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?
Parents
Former Member
I can't imagine there is any benefit to your OW swimming at all by doing this. All you are doing is stopping and starting every lap so you aren't doing as much continuous swimming as if you were doing flip turns, or open turns, for that matter. If you had a good flip turn you could probably increase your yardage a ton, which would benefit training for your OW events more.
I just choose to push off easy and let my stroke take the burden. There is no wall in the Ocean every 50m/25y. It's not quite stop/start. Just not maximum velocity/distance off the wall. It certainly feels continous to me.
I can't imagine there is any benefit to your OW swimming at all by doing this. All you are doing is stopping and starting every lap so you aren't doing as much continuous swimming as if you were doing flip turns, or open turns, for that matter. If you had a good flip turn you could probably increase your yardage a ton, which would benefit training for your OW events more.
I just choose to push off easy and let my stroke take the burden. There is no wall in the Ocean every 50m/25y. It's not quite stop/start. Just not maximum velocity/distance off the wall. It certainly feels continous to me.
