This question has come up offline so I thought I'd post the question to find out the rule about this transitional turn between the IM's back and *** since I no longer do IMs.
Years ago, a flip turn between back and *** was allowed; it was not the new "freestyle" back turn, a swimmer could touch the wall in backstroke, and then flip over to enter the breastroke. Now I believe more swimmers are backstroking into the wall and open turning into the breaststroke portion of the IM.
For all of you Im'ers out there, what is now legal: both turns or does a swimmer have to do an "open turn"?
Donna
I haven't really worked on this yet, but I'm sure it would be valuable for the 100 IM. (I need air on my 200s.) I have always done an open turn at meets. I guess I could do the spin turn pretty easily. I've done that in practice. My biggest problem is not the flexibility, but for some odd reason, I really prefer hitting the wall with my left hand. I feel really awkward spinning when I hit the wall with my right hand. I don't even like flipping to my right side on a regular backstroke turn. I'd rather flip to the left before I turn. Does anyone else have this issue? It seems odd to me to swim a 100 IM and only use a spin or flip if I hit with my left hand ... Then the whole length of backstroke I'd be worried about which hand I'd be flipping with. I guess I should count strokes, but I'm not that consistent. Depends how the SDKs and all go. Maybe I'll put rollover turn on my to do list instead of breaststroke.
I haven't really worked on this yet, but I'm sure it would be valuable for the 100 IM. (I need air on my 200s.) I have always done an open turn at meets. I guess I could do the spin turn pretty easily. I've done that in practice. My biggest problem is not the flexibility, but for some odd reason, I really prefer hitting the wall with my left hand. I feel really awkward spinning when I hit the wall with my right hand. I don't even like flipping to my right side on a regular backstroke turn. I'd rather flip to the left before I turn. Does anyone else have this issue? It seems odd to me to swim a 100 IM and only use a spin or flip if I hit with my left hand ... Then the whole length of backstroke I'd be worried about which hand I'd be flipping with. I guess I should count strokes, but I'm not that consistent. Depends how the SDKs and all go. Maybe I'll put rollover turn on my to do list instead of breaststroke.
