Category: Swimming Techniques & Tips

This post is for those struggling with swimming flip turns. During the 2012–2013 winter season (the winter is when I do most of my swimming) I have found that open turns are faster for me, but nearly every source indicates that a flip turn is the only way to go when swimming freestyle. Hmmm, read on.

There are some great videos on how to do and improve an “open turn” at the bottom of this page. I have found that by doing this type of turn, instead of a flip turn, that my breathing issues have disappeared.

BASIC STEPS OF A FLIP TURN

>> Good individual photos. Hover over white boxes in photos for additional tips. Below are the relevant steps reviewed on this site called Instructables.

Step 1: SWIM TOWARDS THE WALL
Gain momentum towards the wall by swimming freestyle into the wall in the center of the lane (if possible). Generally, the more momentum you have, the faster your turn will be. However, be sure to start off slow on your first few practice runs! It doesn’t feel good to run into the wall.
Step 3: START ROLLING
When you are directly above the T on the bottom of the pool, begin your half-somersault. Tuck your chin, kick one last hard kick and finish your arm pull with your hands ending at your sides.
Step 4: DO THE FLIP
Tuck your knees and chin into your chest as tight as possible, and pull your feet into your butt. Use your arms to keep the somersault going by pushing the water up towards your ears with your palms and forearms.
Step 5: STRAIGHTEN UP
As you complete your half-somersault, straighten your arms out over your head and put one hand on top of the other. Point the tips of your fingers in the direction you want to go, which is directly down the pool. Be sure to squeeze your arms tight! From the waist up, you should be in a streamline: think of making your body match the shape of a torpedo. Long and tight!
PLANT THOSE FEET
Extend your legs out of the curled ball, and plant them squarely on the wall approximately 6” under the surface of the water, toes pointed up. As you get better, you will want to be close enough to the wall that your hips and knees are both making 90 degree angles, as is you’re sitting straight up in a chair.
Step 6: PUSH OFF
Launch yourself off the wall by straightening your legs and moving your entire body in a tight streamline (remember, torpedo-like). Staying on your back, push straight off of the wall. Remember to keep your eyes on the surface of the water and not on your toes or your destination!
Step 7: KICK
To maintain your momentum, kick your legs are you are leaving the wall. There are two types of kick to choose from at this point:

It all depends on your preference and what’s faster for you. As you become more comfortable with the turn, play around with both kicks to decide which is best for you.

OTHER SITES

1. Research indicating that flip turns can cut off 26 seconds in a 1650 yd Free Race
2. Flip turn videos (Triathlete site)
3. Five videos on how to do flip turns. Using a noodle is the first step.  They encourage you to NOT use your arms. Here are the other steps: two, three, four & five. (Videos from the huge GoSwim video library).
4. Also see this video or this one on mid-lap flips.
5. Semi-useful animation of flips.

OPEN TURNS (or as I call it…backwards flip turns)

From Go Swim: video 1, video 2, video 3 and video 4.
Traditional flip turns are generally accepted as the fastest way for freestyle stroke and an “open turn” is generally accepted as the fastest way for breaststroke or butterfly. Video 1 says that this method of an open turn, is as fast, if not faster than a flip turn. Personally I have found that this turn is much faster than the somersault flip turn. I don’t get a dizzy and get an extra breath this way.

Their mantra is “speed in” and “speed out,” the faster you approach the wall, the faster you will leave it. Be sure to NOT grab the wall and pull yourself into it.

Here it is February and I have been consistently swimming since November of last year (2 – 3x a week). On my last post I reported problems with bi-laterial breathing. I have finally settling into breathing on one side, every other stroke (instead of every third stroke as with bi-lateral), BUT I switch sides every 25-yard lap.

It seems my times for a mile are still rather slow, despite having plenty of endurance (42-47 minute miles). Last week, I asked the student coach at my pool to evaluate my kick technique. She said she noticed that my legs were sinking more than they ought to. Per her suggestion, I took a small paddle board and worked on kicking. Oddly enough, I still was not able to get my feet out of the basement…they just sink, causing a ton of drag (despite dropping my head down in front of me with the paddle board in my outstretched hands). After reading this site, I suspect my problem might related to my age-old ankle injury. My left ankle ankle, despite weeks of physical therapy, does not flex more than 10 or so degrees. Because I cannot point my toes, this could be causing a ton of drag, slowing down my overall performance.
Per this site, Karli Wilkinson says “In freestyle swimming, having flexible ankles can be a key part of your kick mobility. Increasing flexibility in your ankles allows your feet to act like flippers and gain more propulsion in the water.”

Hmmm….not much I can about that. In fact, at one point, I was considering having my ankle fused to reduce the pain when walking or hiking.

This fall, because it is too cold to cycle comfortably, and since there is not enough snow to ski, I have decided to try swimming for part of my cardio workout (I also visit the weight room). I have been going to the local college pool where I have been receiving lessons from a student there (Kamie at Snow College). As an adult I have never received formal lessons, so this is basically starting from scratch. She (and most other coaches) recommend bi-lateral breathing, or breathing from each side, i.e. taking a breath every third stroke. I can do the bi-lateral breathing OK, except that after a lap or two (25-50 yds), I just feel like I’m not getting enough air to swim continuous laps. I’m wondering, as a 57-year old, should I be breathing more often, like other second stroke? Below is some research I did online regarding this topic. Type bolding was added by me.

