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Number one-- flip turns are for speed
that's the reason that we use them is because they are faster
than the touch-and-go method
The easiest way to actually drop
time, immediately, right now is on the starts and turns
so make sure that you have a focus on that area
if you wanna drop 1, 2, 3, seconds immediately from your race
then you need to make sure that you're really maximizing
the starts and the turns. Because in a 100-- you've got one start
and you've got three turns that occur
So if you can sharpen that up become more explosive and tighter on your
turns
that one area can actually dropped immediate time
You do not want to reposition your body on the wall to make sure that you're
facing the right way
for your stroke before you get off the wall
Remember, flip turns are for speed. You've got
all day once you explode off the wall
to actually slowly transition your body back into the right position to break
the surface
I like to tell my swimmers to treat the wall
like it's 10,000 degrees. You know, they want to bounce off the wall. They wanna
do their flip turn and explode off the wall
Most the time when you do a flip turn you'll actually be facing
more to the side then you will in the proper stroke position if it's face down
its backstroke it's going to be the opposite
but most the time you'll actually be facing to the side that's good
Remember, flip turns are for speed--do your flip
get off the wall quickly
Now here's one of the areas within the flip turn
that I think swimmers, especially developing swimmers, will have the
hardest time
and it's really just because they don't know exactly what to do
and when they're trying to do a flip turn if they don't have that skill
yet
a lot of times they try to swim their upper body
through the flip turn. That's actually a very slow turn it usually
sends them to the bottom of the pool
Because they're trying to paddle their way through the flip turn.
The key point of the flip turn is that it's actually your hips, your hips snap
over the top
Once you're able to do that, that's how 6'6" athletes
are able to do a flip turn in three-and-a-half feet of water
it's because they're not trying to actually force their upper body through
it's a tuck and they snap their hips over the top
So that's an important skill to have, especially with the new
or developing flip turner that doesn't have that skill yet
they need to make sure that they're working on snapping their hips
over the top. The easiest way that I found is to have them do
Pool Jumps or Pool Flips there's different names for it
But they stand up straight, like they're at attention in the pool
They jump straight up, do a somersault by snapping their hips over
the top
and try to come straight back down in the exact same spot in the pool
they don't wanna do a flip to where they're actually landing five feet
infront of them or off to the side
They're trying to jump straight up, snap their hips over the top and come
straight back down in the exact same area
learning that motion and becoming comfortable with that motion
will really help you become more successful with the flip turn
Now the last helpful hint I've got for the flip turn
really has to do with your approach. It's your visualization
How you want your body to go into the wall and come out from the wall
wall
I like to use the example of a bouncing ball. If you had a tennis ball
You threw a tennis ball against the wall, it's gonna bounce straight back out
with speed and momentum and force that was generated
on the way in, you want to be able to take that back out
So I like to have my swimmers visualize that they're a ball
being thrown against the end of the pool. As they are coming in--Speed In
they want to be able to have Speed Out. When they stop at the wall
when they readjust themselves or reposition themselves at the wall
They actually lose all that speed. They want to have speed going in and
speed coming out from the wall
So I like to use that technique. I have found it to be very very successful
with the developing swimmers and it helps them to not hang out on the wall
which is very bad. They want to be able to come into the wall and bounce right
back out