I have noticed that the faster swimmers at my pool, “plop” their feet over before the push off on their flip turns. This is hard to describe, but the closest thing to it, is sort of a “ka plomp.”
You can actually hear the “ka plompppp,” by the faster swimmer.
I do flip turns, but I hold my legs up in “hang time,” on the “feet flip” part of it, a bit. I will rotate and somersault over, but my feet are controlled and body is in a scrunch. Whereas, it appears that the secret to a good flip turn apparently is not doing any of that at all, don’t hold back with any muscles, and just let the feet come over without the abs or quads holding back on the legs or feet, and just letting gravity flip the feet over, 100 miles an hour.
My first question is, how in the hell do you not worry you aren’t going to bang the bejesus out of your heels on the wall. It also seems like you would miss more on the flip turns that way. And Two: when are you guys and gals pushing off. I tried practicing this, and when my heels come over, on one of those ka plomps, my feet are way, way at the bottom of the pad for the pushoff. I get the ka plomp, but, I’m rotating over on the push off way at the bottom of the pad.
You’re right, just throw your legs at the wall. You start your turn way before you get to the wall, momentum carries you. Since the turn starts before the wall there is no need to worry about smacking your ankles. Once in a while, for one reason or another it happens though, it hurts but you get over it.
You don’t usually hit your heels, it always seems to be the ankle bone. It’s a lot of fun. For a short while I swam at a pool that had exposed aggragate concrete overhanging the pool edge by about 3". I hit my ankle bone so many times I thought it would end up poking in rather than the ankle bone poking out.
It comes so second nature to me I have a hard time explaining it, when your feet hit the water, you should be facing the side of the pool (on your side). I rotate to facing the bottom of the pool during/after the pushoff. You should be fairly high in the water for the pushoff, if your feet are near the bottom of the pool you are probably turning too soon.
Flip turns are easier the faster you are swimming. Try to use your momentum to complete as much of the flip as possible, IMO it is not a good thing to pin wheel your arms to turn yourself around.
“…how in the hell do you not worry you aren’t going to bang the bejesus out of your heels on the wall. It also seems like you would miss more on the flip turns that way…”
I have done both in meets. One hurts like hell. The other just hurts your ego.
How on earth do you manage to hit your ankle? Are you twisting in mid turn? Sounds awkward to me. I always used to flip straight over the top and twist onto my side in preparation for the first stroke off the turn.
Ever watch the divers? When they do their rotations, their body is tightly balled, but to slow the rotation they extend their arms and legs. The flip turn is exactly the same thing. With enough practice, you’ll get to the point where your feet don’t slide down the wall. It’s just timing.
Sounds like a simultaneous turning and flip. Some years, my coaches were teaching flip and twist, other years it was flip then twist. Since I totally lack coordination, I settled on flip then twist even when that wasn’t the current “right” way to do it.
As for foot position itself, it’s one of those things that you eventually just get a feel for after a couple thousand times doing it. There will be times you get too close, and bang foot. Fotunately, it usually doesn’t hurt for too long. There will be times you miss the wall, and find yourself at a dead stop in the water. But just keep at it, and over time it will click together.