Um, arms?

Lance, I've been told that part about not breathing off the wall also but is that just a training thing? I have noticed that in the highest levels of competition, at the longer distances everyone is now breathing on the first stroke. Also, they breath every 2 arm strokes now instead of every 3. It just makes sense in an aerobic performance that you need to maximize your oxygen intake.

And breaking out after the flags doesn't apply to sprints does it? You need to break out at precisely that point in which your streamline speed has come down to your swim pace, which for a 25 second 50m swimmer is pretty much immediately.

Thanks.

Arms... too often I see novice swimmers flailing their arms out to the side trying to "spin" their way into a somersault. Your arms should end up pointing more or less sraight back, parallel to the surface at the end of the stroke, and remain in that position as your torso rotates around under them on the flip. Then, you use your arms to "pull" your torso back upwards in line with the rest of your body as you push off (the arms then should already be in position to extend straight ahead without having to pull them back in from the sides first). If you look at a good swimmer do it all at once, the arms end up barely moving at all from the end of the stroke to the push-off extension. If you're having to flail the arms to complete the flip, then you need to work on a smoother flipping motion...

...here, you shouldn't need to think of launching your legs up and over; rather, the flip itself should be a natural rotation of driving your head down and allowing the curl of your back/legs to automatically pivot around your center of mass. Your legs then should be rotating so your feet are coming around towards the wall close to perpendicular for the push-off, and not travelling downward parallel to the wall before executing the push. I also allow one knee/leg to curl a little lower than the other, sort of "bicyclish" so that when I push off, my feet aren't both completely level with each other; this helps "screw" me off the wall for a smoother transition into the regular face-down position.

You're both kind of saying the same thing, it's just how you get there that there's a discrepancy.

Ken - you pull both arms back prior to flipping and leave them where they were while flipping - after pushing down.
Jill - you use them as part of the initiation of the flipping motion but use core muscles to actually flip, therefore arms are slack and moving above head to streamline during that part, yes?

Either way - you accomplish the same goal, it's just whether you use any of the intertia from your arms or not. I was taught to lead into the turn with one arm extended and the other down at my side, in a sense closing the gap and using both of your methods....

Did that make sense? I think you're basically saying the same thing.

Am I the only person who finds flip turns easier if a 90 degree rotation is thrown in before the foot plant? Every time I try to push off on my back, I get horribly disoriented. Yet pushing off from my side feels perfectly natural.

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What you're talking about can feel more "more natural" but as jyeager correctly points out, it is slower and swimmers train not to do it this way. Does it matter for a swimmer training for triathlons where there are no turns? Not really.

Something I don't think anyone has mentioned is your head. As you come into the wall and take your last stroke your head should come down simultaneously with your final arm stroke. Your head should come down sharply (chin to chest) and this in effect pulls your spine into the turn and initiates a tight tuck (a tight tuck makes it easier to flip and it also makes you flip more quickly). If you arm strokes first and both arms are by your side before you bring your head down then obviously you are losing speed / momentum.

Bilateral breathing helps develop an even stroke and people train that way when possible even if they breath every 2 strokes for max efforts >100m.

Breathing off the wall. Ideally you shouldn't breath the first 2 strokes and you should dolphin kick away from the wall. It gets you under/out from the wash you created coming in and if you're good at it (as FLA Jill pointed out), it's faster. Watch Phelps - he's the best ever and there is a lot of daylight to second.