Mark: You've seen people on TV doing and maybe even at your local swimming pool. Now
you want to do them. Yes, the flip turn looks pretty cool,
doesn't it? As I'm sure many of you found out, they can be pretty tricky. I'm here today
to try and make them easier for you. I'm going to be taking a look at the flip turn or the tumble
turn as some parts of the world call it and break it down into a nice simple step-by-step guide.
[music] Very quickly, allow
me to explain why we do the flip turn. What's wrong with the good old touch turn? Very simply,
if done correctly, they are faster. They're also more efficient, again, if done correctly,
but also, you look like a total badass. Now if you're a triathlete watching this, you may be
thinking, "Really, do I need to do a flip turn? I swim open water." You're absolutely right,
but learning through the flip turn is certainly not a waste of time, in fact, the contrary.
By doing the flip turn, it allows you to swim continuously, a little like in the open water
rather than that brief pause at the end of each length as you do when you're doing a
touch turn, which also, in turn, can help to improve your endurance, but mostly,
it just allows you to swim faster, which at the end of day, is what we all want to do,
right? Now for us to jump into the water, it's time to show you how to do a flip turn.
[music] The flip turn
is essentially just a somersault in the water. You want to get yourself into a nice small ball
and rollover. Now initially, I want you just to forget the wall all together because
it often just complicates things. It affects your confidence because you're obviously
just worried about hitting the wall. Simply practice doing somersaults in some
open space in the pool well away from the walls or lane ropes. To stop the water going up your nose,
gently trickle air out through your nose. This doesn't need to be forceful,
just enough to stop the water going in. Try to avoid falling to one side. Aim to roll everything
over one another, meaning your bum follows your head and your feet follow your bum.
As you build confidence, you can even have fun by doing multiple somersaults in one go.
[music] Once you've nailed that, we're
going to do exactly the same thing again. We're going to move in a little bit closer to the wall.
We're still not going to touch the wall, but we're just going to hopefully build up your confidence
being nearer to it. [music]
Wow, this is easy, isn't it? Now you've probably guessed the next step already. Yes,
we're going to move closer to the wall. Again, we're going to do a somersault and then plant
our feet on the wall. We're not going to swim in, we're not going to swim away,
just simply somersault, plant our feet. Initially, you will likely misjudge your distance from the
wall. This will take some trial and error and is absolutely fine. As a rough rule of thumb though,
doing your somersault around one arm's length away from the wall
tends to work well or above or just beyond the T marker on the bottom of the swimming pool. Then
aim to plant your feet somewhere between six to 12 inches below the surface of the water.
[music]
Nice one. We pretty much done a flip turn. Now it's just a case of putting it all together,
swimming in, doing the flip turn, planting our feet and then pushing off. Swim towards the wall.
Take your last freestyle stroke above or slightly after the T. At this point, one
hand should be heading back towards your hip and the other is pulling you forward towards the wall.
At this point, start dipping your chin down into your chest and initiating that somersault.
Now a good way to describe this is as if you're reaching down for your toes with both hands.
However, before you touch your toes, flip your feet over the water towards the wall, again,
remembering to hold that tight ball shape to make it easy as possible for you. Then plant
your feet on the wall with a nice bend in your knees to absorb the momentum. Throughout this,
your hands should remain in the same position and slowly come together into a nice streamlined
position above your head. At this point, you will probably realize that you're almost
on your back. This is fine. Now push off the wall maintaining that streamlined position and rotate
onto your stomach whilst gliding. [music]
There we have it. That's the flip turn. Now it's worth me pointing out that as you build
up confidence, you may well find yourself being able to pass a very small twist into your actual
flip turn to allow you to get over onto your front more seamlessly and more quickly, but I would add,
this is just something that normally happens quite naturally and with time and with confidence.
Now one thing we haven't discussed today is the part after the flip turn.
Obviously, we don't just glide off the wall. To maintain momentum and get ourselves up to speed,
we want to put in a little bit of a dolphin kick or a leg kick underwater until we break
to the surface. That is the flip turn. I'd love to hear from you guys as how you
get on with the flip test. Do get involved in the comment section just down below. If
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a subscribe just down below. [00:05:52] [END OF AUDIO]