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?
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?
Open turns are exhausting, inefficient and slow. They are also disruptive to lane mates if they are flipping and you aren't.
I tell my tri buddies that if they learn to flip their swimming will improve overall. By doing a good flip turn you can focus on putting your energy into the swimming as opposed to turning, which will help you tremendously in an OW race. Flips force you to a correct body position immediately off the wall. Plus, when you flip, you use your momentun to come in/set/push off as opposed to the dead start from every open turn. Just think, with an open turn your are coming to a dead stop and restarting every lap but with a flip you use that energy from swimming to ease the turn, thus better swimming.
If you want proof of how much better flips are for swimming, swim next to somone with equal abilities as you and see how much faster they swim the same set due to flipping.
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?
Open turns are exhausting, inefficient and slow. They are also disruptive to lane mates if they are flipping and you aren't.
I tell my tri buddies that if they learn to flip their swimming will improve overall. By doing a good flip turn you can focus on putting your energy into the swimming as opposed to turning, which will help you tremendously in an OW race. Flips force you to a correct body position immediately off the wall. Plus, when you flip, you use your momentun to come in/set/push off as opposed to the dead start from every open turn. Just think, with an open turn your are coming to a dead stop and restarting every lap but with a flip you use that energy from swimming to ease the turn, thus better swimming.
If you want proof of how much better flips are for swimming, swim next to somone with equal abilities as you and see how much faster they swim the same set due to flipping.
