OPEN TURNS

 

Today’s stop on our trip will be the open turn which encompasses both your breaststroke and fly, along with the exchanges in your individual medley events to an extent.

We will begin with your approach into the turn.  Sometimes it looks as if   your confused as your approaching your turns, should I speed up or

should I slow down.  Coach Paul says “maintain your speed and try to touch long, that is, when your arms are reached out in full extension and

FULL EXTENSION

your body is in a streamline position”.  Yes that phrase again!  The only light you should be seeing is green.  Otherwise you are slowing your momentum which affects how fast you will be able to make that transition.  You are correct there is no flip involved here, and yes, you need to touch with 🙌.   But then what?  First off the touch is more like a push with the hands.  Don't get caught holding onto the wall.

NOTICE THE ELBOW PAST HIP AND THE HEAD POSITION WITH THE TOP ARM COMING DIRECTLY OVER TTHE TOP

Obviously with our fly and breaststroke turns there are no flip involved, so what we are trying to do after the touch is to pull one arm back past our hip and at the same time tuck your knees under your body turn your hips towards the wall.  Your feet are planted on the wall with your toes pointed to the outside lanes ready for that explosive push off the wall.  Your head does not turn to the side during these turns, it falls back to the other end of the poll looking toward the ceiling and watching the other arm come right over the top.  Think of these not like turns but as changing directions, we are not turning our heads at the wall.

Notice feet and toe placement on wall

The breaststroke requires a little patience as you leave the wall as you initiate your pullout.  Think back to a time not long ago where your coaches might have hat you count 1-2-3 before you began your pullout and for good reasons.  It takes a little time after leaving the wall for you to lose that momentum off the wall and because of stroke rules you want to hold that tight streamline until you begin to decelerate.  As you begin to decelerate begin the pullout with 1 powerful 🐬 kick generating from the core and hips, its at this point you begin the arm movement.  It is vital that during this movement your chin stays tucked and your arms stay as close to your body as you can, the further the arms move outside the shoulders the less catch and power you have.  Finish it off with 1 power kick to the surface and get into the next leg of your race.

As for the fly stay in that tight streamline off your push followed by some dolphin kicks and again surface with that chin tucked.  Do not breathe on that first stroke and after that go into your breathing patterns.  You may ask yourself how many dolphin kicks should I do?  The simple answer is it depends on you and how you have worked on it during your training sessions in the pool.  Is it a 50, 100, 200 or 400 IM all important factors.  What we can say is that the longer the event the more important it is to get oxygen to the blood so that the muscles will not fatigue early in the race on you.  

Again, how well you can execute all of these things comes down to how well you execute them during practice at every opportunity and not just the day before a meet.  I am always amused how right before a meet swimmers will ask, can we work on turns, finishes, things that should be worked on every moment of every practice.  You will not perfect them in a day.  Take for example the underwater part of races, if you've been with me for a while you started with nothing and as you have grown, gotten stronger and worked on them, they have improved tremendously but it is as sophomores, juniors and seniors and high school that they will really shine.  All of this takes work and dedication on your part and the desire to improve all areas of YOUR swimming.

Next up: The finish