Flip turns, UGH?

Question

My flip turns are going wonkie. I come in to turn and I'm turnning more to left then straight. What's going on and how can I fix it?

Answer 1

Flip turns are one of the most difficult things to learn with swimming.

The Steps of a Freestyle Swim Flip Turn

· Start the somersault - Tuck your chin, perform a small dolphin kick while finishing your arm pull with your hands ending at your sides.

· Finish the somersault - Go into a tuck (knees and feet pulled in) and use your arms to help keep the somersault going. Keeping your elbows on your side, push water towards your head with your palms and forearms.

· Layout - As you complete the half- somersault, let your elbows release from the sides of your body, bring your hands together, straighten your arms and point them the direction you just came from - the direction you want to go now. From the waist up, you should be in a streamline - think of making your body match the shape of a torpedo as much as possible. Long and thin!

· Land - Extend your legs, landing your feet squarely on the wall, toes pointing up. As you get better, you will want to be close enough to the wall to have your feet land with your knees and hips are bent appropriately, knees near a 90 degree angle, hips near 110 degrees.

· Upper Body Streamline - Everything from your hips up to the tips of your fingers should form a straight line, parallel to both the bottom and surface of the water. You will be completely underwater, with everything from your hips to your fingertips straight and streamlined, pointing where you want to go.

· Leave - Straighten your legs, thrusting you off of the wall, moving your entire body into a streamline (remember - torpedo). Push straight or slightly deeper.

· Kick - some swimmers perform several quick, strong dolphin kicks while on their back and through the rotation process, some don't. As you get more comfortable with the turn, experiment.

· Rotate - As you leave the wall (remember, your hands are together, extended over your head) begin to rotate from belly up to belly down by twisting your hands slightly and by looking in the direction you want to rotate (don't twist your head - just move your eyes).

· Breakout - Once you are belly down begin a flutter kick and start to surface, then begin your pull with whichever arm came closest to the bottom of the pool when you rotated. As your hand completes the pull, you should be close enough to the surface for that hand to exit the water just like a normal stroke. This takes practice!!!!

Remember to practice in steps, adding the wall later, after you have the somersault part figured out. As you get better, work on stretching your distance off of the wall, holding your speed from the push as long as possible. Other advanced steps include speeding up as you approach the wall and performing more dolphin kicks off of the wall before you begin the flutter kicks.

Good luck learning this turn - it's a little tricky, but worth learning - you can do it!

Answer 2

Flip turns are relatively simple when done with frontcrawl or backstroke (which they normally are). You mention that you have trouble staying straight. This is normally a result of a weak turn, thus the water resistance will turn you askew. You simply need to put more power in your flip. Working out you abs will help with the physical aspect, as for the technical aspect... at the bottom of the pool is a "t." As soon as you see yourself about a yard before the T, come up like a breastroke breath, inhale quickly and deeply. Then, immediately propel all your strength into flipping forward. Coming up above the surface will allow you to gain momentum in the turn, since you won't have to battle water resistance until you hit the surface. After practicing this a while (and by while i don't mean 3 times. I mean maybe a month or so. Nothing is easy), you should be flipping straight.
But then you ask, "I can't always come up for a breath. This will slow me down in a race." That practice was simply for building technique. What you really want to do is use your stroke to help with the turn. Again, when you are about 1 yard from the T, take an extra powerful stroke, scooping INTO AND TOWARDS your stomach. At the same time, you want to start leaning forward to begin the flip. By no means should you come up for a breath now like before (like I said, that was just for technique). By stroking into your stomach, you create a current and a pocket of water. When you lean forward at the same time, you lean right into this current. The current, combined with your own effort of flipping, will guide you perfectly.

Answer 3

To fix a wonkle turn, first of all practice. We would stand just outside the flags and swim, turn, push off, surface, stop, repeat. We practiced everyday doing a set of five turns per stroke.

A wonkle turn as you put it could be a result of two things. Either knee position or guidance.

A larger framed body can't tuck in to a tight ball with their knees together, and it results in a tilted, sloppy, turn. You should try to seperate the knees slightly, tucking the head and kneck in between as you rotate in your somersault, still acheiving a tight position.

The other possibility is what and where your hands are during your somersault. A lot of coaches try to have you keep them tucked in close to your body; the problem is that if you can't keep straight, that may slow you down more than it helps. Try using your hands to guide through the water like paddles. If you lean one way use that hand to paddle harder than the other. Eventually you should have it smooth and practiced enough that you don't need to "paddle" but simply have your arms move in one motion, just enough to help with the momentum of the turn itself.

Bottomline, practice, practice, practice and as you do, if something isn't working, make a slight alteration. The only real right thing about a flip turn in free is that you are somersaulting from your front, to your back, twisting, pushing off, and rotating the remaining degrees to get back to your front. The rest is all technique and everyone is a little different. Some prefer loose, easy to escape, rolls. Others work better with tight, precise, rolls. Work to find what works best for you. Tape your turns with a video camera and sit down with your coach to analyze where you are struggling. It's just not something without seeing, one can tell you how exactly to fix...

Good Luck.

Answer 4

just try to stay straight, do a few not on the wall, just like somersaulots in the water, and practice going stright. it's not that hard, and it doesn't matter that much if your turns are a bit wonkie.

Answer 5

go into the wall straight and then make a swift flip. when you push off the wall, push off so that you are still on your back. after you push off, then turn onto your belly for freestyle

Answer 6

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Answer 7

Gotta go with Lissa. Practice practice practice. My coach had us do turn drills and I was amazed to find out mine were kinda off too. It really helps, somehow your muscle memory kicks in and you start to do it automatically.

Answer 8

sowly break itr apart working on little things each time.








good luck