How in the world do you approach the wall on the right side of the lane, flip, and depart on the other side without running into someone?
Up to this point, I guess have led a fairly charmed Masters Swimming life. On all the teams I've swum with, it was rare to circle swim. No more! I'm now swimming LCM with half a dozen others sharing the lane, which is great, but I can't flip turn now to save my life.
Normally, I come straight into the wall, flip straight over onto my back, come straight off the wall, and roll over in the streamline. That won't cut it in circle swim. How do you do it? I have to either lead the lane, and sneak over to the left coming into the wall, or go last and stay on the right.
What's the technique?
I usually try to hit the wall dead center, turning slightly inward after the 5-yard marker and heading slightly outward after I kick off. That keeps me close to the lane ropes both coming and going.
On our team, we try to go 10 seconds apart unless we've got a lot of people in a lane. This gives folks plenty of room to do a proper flip turn with the minimal amount of angling. As described above is generally how we do it.
One thing to note, however, that in all this, it is VERY easy for a swimmer to get used to this and start circling during pool races and swim at a slight angle generally (which comes in particularly unuseful during open water races). On top of that, it also contributes to pushing off the wall at strange angles. Be mindful of trying to keep your proper technique.
As mentioned above, the 10 seconds we have between swimmers on my team allows us to turn in early, hit the wall head on and push off straight without compromising our technique.
I usually try to hit the wall dead center, turning slightly inward after the 5-yard marker and heading slightly outward after I kick off. That keeps me close to the lane ropes both coming and going.
On our team, we try to go 10 seconds apart unless we've got a lot of people in a lane. This gives folks plenty of room to do a proper flip turn with the minimal amount of angling. As described above is generally how we do it.
One thing to note, however, that in all this, it is VERY easy for a swimmer to get used to this and start circling during pool races and swim at a slight angle generally (which comes in particularly unuseful during open water races). On top of that, it also contributes to pushing off the wall at strange angles. Be mindful of trying to keep your proper technique.
As mentioned above, the 10 seconds we have between swimmers on my team allows us to turn in early, hit the wall head on and push off straight without compromising our technique.
