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Freestyle Turns
Races are won and lost at the walls, freestyle especially so. A good freestyle turn can charge your next length of the pool with momentum. A poor turn, can rob you of that same momentum, making you waste energy during the rest of the length trying to make up your lost ground. Furthermore, since freestyle is done at greater distances than other strokes, an efficient freestyle turn becomes critical in maintaining your energy in those endurance races. I know when you're watching expert freestylers do their turns; it can seem baffling as to how the flipturn is performed. As one watches the turn, the swimmer approaches, the wall, there's a splash and a blur of feet, then the swimmer is streamlined underwater in what seems like an instant. It's all very fast, but that's the point isn't it?
Judging the Approach to the Wall A good freestyle flipturn starts with the approach to the wall. Every stroke's turn has a sweet spot where hitting the wall is optimal and the freestyle flipturn is no different. What's unique about the freestyle turn, though, is you only ever touch the wall with your feet, not your hands first like in butterfly or breaststroke (or even the really old backstroke turns). So you really won't know if you've hit your sweet-spot in your approach until well after you've started your flip. All competition pools have some sort of line on the bottom of the pool. Sometimes this line ends in a "T" sometimes it doesn't, but this is the best gauge to determine where you should start your turn. Since every pool is different, you'll need to establish during your warmup before the event what cues you will be using to determine the start of your freestyle turn. Here's a drill that worked for me as I was getting used to a new pool. Approach the wall, at speed, using freestyle and start your turn. Have your feet contact the wall, but do not push off. If your feet touch the wall with your knees bent, or if your heels hit the top of the wall, you're too close. Keep lengthening the distance you turn from the wall until your feet hit the wall with your knees bent slightly in the proper place for a push-off. Once you've found your sweet spot, do the turn again and watch to see where your hand crosses the "T" at the end of the pool during your catch. Do not move your head around to find it, you will lose momentum. Once you see where your hand crosses that "T" you have your cue for your turn to start. As your arm moves in front of your face, on your last pull over the "T", you will dive your head around that arm so that your bottom is close to the wall, but both your feet and head are not. Then with all your might, you will snap your legs over your body to hit the wall with as much force as you can muster. This extension from the waist is the flip. Make sure you've done enough situps to prepare your body for this action or you will injure your back. As soon as your feet contact the wall, explode away on your side in a streamlined position with your arms locked together over your head and your chin tucked against your chest. Hold your streamline until you feel that your speed has become just less than that of your regular freestyle stroke speed. Then begin your kick, first lightly, then with more driving force as you feel the water above your shoulders start to thin. When you feel you're near enough to the surface of the water, start your first pull. Feel for your first catch and be sure to make it a good one. Untuck your head and move it into the forward-looking freestyle position. Start your second pull a little early to make sure you've powered through the surface tension of the water and take your first breath which brings me to my next point. Never breathe near the wall. The wall is the only solid thing you're allowed to contact during a swimming event, and as such will provide you with the greatest opportunity to add speed and momentum to your stroke. When you breathe going into or coming out of your freestyle turn, you rob yourself of valuable momentum. Don't do it. In real competitive swimming, the freestyle flipturn is an integral part of the chess match that goes on during an event. I'm sure you've heard of swimmers drafting each other during freestyle events. There are two places that a swimmer can draft effectively while in another lane. The first is at the shoulder of the other swimmer. The wake coming off the lead swimmer creates a trough for the second swimmer to set in, costing the lead swimmer energy. The second is just at the lead swimmer's waist. Here the end wake from the lead swimmer's feet creates another wake for another swimmer to use. Swimmers who are evenly matched in terms of speed and conditioning will duel over who is drafting whom. What's special about flipturns, is you can't draft during them. A powerful flipturn at an unexpected time can dislodge that otherwise equal swimmer from swimming in your wake, making the surprised swimmer waste energy during the next lap catching up, driving you ahead to clear water and the win. Or, if you're the one drafting, you can use the turn to jump ahead of your competition when they're not paying attention and tired form the energy you've been leaching from them. |
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