Have been practicing and getting better 💪🏽. Perfect timing for this vid! I think I need to stretch more after I flip and push off. I feel like I’m creating a lot of drag right now n sometimes heading down to the bottom of the pool 😂. Btw… I got my GTN gear yesterday!! Really excited about the knee warmers for my runs n the sweatshirt to get warm after 🥶.
Yes genious tip!!! I 72 just realize I keep my eyes closed and get dissoriented Will try tomorrow morning for my daily swim session But I think I can already say thank you🤗🤗🤗
Thanks, great resource. I've only been swimming for like ten hours and already at my third or so session tried doing flip turns. It was traumatic. I pushed myself down into the pool floor and almost got stuck with my swim pants in a water outlet, lol. I'm going to approach this more cautiously and strategically from now on - here's my notes form the video in case it helps someone: Step 1 - make flips: * to initiate rotation, place your hands at your hips and curl up as if to reach your toes with your hands, but letting your feet break the surface before grabbing them. * curl up as much as possible - the tighter the ball, the more effective the flip - chin to chest, knees to chest. * use your hands from the position at the hips to push against the water to help with the rotation. * trickle air out of your nose - as little as possible to just not get water in. * try making multiple flips in a row to practice turning effectively. * mind your position and direction to not turn sideways - you want to keep your forwards direction after every flip. Step 2 - flip at speed: * swim at normal pace and do a flip at speed with the goal to maintain the momentum of the swim speed to help with the rotation. * practice flipping gracefully and resume swimming in one seamless motion, and do several of these each lap until they're easy. Step 3 - find optimal distance to the wall, but without pushing off: * the intention is now to only do half a flip, in order to change your direction of travel. * approaching the wall with normal swim speed, use the T marker as a guide, make the flip at a secure distance, and with chin tucked to chest, watch how far away from the wall you are and where your feet land when stretching them out to touch it. Keep doing this until you've found the optimal place of flipping where you end up with about a 90 degree bend on your knees. * practice moving your hands from the position at your hips, to extension above your head, making yourself arrow shaped at when it's time to push off. * when consistently making the flip at the proper distance from the wall, keep working on the positioning of your feet, and direction of your upper body and arms, so that if you were to push off, you'd go in the correct direction. Does the feet end up too high or to one side, or your upper body not pointing in the right direction, there's no point pushing off. Step 4 - push off and rotate from back to stomach: * when you're consistently placing your feet at the right spot and your upper body is aimed forwards, try pushing off with low force, laying on your back in the water, while at the same time using the support of your feet against the wall to initiate turning to your stomach in the water as you push off. * when you're consistently doing the above and maintain the correct direction in your lane after pushing off, practice placing your feet slightly above one another on the wall in the very last stage of the flip - that way rotating from back to stomach even more effectively. * when you consistently push off in the right direction and turn to your stomach effectively you can begin applying more force to your push off. Congrats, you're now flip turn certified. Bonus - maximise speed after push off: * to not slow down after push off, try doing a couple of strokes before breathing.
A couple of months ago I was struggling with flip turns, could never do it, I thought I wasn't built for that and at the same time I didn't want to consider myself a swimmer if I couldn't do it, once I learned how to do it, I couldn't control my air, I felt my muscles burning, I had a panicking feeling, went to the surface gasping for air, then my coach said well your flip turn is flawless, I tried to explain that I was still struggling with air n he said "it's ok" the next practice after that he said we were gonna do 50m sprints in a 25m pool, in my first sprint I did the flip turn and somehow it just clicked, I think sprints are so hard for me that I didn't mind the feeling of gasping for air and now i feel VERY comfortable doing flip turns and my swim mates keep telling me how cool it is and they ask for tips. It's my biggest personal achievement in the sport lol
hey man how did you improve your flip turn? I can do one but my technique is quite bad, I'm always struggling with air and after doing one turn im completely out of energy only after 25m
I am also having difficulty performing the flip turn. I’m a new swimmer but swim a mile freestyle everyday but really want to master the flip. Every time I try it I end up sideways and disoriented. So disappointing. Glad you found your way to mastering it. Congrats Karen
I struggle with the timing of taking my last breath and of blowing out of my nose during the roll, and either take in water or end up running out of breath!
Thanks GTN. Started today, doing one step and adding on as suggested. Actually got one or two done somewhat right, very exciting. Will continue to practice each element. Adds things to do at each end of the pool and keeps it interesting. Thanks again! 😊
Two suggestions: 1. Do a tumble turn EVERY SINGLE length. 2. As mentioned in the video, streamlining is key. Aim to get beyond the flags or change in lane line colour before you need to start your stroke.
