How To Do A Freestyle Flip Turn - 5 Step Guide | Whiteboard Wednesday

Howdy Swim fans! Here is another episode of  whiteboard Wednesday and on today's episode   we're talking about the freestyle flip turn we're  gonna talk about why the freestyle flip turn is so   important to swimming and some tips and tricks  that you can use along the way to improve this   skill without further ado we first need to  understand what is a flip turn in the first   place to put a definition behind a flip turn  it's simply the process of changing direction   at the wall to keep continuously swimming now  this is applied in our crawl stroke so this is   freestyle and backstroke along with kicking so if  you kick and streamline on your back this allows   you to continuously move through a set without  having to stop take a breath at the wall and   then push off again it's one continuous motion  and if you understand why this is so important   you'll get some context as to why we do it so we  do this because it's faster if you think about   taking a break by grabbing the wall breathing and  then pushing off the act of doing a somersault   is actually much much faster this also is not  only more efficient but it allows you to build   endurance because if you think about it if you're  swimming say 200 meters in a short course pool at   25 meters long if you have to stop seven times  in the course of that 200 it doesn't seem like   a lot but over the course of a longer distance  this actually adds up to a lot so if you're a   triathlete and you're not interested in doing a  flip turn because you don't think it's going to   matter it'll actually improve your overall fitness  level and allow you to train at a much higher   level because you're eliminating all these small  gaps that interrupt your swim whether it's every   25 or 50 meters so to have uninterrupted swimming  is super super important now the five-step process   if you're not familiar with doing a flip turn and  you've never done one in your entire life that's   totally okay we're gonna learn the five-step  process so you can master a flip turn in just   minutes now the first step is mastering a standing  somersault so the key to doing a flip turn   is being able to do a somersault and the way you  start learning this is not at the wall we separate   ourselves from the wall we find an open area in  the lane at the edge of the pool so that you can   stand and you actually practice doing a somersault  from a standing position so the way this works is   you're actually simply standing vertical with  your face looking directly in front of directly   what's in front of you you use either one or both  hands to push off in the air and you want to get   comfortable using your hands to initiate the  rotation so that your entire body can flip so   step one is the standing somersault where you lead  with either two hands or with one hand one hand is   a little bit harder two hands a little bit easier  to get to momentum and you flip straight over the   top meaning your feet follow your hands follow  your head your chin is tucked in and you want to   get your body in as small of a ball as possible so  that your rotation is faster so the key is having   a small ball and your goal is to be able to do an  entire flip out of the water now the whole point   of doing this drill even though you're not going  to have a push off the bottom of the pool when   you do a flip turn is to get your body used to  flipping with speed with the assistance of one   or both of your hands so that way when you're  horizontal which is step two you can apply this   at the wall now step two you're still not at the  wall you're floating in the in the surface area of   the water you're away from the wall and you're  gonna focus on doing a somersault while you're   horizontal on your stomach and what you're gonna  do is you're gonna take three strokes freestyle   and on the third stroke your arm is going to pull  you in and lead you into the flip just like you   were practicing when you were standing vertical  so you take your three strokes and on the third   stroke you use that final pull to leverage you  and tuck your trim into a really really tight   ball and you do a somersault where you finish  after 360 degrees of rotation you're going to be   right where you started and then you take three  more strokes and the goal of taking only three   strokes is that you want to practice pulling  yourself in on both arms so you practice with   your right arm take three strokes and then you  practice with your left arm because when you're   swimming in the pool you don't know what wall  what arm you're going to approach the wall could   be your right it could be your left and the key  is carrying momentum through the pull you don't   want to take your three strokes stop and then pull  you want to use the speed that you have swimming   similar to when you were pushing off the bottom  to leverage that speed and then use that momentum   to carry you into a really really tight ball so  once you've mastered the standing somersault and   the horizontal somersault and you're able to flip  your body 100% 360 degrees feet over heels over   the water straight away you're not rotating onto  the side then you're ready for step number three   and I should back up on step one and two it's  really important that you're comfortable blowing   bubbles out of your nose a big challenge a lot of  swimmers have is they get water up their nose you   have to be comfortable sort of with a humming  sensation so it helps you just go underwater   and relax and just hum and get that feeling of  pushing out air through your nose because that's   what you're gonna need to do when you when you  flip you're gonna need to blow out your nose and   the more you do it the more control that's going  to get and the easier it's going to be for you so   step three is actually applying this concept  of doing a somersault after three strokes at   the wall so you're gonna practice approaching  the wall with freestyle and when you're about   one arms-length away from the wall you're going  to initiate your flip but nothing is different   than what you did when you were horizontal so  you take your three strokes and then you're   at the wall your fingertips are right at the edge  of the wall and you're going to initiate the pull   that'll get you into the flip and you want to be  in a really tight ball just because the wall is   there doesn't mean you actually change any of the  mechanics you did in steps one or step two so step   three is doing the somersault at the wall and you  you want to finish this step step three with your   feet being lined up six to 12 inches or less than  half a meter underneath the surface of the water   your toes should be pointing to the sky to the top  of the water and your body should be in a position   like this image right here where you're ready to  push off the wall and if you look at this image   you can see the swimmers feet are about six to 12  inches underneath the surface of the water their   body is compact and they're arms are already in  the pit streamline position the great thing about   doing a flip turn a somersault flip turn with  freestyle specifically is that after you do the   pull your hands and your arms are already in a  streamline position so that all you'll have to   do is push off so once you've accomplished step  three step four is actually pushing off the wall   so you're going to approach the wall you're going  to take your last stroke that's gonna pull you in   for the pull for the flip you're gonna be in this  position with your feet and your toes pointing to   the top of the water you're in a streamline you  should be able to see through the water and look   at the ceiling or the sky if you're in an outdoor  pool and then you're actually going to push off on   your back and you're going to streamline kick the  only time we actually rotate onto our stomach is   once we've actually left the wall so that's step 5  if you notice the first four steps do not involve   any rotation laterally you're just going to do the  somersault as you approach the wall and at the end   of step four you're going to be in this position  where essentially your body is flat underneath the   water and your legs are compact and your body is  in a position where all you have to do is push off   the wall and then as you push off the wall that is  when you begin the rotation so step 5 is rotation   