Flip Turns

I have been swimming with a Master’s team for 1.5 years now.  Over that time I have been coached on improving my freestyle stroke and became familiar with workout terminology such as build, descending, in/on, etc.  The coach has also provided an introduction to backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly.  My breaststroke actually feels OK, the backstroke is very choppy and the butterfly is still unrecognizable to my Swimsense.  This past week, I peeled the onion another layer and have started doing flip turns.

I started with doing somersaults (had to look up the spelling on that one) and then started approaching the wall.  The initial feedback was tighter tuck and come off the wall upside down.  My next stage was youtube videos and more practice.  I am now either hitting the wall very close or not at all.  Hopefully in another couple of weeks, I will be hitting the wall consistently with knees bent about half way.

In the meanwhile, being underwater during the turn made me realize how much extra air I was getting during my open turns which often turned into broken sets.  I have felt hypoxic, especially when my rotation places me a few feet underwater.  Overall, I am pretty excited and will continue to work on flip turns.