I will never race in a pool. If I race at all, it will be in open water.
I can do flip turns, but I don't think they are very good. When I do them, my head is directly under the backstroke flags when I take my first breath. With open turns, my head is about a length beyond the flags.
When I do flip turns, I notice a lot more cardio stress. I don't really recover until about half a length.
Is there a training benefit to doing flip turns in practice that will help me in open water? Does that second or two of holding my breath help me at all in terms of conditioning?
Sarge, I feel your pain!
I was doing flip turns for a bit. I'm very new to them and thought I'd gotten the technique until one swim when I think I was tired: I somehow messed up the flip and had a hard time resurfacing. When I did, I had a severe leg cramp that almost put an end to that night's swim. Since then, I've tried to do flip turns and tense up so I can't complete them. Of late, I've done no flip turns, just open turns--which seem to have gotten more efficient with practice, so that even though I don't flip over, I also can often do them without taking a breath.
So it's good to know that some of the breath control work can be accomplished by not taking a breath through an open turn. Once my long race is over, I wouldn't mind giving the flip turn another try, but right now, I don't need another source of stress while swimming.
Other things I do for breathing: sometimes work on breathing 3, then 5, then 7 (seven's very, very hard, still, five I can usually manage). But mostly, I focus on trying to keep a good rhythm with a breath-on-three pattern. Once I couldn't do bilateral breathing without getting water up my nose, but now it comes naturally. Maybe someday the flip turn will too.
Sarge, I feel your pain!
I was doing flip turns for a bit. I'm very new to them and thought I'd gotten the technique until one swim when I think I was tired: I somehow messed up the flip and had a hard time resurfacing. When I did, I had a severe leg cramp that almost put an end to that night's swim. Since then, I've tried to do flip turns and tense up so I can't complete them. Of late, I've done no flip turns, just open turns--which seem to have gotten more efficient with practice, so that even though I don't flip over, I also can often do them without taking a breath.
So it's good to know that some of the breath control work can be accomplished by not taking a breath through an open turn. Once my long race is over, I wouldn't mind giving the flip turn another try, but right now, I don't need another source of stress while swimming.
Other things I do for breathing: sometimes work on breathing 3, then 5, then 7 (seven's very, very hard, still, five I can usually manage). But mostly, I focus on trying to keep a good rhythm with a breath-on-three pattern. Once I couldn't do bilateral breathing without getting water up my nose, but now it comes naturally. Maybe someday the flip turn will too.