after the push off so the key is as you're pushing  off the wall you begin that rotation but you don't   want to rotate while you're at the wall a lot  of people make the mistake of rotating on step   3 so as you're doing the flip you're rotating so  that's just a waste of time if you were gonna do   that you may as well just grab the top of the wall  get your breath and then push off the wall so it's   really important that you only push off and then  you rotate don't mix them up together so step 5   is initiate the rotation rotate while pushing off  the wall and you want to kick in streamline either   a freestyle kick or a dolphin kick to get you  back onto your stomach so that you can continue   swimming for the next length now it seems a lot  but if you break it down into these five steps   and you isolate learning each skill you'll be a  flip turn in no time now here's a few tips along   the way that you want to think about as you're  working through each of these steps and even if   you already have a solid flip turn you can always  work on improving each of these different elements   even world-class swimmers can work on their flip  turns to refine them and make them even better   so the first tip is to be in a small ball on the  actual rotation so as you're doing the somersault   you want to be as compact as smaller as it's  possible the smaller your body is and the less   space you occupy the less resistance you have  through the water as you're rotating as you're   doing the somersault and as a result because water  is 800 times more dense than air because you're   smaller and you occupy less surface area you have  less resistance and you'll be able to do that much   much more quickly the next tip is to approach the  wall with speed so you don't want to glide into   the wall which is the third pointer don't glide  into the wall stop and then do the flip turn if   you think about in tennis a ball moving quickly  into the tennis racket will move quickly off of   the tennis racket if you throw a ball at the wall  very quickly it's going to come off the wall just   as fast as you threw it if you throw a ball very  lightly at the at the wall it's not going to come   back very fast the same concept applies with your  body as it's moving into the wall you want to   carry as much momentum as possible momentum is  equal to mass times velocity you can't control   your mass because you already weigh as much as you  weight but you can control your speed so you want   to enter this speed into the wall with a lot of  speed carry the momentum through the wall don't   glide and don't lift your head as you go into the  wall so a lot of swimmers do the mistake of they   come into the wall they get a big breath and  then they flip you get a lot of oxygen but you   slow down all of your speed and you make it a lot  harder to actually carry momentum into the turn   because you took that oxygen finally don't you  want to use the T on the bottom of the pool so   if you notice on most pools there's a black line  with a T at the end now the T is about five feet   or just under two meters away from the edge of the  wall so you actually don't even need to lift your   head up you can get comfortable looking at the T  on the bottom of the pool and the T will let you   know that the wall is coming and that's when you  can your final stroke and pull everyone's a little   bit different in terms of how far they flip turn  and it matters based on how fast you're going as   well so the faster you go you're gonna approach  the wall with more speed you're gonna have to   refactor how fast you're gonna do the flip when  you see the T you also want to make sure you're   pushing off on your back so this tip is really  key for making sure you're not rotating onto your   stomach while you're at the wall another tip is  don't breathe on the breakout stroke so you push   off the wall in streamline you have great kicks  but you need oxygen you need air I empathize with   you however it's going to slow you down because  you have the most speed when you push off the wall   if you take a breath you're actually gonna slow  yourself down so it's hard at the beginning but as   you aerobic Li condition your body not breathing  on the break out stroke will become much much   easier and if you're competing and you're going  to a race you need to make sure you can do that   without taking a breath because you'll lose most  of your speed off of the turn and off of this push   if you take a breath also practice doing this flip  turn with multiple arms so meaning one arm at a   time so maybe you go into the wall with your right  arm but the next time you'll approach the wall   it'll be with your left arm so you want to make  sure you're practicing with both arms and that's   why the drill of three strokes and then doing a  flip will help you learn how to use each arm to   pull you into the flip turn and the final tip is  practice practice practice in elite swimmer will   do over half a million flip turns in the course  of just one season so if you look at swimmers   who have been doing this in entire life they've  practiced millions upon millions of flipped turns   and as a result they have a pretty good idea of  what's going on at the same time it can be really   hard to improve your flip turn because you're so  used to doing something in a certain way so doing   these drills and doing these tips will really help  you improve because it's something that you're   going to do over and over and over again finally I  want to talk about a few different drills that you   can do that really will help you isolate these  tips and skills so you can be better at a flip   turn the first drill is the three strokes plus a  we talked about over here so you take your three   strokes and then you're going to flip you can  do this as a set of 20 5s or 50s or even 100's   just make sure you don't do it too much so that  way you don't get too dizzy doing all of those   flips another skill that you can work on with the  flip is the actual flip part and getting your body   comfortable flipping straight over the top so if  you're flipping over sideways this drill with a   lane marker and essentially doing a flip over  the lane marker will help you focus on flipping   straight over the top and not over to your side  so the way that works is you've grabbed the lane   marker and the lifeguard may not like this at your  pool but if you tell them it's a drill they might   let you do it and you grab the lane marker and you  literally pull yourself over the lane line and you   want to get your body compressed and curling  over the lane line so you get the feeling of   flipping straight over the top the next drill is  my favorite it's where you use to kick boards and   you kick you approach the wall kicking on your  stomach with both arms extended and as you get   to the point where the kick boards are about to  touch the wall you separate your arms out and you   flip on to the wall and then you push off on your  back and rotate so you do the complete flip turn   without using your arms what this drill does is it  really slows you down it isolates using your core   to generate power on the flip and it doesn't let  your hands get too occupied with what they could   be doing underneath the water as you're flipping  so this really isolates a few different elements   and it's one of my favorite drills finally you can  do sets where you go freestyle backstroke where   you focus on pushing off your back on your back  so similar to step number 4 where you push off   on your back where you do freestyle freestyle you  can do 50s where you go freestyle on the way down   and then a 25 backstroke and it forces you to swim  for yourself flip turn find this position and then   push off on your back and then you stay on your  back and you swim backstroke this is a fantastic   drill that you can do a lot of distance where you  really get to focus on pushing off on your back   and then once you translate that into swimming  freestyle you can push off of your back I'm going   to be more confident doing your freestyle kick  or your dolphin kicks off the wall that you can   on here stomach so that's all we have for today's  whiteboard Wednesday if you have any other tips   for questions about mastering the freestyle  flip turn please let us know in the comments   below we look forward to you next time this was  whiteboard Wednesday we'll see you guys later bye

