Flip Turns

Practice! Practice! Practice! No open turns during your workout, only flip turns. Eventually you will find that flip turns have becomce easier, faster, and less tiring than open turns.

As stated earlier, the key is practice. You also should have someone who can teach proper flip turn technique work with you and give you critique. I can tell you that if you stick with it they will get easier, both from a technique and a breathing standpoint. When I swam in high school I never did flip turns in practice, only in meets. Coming back many years later I decided it was something I should fix. I started out flipping 1/4 of my turns, then every other length, then gradually adding more and more until I was doing flip turns 100%. It took about 1-2 months for me to make it a consistent habit, by that I mean I don't think about "which turn should I use." At some point I was asked to demonstrate an open turn, started into it and messed it up because I flipped out of habit. I used to have pretty fast open turns, but that's all gone now. Just stick with it and make it a priority. :banana:

...like she said. www.svl.ch/learntheturn.html www.svl.ch/flipturn.html

Also goswim.tv has step by step instruction videos on learning flip turns. These REALLY helped me, when I was learning.

Watched a Tri friend in practice this morning who had complained about his slow turns earlier in the week. Turned out he was touching the wall with his hand before initiating the flip. He's a tall guy, so that must have been extra awkward. In case you are doing the same, you should know that on a freestyle flip turn you should not touch with your hand first, and you should initiate the turn close to when you are crossing the T for maximum thrust on your push off.

Also goswim.tv has step by step instruction videos on learning flip turns. These REALLY helped me, when I was learning. Agree--these are the best help I found on the Internet. Here's the url for the first one: YouTube - ‪Swimming - Turns - Freestyle Flip Turn Step #1‬‏ This series got me to where I could do a decent flip turn--slow, a little oxygen deprivation at times, but not embarrassing. To get to the next level, I took a lesson with my coach. I'm really glad I did that. No matter how much I practiced on my own, I wouldn't have known how to fix the small things I was getting wrong. Now, I feel like I'm on track to gradually improve with practice. I'm still not fast on the turns, but I'm getting there. I never get oxygen deprivation on these anymore. Good luck, and have fun.

Ok, this is coming from someone who used to be terrible at flip turns and is now only marginally improved. The reason for the marginal improvement is because of an advice by a swim instructor who told me to add a quick dolphin kick right before the turn. I've never seen or heard that little piece of advice discussed in any intructional material for flip turns. Before that, I could never get enough rotation or speed going into the wall and my turns were always extremely sloppy & slow. Now, just slightly less sloppy & slow. Anyway, then I was watching this excellent video and noticed KPN adding a little dolphin kick before HER turns (watch her at 0:39). I never would have noticed that if this instructor hadn't mentioned it... anyway, try it, practice it. I still suck but I'm getting better each day! YouTube - ‪KARLYN PIPES- NEILSEN FASTER FREESTYLE‬‏

When I was first trying to get a handle on flip turns, I couldn't generate enough speed :blush: to actually generate the turn properly. My coach told me to put on my fins, swim hard into the wall, then do the flip turn. That's all I needed. I knew what to do, but just couldn't do it. With the extra speed going in from the fins, it all fell into place. Once I knew what it was supposed to feel like, I began swimming harder into the wall without my fins on and my turns improved rapidly. Good luck!

I've never had any issues with flip turns as far as the turn and push off. I do struggle with oxygen deprivation at times so I am working on that. I'm always surprised how many people do open turns in the pool. and I mean pretty fast swimmers.

I think a flip turn will always be more aerobically demanding than an open turn, but faster.