All the other transitions seem pretty straight-forward to me, and I think I get off the wall pretty quickly on those, but for some reason I feel like I'm hanging on the wall too long on the back-to-*** and I just know I'm doing something wrong.
Should I be facing the opposite wall when i let go of the wall? or is facing the side ok?
Anyone have a trick or a technique for getting feet on the wall quickly?
Any help or advice you all can give is greatly appreciated.
Thanks guys!
Thanks for those videos - what I have been doing resembles neither one of those. I wish I knew the term for what I've been doing - i've been leaning into the wall with whichever hand touches first, grabbing the gutter, pulling myself into the wall, somehow getting my feet on the wall, dropping down onto my opposite side and pushing off. I guess I'd call it an open turn. All I know is that it completely destoys my momentum and it's incredibly slow
At the very least, I've learned from these videos that the hand touches underwater and stays there. The female swimmer is doing something that I can't quite figure out. The male swimmer's technique looks closer to what I have been doing so maybe I'll use that as my model.
THanks for posting these videos - I'll study them to see what I can emulate.
Any advice that could talk me through the steps would be most appreciated
Thanks everybody
You should definitely be facing the side as you touch.
Maybe others who have coached this transition more recently can give tips for getting your feet off the wall quickly.
All the other transitions seem pretty straight-forward to me, and I think I get off the wall pretty quickly on those, but for some reason I feel like I'm hanging on the wall too long on the back-to-*** and I just know I'm doing something wrong.
Should I be facing the opposite wall when i let go of the wall? or is facing the side ok?
Anyone have a trick or a technique for getting feet on the wall quickly?
Any help or advice you all can give is greatly appreciated.
Thanks guys!
Are you doing the IM flip turn, bucket turn, or open turn?
Here's a couple of videos of the back to *** flip turns (thanks to Jim Matysek for the new embedded video feature!):
YouTube - IM - Sievinen back-*** turn
YouTube - IM - Back-***-turn2
These seem to be the most prevalent these days.
The shorter the IM, the more likely that elite swimmers flip as shown above.
For many masters swimmers, the oxygen debt that you go into from doing a flip-turn is not worth the split second gain in time as opposed to an open turn.
Hard to explain in words...Can't do any better than a video...
But here was the key for me:
As your reaching with you hand for the wall, you'll be rotating on your side (but your shoulders are NOT past the vertical so as to be on or toward your stomach.)
That leading shoulder will be high and you will be facing one side wall of the pool (see the girl facing the camera at the 2 second mark.)
After doing your flip, you'll be pushing off on your side facing the opposite side of the pool (see the 3 second mark.)
And as you push off you make sure to keep twisting so that when your feet leave the wall your shoulders ARE past the vertical (so you are NOT on or toward your back.)
BTW, both of these swimmers did the same turn:)
Good luck
Thanks for those videos - what I have been doing resembles neither one of those. I wish I knew the term for what I've been doing - i've been leaning into the wall with whichever hand touches first, grabbing the gutter, pulling myself into the wall, somehow getting my feet on the wall, dropping down onto my opposite side and pushing off. I guess I'd call it an open turn. All I know is that it completely destoys my momentum and it's incredibly slow
At the very least, I've learned from these videos that the hand touches underwater and stays there. The female swimmer is doing something that I can't quite figure out. The male swimmer's technique looks closer to what I have been doing so maybe I'll use that as my model.
THanks for posting these videos - I'll study them to see what I can emulate.
Any advice that could talk me through the steps would be most appreciated
Thanks everybody
Of course they are the same turn! For some reason, they looked a little different to me - I guess it was the angle. Silly me.
So I went to the pool today and tried to put this together. You know how when you think too hard about something, you just get paralyzed? I kept going to the wall, planting my hand on the wall and just freezing. I couldn't figure out the next move. I finally got something going but it was more like a lopsided back somersault. And while it seemed way faster than what I had been doing, it didn't resemble the video at all.
Their feet never leave the water right? It all happens so fast, I can't figure out what they're doing.
I'm going to keep working on this. Thanks for setting me off in the right direction - I'm still open to suggestions though.
Mmmmm - I'm beginning to agree with you on this. I think a short one-on-one with someone will set me straight. I actually know a couple of kids at school who swim USS - I could probably strong-arm at least one of them into giving the old lady a couple of minutes over at the Y.
Gigi: you're in Worcester, Mass. There are some good programs in the general area. Maybe register and go to a swim meet and introduce yourself here (again) before hand. Maybe somebody could walk you through it in the warm-up area.
Another option is to head on over to Harvard (45+ minutes away??) and workout w/ their masters team for a session. There's gotta be somebody on these boards that could meet up w/ you.
It's hard to make the corrections if we're not there to see what you're doing wrong.