Channel: MySwimPro

Views: 435,044

Rating: 4.9380474 out of 5

Keywords: flip turn, freestyle, swim, swim tip, myswimpro, whiteboard wednesday, fares ksebati, swimming, ali deloof, swim training, triathlon, how to improve my swimming, swimmer, swimmers, how to do a flip turn in the pool, how to do a flip turn swimming, how to do a flip turn for beginners, how to do a flip turn in the water, freestyle flip turn technique, freestyle flip turn in 3 steps, freestyle flip turn technique video, freestyle flip turn video, perfect freestyle flip turn

Id: xlwY4TnU6rY

Length: 15min 42sec (942 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 25 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/msandovalabq]

Thanks for sharing. I'm very new to swimming laps and just realized I've been flip turning incorrectly. This seems like it should be helpful!

[u/bjj33]

Instructions unclear: catapulted out of pool

[u/ok_then23]

I feel very intimidated by flip turns! Never tired one. Anyone else?

[u/Zebedayo]

I actually find this very helpful. Far much better than most of the flip-turn videos I’ve come across. Thanks!

[u/phoenix220]

that's great, but .... how do i even start doing a somersault o___o would have been helpful to start at the start lol

[u/wordsalad1]

I've never even thought about practicing standing somersaults or horizontal somersaults before. I think it will help me with the movement a lot.