The question that tends to be asked most frequently when it comes to pool swimming:
Do you flip?
Do I have to flip?
Why flip?
In all my swimming life "flipping" was never an option....you just did it!
The famous lines:
"I can't go to masters because I don't flip."
"I don't need to know how to flip because I don't have to in the open water."
"I did flip turns on the main set."
I giggle inside nearly every time I hear it. Simply because I remember those days of "attempting" a flip turn at every wall and half the time ending up in another lane, or drawing blood from my ankles, or water going straight up the nostrils or missing the wall completely. I would laugh at myself and try again, better yet, I would go to open swim AFTER the swim practice just to practice flip turns...determined I was!
I have learned I need to "write" flipping into athlete workouts, just as you would remind athletes to bilateral breathe.
My giggling back fired with the tailbone injury.
Coach wrote on my schedule "masters but NO flip turns".
The first thing I fired back was:
"What's the point in masters swimming if you can't flip".
Lesson learned....flipping is an art, a practice, that once learned is taken for granted.
Flip on...or at least try your best to!
9 comments:
I have never flip turned before! I need help! I also don't bilateral breathe. I'm a swimming nightmare.
Great post. I learned to flip turn back before I was a triathlete, but still just a recreational swimmer who swam laps for exercise...there were some hot guys at the pool teaching people how to do them so I asked for help.
When I became a triathlete someone helped me fix my flip turns so I could stay with the faster people I swam with. They still aren't great. I tell people all the time the reason to learn flip turns is so they can 'race' the person next to them in training. But last night I was swimming next to a guy who was faster than me but didn't do flip turns, so every time we hit the wall I could catch up and push myself to try to stay with him for the next 50M. I told him not to worry about learning flip turns. ;-)
I would love to flip turn but I have been scared to try. I guess I will just have to keep trying until I get!
You do not know this yet, but part of our wedding vows is you are never allowed to try and teach me how to do flipturns :)
Mark
Darn diggity dog... I better teach myself to flip turn ASAP!
I would like to keep my excuse of not knowing how to flip to keep me away from your crazy hour of 5:30am Masters. You can have Ryan but I like my bed too much!
i remember learning....yuck...over and over and over again coach would make us do the fastest somersaults we could in "lines" of girls at practice...we were so so dizzy and nauseous. so worth it though. :)
h*
i can't imagine masters w/out flip turns.
Hi, got here from Melissa.
I'm just getting to the point where I can reliably do flip turns. Most of the time. I had a really fast open turn, and I'm still not convinced the flip turn is faster, but it's certainly easier on my arms.
My tip for learning them? Wear nose clips to keep the water from rattling around in your brain. And wear fins.
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