I can do it, but not smoothly like this, the biggest thing for me is I feel sick with the motion each time. Forward rolls make me feel awful. Oddly only as I've got older though.
Very useful especially the part about momentum. I tend to slow down as I approach the wall to get myself ready. I'll try speeding up. Trying flip turns has really made my swimming more interesting. A big thank you.
So helpful! Thank you. My flip-turns are pretty clumsy so am going to try your suggestions. I've seen other swimmers using dolphin kick (instead of just kicking) after rotating and before heading back into freestyle. What are your thoughts on this?
Hi , I loved your video!! I have been countless flips and can do it, but I tend to turn over onto the front too abruptly after legs land on the wall. I need to not turn until my legs have left the wall, right?
Good video. Thanks. One of the things I hear a lot of people complain about with swimming is allergic reactions with chlorine (myself included) and flip turns seem to make it worse. Would be an interesting video to talk about how to mitigate allergies associated with swimming in highly chlorinated pools.
I suspect that I use my arms to make the turn, whereas I believe they are meant to be left in position - initially by my hips at the start of the turn, which then becomes near my head if I flip correctly, but it seems to be much easier said than done. The deliberate chin-tuck helps. Is there a tip on how to keep the arms still? p.s. The real trick is to do OW events and avoid the need to flip turn.
The problems I have are, (1) I sometimes end up too close to the bottom of the pool And sometimes scraper body part, and (2) when I flip, I tend to favor my left side, I.e., my flips are crooked. I don’t know why I’m doing that.
That's what I do to stop water going up my nose during turns. Take a quick breath one or two strokes before the turn, exhale through only your nose as you turn. It's exactly the same as normal freestyle breathing where you take a quick side breath and exhale as you swim, just exhale as you turn. Maybe practice with normal somersaults in the main pool to find out how hard you need to exhale to stop the water going in. Keep practicing, you have got this 👍
Swam as a child for years and stopped when I was 18 - I’m now 35 years old and started swimming again 8 months ago. I couldn’t do flip turns as a kid, and still can’t do them now. I give up trying to be honest because it annoys me and I don’t feel professional in what I do. Great video though.
i just flop over and end up facing the side of the pool, after failing to tuck and getting brain buzz from water up my nose. Not much need to flip turn at the Ironman turns though. 🤣
We gringos need to start using tumble turn rather than flip turn, because a flip is 360 degrees..... Done properly, the tumble turn converts forward momentum into rotational momentum. I don't know of anyone who uses the T on the bottom of the pool for telling them when to do the tumble. It is an indicator of when you are getting 'close' to the wall. You need eyes on the T on the wall. Look more by using your eyes up rather than raising your head too high. I sight the bottom of the T. Note that all of the Olympians raise their heads slightly. If you don't 'see' the T, you can miss your turn. Also, by raising your head slightly, when you tuck, this actually adds a bit to the rotation speed. The little dolphin kick that is done just as you fold helps accelerate the hips forward, which also adds to the 'folding' that is necessary to get over quickly. The small bicep curl is some thing that all the elite swimmers use. There used to be a school that taught that the arm pull was 'wasted motion'. You don't have to look closely to see that all of the elite swimmers use it. Keep your arms bent at the same angle you use in your pull for freestyle, maybe 120 degrees of bend, and stop the pull at stream line position. I do look at the wall to judge how close I am before I start the turn, but I do not look to see if my feet are placed correctly. In the 'fold' part of the flip turn, you use your abs for the fold part, to get your legs over and onto the wall, it is more your back muscles, kind of like pulling your pants up your legs from the floor or standing up from touching your toes. To get the legs over, the lift is started, usually, with legs slightly bent rather than gymnastic straight leg toe point. As they come out of the water, then you bend to 90 or so degrees. This 'shortening' of the legs greatly speeds up the rotation. How deep you go off the wall, and how far you go before taking your first breath depends on if you are swimming a sprint or distance. The 100 meter sprinters will go much deeper to get under the backwash, which is the water that follows you into the wall, which can be a meter or so deep, and half way or more down the length of the pool. The distance swimmers generally go more shallow, maybe a shoulder width or so under the water, and come up a bit past the flags. Essential to keep well oxygenated. I do not like the teaching method where the swimmer has the kick boards out to the side. While it does work, the problem is that it only works with the kick boards. Remove them and you have only your hands, which is almost no surface area, and you have nothing to push against. Swimmers that have learned this way stick their hands out to the sides and do a little whirly bird circle thing and their turn stalls out. Stand in water about up to your bumm level. Palms are facing your front side. Using your 120 degree arm bend. pull your arms up to stream line position. Much better/longer/stronger leverage for accelerating the arm pull! Blow a small stream of bubbles out your nose as you rotate to keep water from going up your nose. As my martial arts teachers said, "10,000 more times!" But teacher, that is what you said last time. "Well then, 10,000 more times!"
