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Swimming laps is an excellent form of aerobic exercise. The water is gentle on your joints, but offers enough resistance to strengthen your muscles. Recreational swimmers must turn efficiently at the end of each lap to avoid holding up other swimmers. Competitive swimmers often opt for the fastest legal turning option to help them complete their race in record time. Techniques for turning vary, depending on the stroke you swim and your ability.
Open Turn
The open turn is perhaps the easiest swim turn for recreational swimmers who swim more for fitness than speed. An open turn consists of touching the end of the pool and pushing off the wall with your feet. Competitive swimmers can also use an open turn, especially young children who are beginners in the sport. Breaststrokers and swimmers in butterfly races must do a two-handed open turn as their only legal turn option. Touching the wall just underneath the edge of the pool with the palms instead of the fingers prevents you from grabbing the wall, which uses up energy needlessly, explains Emmett W. Hines, author of "Fitness Swimming."
Flip Turn
Flip turns, essentially underwater somersaults, are the quickest way for freestylers and backstrokers to reverse direction. Watching for the "T" at the end of the lane helps gauge where to start tucking and rolling without hitting your head on the side of the pool. A dolphin kick gives you speed to roll at high momentum. Blow bubbles out of your nose as you roll. The final step of a successful flip turn is planting your feet on the wall of the pool with your toes pointing up. Extend your body fully with arms straight over your head and hands together. Backstrokers must wait until they are within the last armstroke's reach of the wall before flipping over to their stomachs for a turn. Turning too soon can disqualify you from a race.
Medley Turns
Competitive swimmers who race in individual medley events swim one lap each of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle and can't legally do flip turns during the race. The exception to this is if the race consists of more than one freestyle lap -- then a flip turn is allowed. Open turns are legal, as is the somersault turn, which is different from the flip turn. A backstroker swimming a medley must remain on his back the entire time. Instead of flipping onto the stomach, a back somersault lets you switch directions while adhering to the rules of the race.
Pivots
Pivoting your body is an important technique to learn when doing turns. Regardless of the type of turn you choose, use your hips to turn your body to the side with your belly button facing the side wall of the pool as you push off from the wall. During your forward glide, straighten your body out to the prone position. According to USA Swimming, the pivot is especially helpful for breaststrokers to make the most of the forward momentum from their push-off.
Open Turn
The open turn is perhaps the easiest swim turn for recreational swimmers who swim more for fitness than speed. An open turn consists of touching the end of the pool and pushing off the wall with your feet. Competitive swimmers can also use an open turn, especially young children who are beginners in the sport. Breaststrokers and swimmers in butterfly races must do a two-handed open turn as their only legal turn option. Touching the wall just underneath the edge of the pool with the palms instead of the fingers prevents you from grabbing the wall, which uses up energy needlessly, explains Emmett W. Hines, author of "Fitness Swimming."
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| Techniques for Turning Lap While Swimming |
Flip turns, essentially underwater somersaults, are the quickest way for freestylers and backstrokers to reverse direction. Watching for the "T" at the end of the lane helps gauge where to start tucking and rolling without hitting your head on the side of the pool. A dolphin kick gives you speed to roll at high momentum. Blow bubbles out of your nose as you roll. The final step of a successful flip turn is planting your feet on the wall of the pool with your toes pointing up. Extend your body fully with arms straight over your head and hands together. Backstrokers must wait until they are within the last armstroke's reach of the wall before flipping over to their stomachs for a turn. Turning too soon can disqualify you from a race.
Medley Turns
Competitive swimmers who race in individual medley events swim one lap each of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle and can't legally do flip turns during the race. The exception to this is if the race consists of more than one freestyle lap -- then a flip turn is allowed. Open turns are legal, as is the somersault turn, which is different from the flip turn. A backstroker swimming a medley must remain on his back the entire time. Instead of flipping onto the stomach, a back somersault lets you switch directions while adhering to the rules of the race.
Pivots
Pivoting your body is an important technique to learn when doing turns. Regardless of the type of turn you choose, use your hips to turn your body to the side with your belly button facing the side wall of the pool as you push off from the wall. During your forward glide, straighten your body out to the prone position. According to USA Swimming, the pivot is especially helpful for breaststrokers to make the most of the forward momentum from their push-off.
Posted in: swimming
