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?
All you are doing is interrupting your swimming with speed up/slow down, guaranteed to ruin both your OW and pool swimming. I suggest you drop this silliness and do consistently paced flip turns so you keep your swimming and a constant pace, which is what you will want to do in OW swimming, unless you are planning on slowing down every 25 y/m in the lake or ocean. Even in a 25 y pool it is very easy to get into a pace.
All you are doing is interrupting your swimming with speed up/slow down, guaranteed to ruin both your OW and pool swimming. I suggest you drop this silliness and do consistently paced flip turns so you keep your swimming and a constant pace, which is what you will want to do in OW swimming, unless you are planning on slowing down every 25 y/m in the lake or ocean. Even in a 25 y pool it is very easy to get into a pace.
