about 90 to 110 degrees? But if we're trying to have a tigther tuck, wouldn't it make sense to have that angle very small? So why do good turners have a 90 to 110 angle then, which makes the tuck less tight?

"Just one question though: I read somewhere (and I've seen really good swimmers do this too) that during the turn the angle between the thigh and the calf (so the knee part) should be about 90 to 110 degrees? But if we're trying to have a tigther tuck, wouldn't it make sense to have that angle very small? So why do good turners have a 90 to 110 angle then, which makes the tuck less tight?" Hmmm. I'll make up an answer. When you get your feet on the wall, you want to have your legs bent in a power position for a strong pushoff which would not be a full squat but more like a 90 degree angle. If you are that close to the wall (full squat) you have also had to swim an 12" or so. It also lets you get your legs out of the water where there's less resistance ? I find that an big part of a good turn is a very strong contraction of the abdominal muscles (or is it hip flexors? I'll have to pay more attention) when you dip your head to initiate the turn. I think that causes some rebound action that helps the legs move over the top faster and plant at the correct depth on the wall. By using your abs/flexors you don't need your arms so much and can get them overhead faster so you are already in a good streamlined position by the time your feet are on the wall.