I have seen a few drills for flip turns (one in a recent USMS SWIMMER magazine article, another as a series on GoSwimWeekly) emphasizing "weightless hands/arms" going into the turn, so that you use your core rather than your arms to get you around.
Others have told me it is critical to throw water over your shoulder as you turn, either with one or both arms, keeping your elbows locked to your side but pushing water toward your head with your palm(s) and after that motion going into streamline.
This seems to go against weightless arms/hands streamlined against your side as you go into and out of the turn.
Do people consciously throw water over their shoulders as they turn, or is this just an unconscious but natural consequence of a powerful turn?
Are the weightless arm/hand drills a good way to teach and practice flip turns? I've found these drills helpful but want the best turns I can get and wonder about other, better flippers than me.
That said, I am sure there are a million ways to do flip turns.
I searched this forum for answers to this; couldn't find anything specific, though I'm quite sure it's been discussed. If so, someone please direct me to the thread?
When I was learning the flip turn (some odd 25+ years ago so things may have changed), our coach instructed us to do what you described in the first post. Basically as you were flipping, you would put your palms facing towards your head and flex your biceps pushing water and helping your turn. If you were to actually watch someone do it from a resting frame of reference, you would see the whole body roll over while the arms would look like they didn't actually move. We were also instructed on the dolphin kick.
I do think that both the arm flex and the dolphin kick are exaggerated movements intended only for learning the feeling of a good turn, though. I don't think it was intended as a continual practice because now my arms sort of follow that postioning but don't actually contribute to the force of turning. Also, I don't exactly do a full dolphin kick, but instead my lower body kind of quickly shimmies (like a small crack of a whip) to give the impetus to the turning motion. And turns are probably the only good part of my swimming.
When I was learning the flip turn (some odd 25+ years ago so things may have changed), our coach instructed us to do what you described in the first post. Basically as you were flipping, you would put your palms facing towards your head and flex your biceps pushing water and helping your turn. If you were to actually watch someone do it from a resting frame of reference, you would see the whole body roll over while the arms would look like they didn't actually move. We were also instructed on the dolphin kick.
I do think that both the arm flex and the dolphin kick are exaggerated movements intended only for learning the feeling of a good turn, though. I don't think it was intended as a continual practice because now my arms sort of follow that postioning but don't actually contribute to the force of turning. Also, I don't exactly do a full dolphin kick, but instead my lower body kind of quickly shimmies (like a small crack of a whip) to give the impetus to the turning motion. And turns are probably the only good part of my swimming.