At 9:10 you say "...but we'll come on to how to move onto your front later on..." but you never do address this. No one on UA-cam does! How do you manage the longitudinal rotation from looking up (at the completion of the turn) to looking down (continuing on swimming)?
This is my personal opinion, but using the T-mark is 1 of the worst advice i ever got. This is bec the T-mark in western countries like Europe & Americas is a LOT further from the wall as compared to asian countries, possibly bec Asians tend to be shorter in stature. The better indication is can u c the floor of the wall in front of u? if u can, thats the time to execute the turn. I have received this advice on previous GTN vids & it works better for me (wink).
Can you do a flip-turn? 🏊♀
Have been practicing and getting better 💪🏽. Perfect timing for this vid! I think I need to stretch more after I flip and push off. I feel like I’m creating a lot of drag right now n sometimes heading down to the bottom of the pool 😂. Btw… I got my GTN gear yesterday!! Really excited about the knee warmers for my runs n the sweatshirt to get warm after 🥶.
Yes i can
Leaning, thanks 👍
Tried yesterday first time ever. Managed only one correctly, I’m going sideways all the time, instead of a perfect somersault.
Yes, I can and also with Pullbuoy. But one Problem is that both arms are in front before I flipturn.
My biggest tip to those trying to do the flip turn: DO NOT CLOSE YOUR EYES. If you close your eyes when you turn, you'll get disoriented.
Yes genious tip!!!
I 72 just realize I keep my eyes closed and get dissoriented
Will try tomorrow morning for my daily swim session
But I think I can already say thank you🤗🤗🤗
It's true, that's exactly what I do.
Same
Why on earth am I closing my eyes with goggles on? 😂😂 This is so difficult to do 😓
Thanks, great resource. I've only been swimming for like ten hours and already at my third or so session tried doing flip turns. It was traumatic. I pushed myself down into the pool floor and almost got stuck with my swim pants in a water outlet, lol. I'm going to approach this more cautiously and strategically from now on - here's my notes form the video in case it helps someone:
Step 1 - make flips:
* to initiate rotation, place your hands at your hips and curl up as if to reach your toes with your hands, but letting your feet break the surface before grabbing them.
* curl up as much as possible - the tighter the ball, the more effective the flip - chin to chest, knees to chest.
* use your hands from the position at the hips to push against the water to help with the rotation.
* trickle air out of your nose - as little as possible to just not get water in.
* try making multiple flips in a row to practice turning effectively.
* mind your position and direction to not turn sideways - you want to keep your forwards direction after every flip.
Step 2 - flip at speed:
* swim at normal pace and do a flip at speed with the goal to maintain the momentum of the swim speed to help with the rotation.
* practice flipping gracefully and resume swimming in one seamless motion, and do several of these each lap until they're easy.
Step 3 - find optimal distance to the wall, but without pushing off:
* the intention is now to only do half a flip, in order to change your direction of travel.
* approaching the wall with normal swim speed, use the T marker as a guide, make the flip at a secure distance, and with chin tucked to chest, watch how far away from the wall you are and where your feet land when stretching them out to touch it. Keep doing this until you've found the optimal place of flipping where you end up with about a 90 degree bend on your knees.
* practice moving your hands from the position at your hips, to extension above your head, making yourself arrow shaped at when it's time to push off.
* when consistently making the flip at the proper distance from the wall, keep working on the positioning of your feet, and direction of your upper body and arms, so that if you were to push off, you'd go in the correct direction. Does the feet end up too high or to one side, or your upper body not pointing in the right direction, there's no point pushing off.
Step 4 - push off and rotate from back to stomach:
* when you're consistently placing your feet at the right spot and your upper body is aimed forwards, try pushing off with low force, laying on your back in the water, while at the same time using the support of your feet against the wall to initiate turning to your stomach in the water as you push off.
* when you're consistently doing the above and maintain the correct direction in your lane after pushing off, practice placing your feet slightly above one another on the wall in the very last stage of the flip - that way rotating from back to stomach even more effectively.
