Common Approach Mistakes

Video Transcription: Common mistakes.

A common mistake on Flip Turns is not finishing your strokes. I sat in on a talk at an ASCA Clinic a few years ago with Dave Durden and he talked about how the rolling strokes are still pulls. Even though one arm is crossing over to get you from your back to your stomach, there’s another arm that’s under the water which is really a Freestyle pull. And then that top arm comes down to meet the bottom arm like you see in this photo here. So a swimmer ends up with both hands straight by their side before they hit their Flip Turn.

This is the same position swimmers will be in at the end of their Freestyle Flip Turn as well. It’s basically swimming Backstroke, getting to where you are in Freestyle, and then initiating the same flip like you do in Freestyle. Finishing those last two strokes are really important for a swimmer.

You can see here if we slow this down as he comes into the wall, this is his crossing stroke. 

But see how his left arm is still pulling. You want to pull with that left arm. Like actually move some water there. Then his right arm goes to meet the left, and boom we end up in that same scenario where both arms are at their side. You want those two strokes that are still finishing the lap to be strokes that actually move water. 

Another thing that’s not great is stopping the kick.

You should be Freestyle kicking through this turn. Some coaches promote a dolphin kick and to Flip Turns others don’t. To kind of like span that gap, we’re going to just say don’t stop your kick, whatever kick you are doing.

Looking at the wall. 

Huge issue in Freestyle Flip Turns, huge issue in Backstroke Flip Turns. This is a great still frame shot down here of this kiddo looking straight up before he crunches. We don’t want to be doing that. Instead we want to roll over towards our stomach. Then tuck our chin down to get into that flip.

Another issue that’s also a disqualification with Backstroke Flip Turns are non continuous turns. 

The verbiage is when executing the turn, there must be a touch on the wall with some part of a swimmer’s body and his or her respective lane. During the turn, the swimmers shoulders must go from vertical to the breast after which an immediate continuous arm pull or simultaneous double arm pull may happen to initiate the turn. So swimmers have to keep the movement flowing. One of the main ways swimmers get dequeued for this is they hang out after this last pull. If they’re too far away from the wall, they kick with both hands at their side as they’re approaching the wall, which is a delay between our movement and Flip Turn. That’s something to totally look out for.