Video Example – Bent Arms

Video Transcription: So a bent arm flip turn looks like this. Bent arms are slower because they have a couple more steps to go through. When you’re coming, you’re bringing the hands in versus just bringing them up, but the distance that the arms have to travel is actually less. Watch my palms when I come into the wall, I actually come into the wall with my palms facing up. I finish here and then as I’m flipping, I change so my palms are facing down, bend at my elbows, bring my hands towards my head, and then I extend into a streamline before my feet plant onto the wall.

This is the more common style of flip turn. Once again, on those final two pulls into the wall, finish with palms up, then I flip to palms down, pull my hands in as I’m driving my feet to the wall, and then from there as I hit the wall I’m going to push off in that streamline after I’ve secured my streamline and my feet have planted. Out of the two ways, as I said before, bent arms are the most common. With most swimmers that I coach, we work on this style.

You do see the straight arm style occasionally from some more elite level athletes, like sprinters. That it is another option but I wouldn’t necessarily advise it for most people and most athletes.