* when you consistently push off in the right direction and turn to your stomach effectively you can begin applying more force to your push off.
Congrats, you're now flip turn certified.
Bonus - maximise speed after push off:
* to not slow down after push off, try doing a couple of strokes before breathing.
A couple of months ago I was struggling with flip turns, could never do it, I thought I wasn't built for that and at the same time I didn't want to consider myself a swimmer if I couldn't do it, once I learned how to do it, I couldn't control my air, I felt my muscles burning, I had a panicking feeling, went to the surface gasping for air, then my coach said well your flip turn is flawless, I tried to explain that I was still struggling with air n he said "it's ok" the next practice after that he said we were gonna do 50m sprints in a 25m pool, in my first sprint I did the flip turn and somehow it just clicked, I think sprints are so hard for me that I didn't mind the feeling of gasping for air and now i feel VERY comfortable doing flip turns and my swim mates keep telling me how cool it is and they ask for tips. It's my biggest personal achievement in the sport lol
hey man how did you improve your flip turn? I can do one but my technique is quite bad, I'm always struggling with air and after doing one turn im completely out of energy only after 25m
I am also having difficulty performing the flip turn. I’m a new swimmer but swim a mile freestyle everyday but really want to master the flip. Every time I try it I end up sideways and disoriented. So disappointing. Glad you found your way to mastering it. Congrats
Karen
I was actually practicing this lately, your tips sound amazing. Thanks as always!
I struggle with the timing of taking my last breath and of blowing out of my nose during the roll, and either take in water or end up running out of breath!
Thanks GTN. Started today, doing one step and adding on as suggested. Actually got one or two done somewhat right, very exciting.
Will continue to practice each element. Adds things to do at each end of the pool and keeps it interesting.
Thanks again! 😊
Thank you GTN for this flip turn video.
It has been a great help to my winter swim sessions ❤️
Two suggestions:
1. Do a tumble turn EVERY SINGLE length.
2. As mentioned in the video, streamlining is key. Aim to get beyond the flags or change in lane line colour before you need to start your stroke.
I can do it, but not smoothly like this, the biggest thing for me is I feel sick with the motion each time. Forward rolls make me feel awful. Oddly only as I've got older though.
So elegantly displayed, so eloquently described!
Awesome advice thank you , really helped to dial my technique in.
What a brilliant video. Thank you for making this.
Very useful especially the part about momentum. I tend to slow down as I approach the wall to get myself ready. I'll try speeding up. Trying flip turns has really made my swimming more interesting. A big thank you.
Very helpful. Thanks, Heather.
Funny how this simple action is such intimidating, especially when you have all these experienced swimmers around you...
Explaining the rotation part after the flip turn would be helpful
So helpful! Thank you. My flip-turns are pretty clumsy so am going to try your suggestions. I've seen other swimmers using dolphin kick (instead of just kicking) after rotating and before heading back into freestyle. What are your thoughts on this?
Very useful
thank you!!!
Hi , I loved your video!! I have been countless flips and can do it, but I tend to turn over onto the front too abruptly after legs land on the wall. I need to not turn until my legs have left the wall, right?
Good video. Thanks. One of the things I hear a lot of people complain about with swimming is allergic reactions with chlorine (myself included) and flip turns seem to make it worse. Would be an interesting video to talk about how to mitigate allergies associated with swimming in highly chlorinated pools.
I use a nose clip 😊
I suspect that I use my arms to make the turn, whereas I believe they are meant to be left in position - initially by my hips at the start of the turn, which then becomes near my head if I flip correctly, but it seems to be much easier said than done. The deliberate chin-tuck helps. Is there a tip on how to keep the arms still?
p.s. The real trick is to do OW events and avoid the need to flip turn.
The problems I have are, (1) I sometimes end up too close to the bottom of the pool And sometimes scraper body part, and (2) when I flip, I tend to favor my left side, I.e., my flips are crooked.
I don’t know why I’m doing that.
You did a video on how to flip turn back in 2018 with Mark
I always get water in my nose even when I try to exhale, any advice?
The same thing happens to me, I come to the surface to breathe like a storm on the high seas.😩
erm… whart the sigma 🤓🥸
Breathing? When do u take your last breath before turning? Thank u
Exhale slowly through the flip until the second stroke
Any time I try I always end up finishing facing the lane rope.... Thanks GTN
Hahah, You'll get there keep it up 💪 Did you pick up any tips from out video?
I can tumble turn but struggle with breath , will that get better with more practice ?