1 • Excellent video on breathing by Michael Phelps coach

2 • http://www.osbmultisport.com/articles/onesidebreathing.html > Bilateral is for shorter events only

3 • http://www.olympicswim.com/bilateral-breathing-should-you-breathe-to-both-sides-in-freestyle-swimming/ > Breath from both sides, but go a whole lap on each side before switching

4 • http://forums.usms.org/archive/index.php/t-15701.html > This guy has similar comments to what George Andersen said to me recently. “sjsturat” on this forum said:
“My solution is to do the majority of my practice yards breathing bilaterally, switching to breathe every two strokes only when the pace gets fast enough that breathing every 3 would limit my ability to hold the speed. Then in a race, I breathe every two. Those 1650 yards of lopsided breathing aren’t going to destroy my stroke, but the lack of oxygen would hurt my time.”

So no, I don’t practice like I race. I guess the bilateral breathing in practice is like a constant, low-grade drill.

5 • http://h2oustonswims.org/articles/breathe_how_often.html > “So, in training, while I do want swimmers practicing excellent breathing technique on both sides I encourage breathing on the left for this lap and on the right for the next lap, or perhaps breathing on the left for 200 and on the right for 200, and so on.”

6 • http://www.swimsplit.com/ssa1.htm > An excellent one-page primer. “Also, you should hold the air in your lungs until the moment just before your mouth breaks the surface. If you blow air out the whole time your face is in the water you may feel the need to inhale before you actually can. You’ll also lose buoyancy. So for most of your stroke you’re holding the air, then exhale-inhale just before and just after your mouth is above the waterline.” “If you need more oxygen than you can take-in every third stroke, breathe every second stroke and switch sides often.”

7 • http://www.totalimmersion.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-1512.html see “terry” > Finally, something online about older people and their breathing rate:

“At age 30 I could breathe every 5 or 7 strokes – if necessary. At age 40 I could breathe every 4 strokes – if necessary.
Nine months short of age 60 I can breathe every 3 strokes in the pool if I stay very relaxed. If I add any effort I need to breathe every 2.
Like CMP I pretty religiously breathe to the right on odd lengths and the left on even lengths.

In open water, with flip turns removed, I can swim a pretty brisk pace for a good long time, breathing every 3, but increase breathing frequency as needed by doing
2R2L
3R3L
4R4L
etc.”

Here’s one comment debunking bilateral every 3 stroke swimming…RobM77 said
“Assuming we’re talking purely about longer distance swimming (100m+), bilateral breathing is my preferred breathing pattern. However, my [very good] TI coach tells me that breathing every stroke cycle to one side only (i.e. every time the left arm recovers, you breathe; then swap after a length to the right etc) is the best way to swim. Apparently it’s been scientifically proven that the advantages of more regular intake of air outweigh the disadvantages of breaking one’s streamlining slightly. In addition, when one breathes to a ‘new’ side, the head is inclined to lift higher, whereas after two or three breaths to one side you become better at it (short term muscle memory).”

8 • http://www.virginactive.co.uk/active-matters/articles/exercise/open-water-swimming > Doesn’t this comment contradict the comment # 5 above?
“Master bi-lateral breathing…Not exhaling fully is one of the most common reasons for running out of oxygen.”

9 • http://www.livestrong.com/article/415452-how-to-breathe-during-triathlon-swimming/ > “Exhale your entire breath through your nose while your face is in the water. You should continue to exhale through your nose until you lift your head out of the water for another breath.”
“You should continue to exhale through your nose until you lift your head out of the water for another breath.”

10 • http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=3414931 > Excellent comments “I’ve coached college swimmers and triathletes with the advice of bilateral breathing.” “The pattern is too long as an interval. Most triathletes try “breathing every 3rd”, which means something like “right breathe, left stroke, right stroke, left breathe.” This is too long between breaths and compromises aerobic capacity.” “I still “come home to mama” and breathe right-sided when a pool race gets intense or in the longer reaches of a tri swim.” “My advice: find videos of the 2008 Olympic Open Water swim or any of the major triathlons, or the 1500m pool swims. You’ll see that these swimmers are breathing bilaterally. The difference is that they breathe one side for a long stretch of strokes and then breathe to the other for a few strokes. They do this to maintain aerobic respiration and balance and sighting. Breathing every third is great for moderate warm-up or practice pace, but not for competition.”

11 • http://forums.usms.org/showthread.php?t=14732&highlight=breathing
“If you run out of breath and can only do 1-2 laps it’s not because you don’t have endurance. It’s because you are swimming a wrong technique.
When I started with freestyle I was already swimming breaststroke for a year or two.
I was also a good cyclist and had a high endurance but still could only manage 1 lap and then I was totally out of breath.
Swimming with a pull buoy helped a lot.
You need to find the right body position. Don’t worry. You will eventually be able to swim 4 laps, then 10 and all of a sudden 100.”

12 • http://forums.usms.org/showthread.php?t=14505&highlight=breathing
“2) The first thing I ask swimmers to work on is to NOT exhale powerfully and completely empty out their lungs when they push off the wall and/or on the breakout after a turn. Rather use a slower/controlled release.
3) On the first arm stroke/breath I find that have a small amount of air left that I exhale quickly/forcefully just as my mouth reaches the position of taking a breath…it has the effect of clearing water as well as that last bit of depleted O2.
4) The inhale is not a long/slow/deep process but rather a fairly quick and somewhat shallow inhale the length of which should be determined by your arm tempo/speed vs. the other way around.
5) At lower speeds I actually hold my breath for what is probably about 1 second in the stroke cycle and begin a controlled exhale as my opposite arm cycles into it’s entry phase.”

13 • Swim Smooth is an excellent site if you are looking for “how to videos,” although I didn’t see any videos on flip turns.