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?
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Former Member
Hmm oddly enough, I go out of my way to not use the wall as much as possible, even when flipping, when doing a LD swim for OW practice. My thoughts are it's better to get used to not having the maximum push off so that my muslces work a longer distance.
As for open turns...sometimes do them on drills, or with boards and fins etc. Then again I swim alone or with just one other...so silmutaneous arrival at the wall can force me to open rather than collide--I flip 90% of the time...
Hmm oddly enough, I go out of my way to not use the wall as much as possible, even when flipping, when doing a LD swim for OW practice. My thoughts are it's better to get used to not having the maximum push off so that my muslces work a longer distance.
As for open turns...sometimes do them on drills, or with boards and fins etc. Then again I swim alone or with just one other...so silmutaneous arrival at the wall can force me to open rather than collide--I flip 90% of the time...