Heather did a great video of breathing tips, maybe it will help 👉 ua-cam.com/video/AEpHB-9jUHQ/v-deo.html
@@gtn Thanks will check it out
Thanks I sorted out my hands and distance from the wall.
Well done!
Its ok to land sideways but both feet?
the most helpful for me was swimming with paddles. I had to make a flip without use of hands, and I was forced to make turn with the head only.
Come iniziare?grazie
As I attempted flip turns, water goes up my nose, how do I learn to blow bubbles as I turn, until I come up out the water
That's what I do to stop water going up my nose during turns. Take a quick breath one or two strokes before the turn, exhale through only your nose as you turn. It's exactly the same as normal freestyle breathing where you take a quick side breath and exhale as you swim, just exhale as you turn. Maybe practice with normal somersaults in the main pool to find out how hard you need to exhale to stop the water going in. Keep practicing, you have got this 👍
Swam as a child for years and stopped when I was 18 - I’m now 35 years old and started swimming again 8 months ago. I couldn’t do flip turns as a kid, and still can’t do them now. I give up trying to be honest because it annoys me and I don’t feel professional in what I do. Great video though.
Hello ❤
i just flop over and end up facing the side of the pool, after failing to tuck and getting brain buzz from water up my nose. Not much need to flip turn at the Ironman turns though. 🤣
Its one of those things thats so much harder to do in actuality.
YES ☝
We gringos need to start using tumble turn rather than flip turn, because a flip is 360 degrees..... Done properly, the tumble turn converts forward momentum into rotational momentum. I don't know of anyone who uses the T on the bottom of the pool for telling them when to do the tumble. It is an indicator of when you are getting 'close' to the wall. You need eyes on the T on the wall. Look more by using your eyes up rather than raising your head too high. I sight the bottom of the T. Note that all of the Olympians raise their heads slightly. If you don't 'see' the T, you can miss your turn. Also, by raising your head slightly, when you tuck, this actually adds a bit to the rotation speed. The little dolphin kick that is done just as you fold helps accelerate the hips forward, which also adds to the 'folding' that is necessary to get over quickly. The small bicep curl is some thing that all the elite swimmers use. There used to be a school that taught that the arm pull was 'wasted motion'. You don't have to look closely to see that all of the elite swimmers use it. Keep your arms bent at the same angle you use in your pull for freestyle, maybe 120 degrees of bend, and stop the pull at stream line position. I do look at the wall to judge how close I am before I start the turn, but I do not look to see if my feet are placed correctly. In the 'fold' part of the flip turn, you use your abs for the fold part, to get your legs over and onto the wall, it is more your back muscles, kind of like pulling your pants up your legs from the floor or standing up from touching your toes. To get the legs over, the lift is started, usually, with legs slightly bent rather than gymnastic straight leg toe point. As they come out of the water, then you bend to 90 or so degrees. This 'shortening' of the legs greatly speeds up the rotation. How deep you go off the wall, and how far you go before taking your first breath depends on if you are swimming a sprint or distance. The 100 meter sprinters will go much deeper to get under the backwash, which is the water that follows you into the wall, which can be a meter or so deep, and half way or more down the length of the pool. The distance swimmers generally go more shallow, maybe a shoulder width or so under the water, and come up a bit past the flags. Essential to keep well oxygenated. I do not like the teaching method where the swimmer has the kick boards out to the side. While it does work, the problem is that it only works with the kick boards. Remove them and you have only your hands, which is almost no surface area, and you have nothing to push against. Swimmers that have learned this way stick their hands out to the sides and do a little whirly bird circle thing and their turn stalls out. Stand in water about up to your bumm level. Palms are facing your front side. Using your 120 degree arm bend. pull your arms up to stream line position. Much better/longer/stronger leverage for accelerating the arm pull! Blow a small stream of bubbles out your nose as you rotate to keep water from going up your nose. As my martial arts teachers said, "10,000 more times!" But teacher, that is what you said last time. "Well then, 10,000 more times!"
At 9:10 you say "...but we'll come on to how to move onto your front later on..." but you never do address this. No one on UA-cam does! How do you manage the longitudinal rotation from looking up (at the completion of the turn) to looking down (continuing on swimming)?
Not a good video Too much talk
This is my personal opinion, but using the T-mark is 1 of the worst advice i ever got. This is bec the T-mark in western countries like Europe & Americas is a LOT further from the wall as compared to asian countries, possibly bec Asians tend to be shorter in stature. The better indication is can u c the floor of the wall in front of u? if u can, thats the time to execute the turn. I have received this advice on previous GTN vids & it works better for me (wink).