liambruno

I’m all set for some GTD Kung Fu. I’ve spent some of the past two months studying the principles and practices, and I’ve refreshed my toolset. But life is about to become much more complicated with school starting next week. The question is whether I’ll keep up with the game this year or end up scrambling to put out fires as per the usual routine. If I manage a calm, collected fall semester in spite of all the nonsense associated with college, then I will consider this effort a success.

After some practice, I can do pretty good flip-turns in deep water. With pretty good consistency I gauge the distance to the wall, flip fairly well, and push off with a slight upward slant and a roll to put me into a stroke and a breath at the same time. All this with a pathetic approach speed; I am not a fast swimmer.

The real trouble is shallow water. And it is trouble, because the pool I swim in (the only one to which I have free access) ranges from three to ten feet; one end of the pool requires me to turn in a very narrow vertical range. Actually swimming in that end is fine; I can stay off the bottom with no problem. But a flip turn is a bit more complicated. I suppose this is really the indicator of the quality of my turns, because if I can’t minimize the depth I use during a turn, then I haven’t really got it. Anyway, it’s going to stay hot outside for two or three months yet, so I have plenty of time before the weather forces me in.

The other difficulty is speed of approach. I watched some clips of expert swimmers flipping turns, and their approach to the wall is so fast that they kick water onto the pool deck. I have the idea that a flip turn would be easier if I increase my swimming speed, and that’s another challenge in itself.

I decided to learn flip turns a while ago after seeing a few other people do them. It seemed like a better way to do laps (I only really swim for exercise and to unwind a bit), and probably not too hard. So I can sort of flip turns already, but not very well. So in the spirit of 43Things, I’m making it a goal to do really good flip turns. I think part of that involves swimming faster, so maybe I need to set another goal…