learn to do a flip turn

had a big long practice session today, and worked out the remaining kinks from last time one by one – how close to the wall I need to be, how much breath to use, how to find the wall with my feel more quickly, and to push off on my back and then turn rather than trying to do both simultaneously. It was a lot easier to do when crawling as I guess I have more momentum.

Anyway, I can now crawl in, flip, turn, and crawl or backstroke out and I did it quite a few times and it was the same every time, so I’m going to call this done. I may not be a flippin master, it may not be beautiful, but I can do it! And it’s so much fun!!

I still can’t do a flip turn, but I did swim 2 miles today in open water!! Wee-hoo!

The nose-clip was great because it made it really fun to be upside-down or any which way – and it meant it didn’t matter that I was still a bit congested. I think I’ll use it more often just for normal swimming!

Anyway today there were only about three people in the “recreational” – loads of space and perfect conditions for learning how to flip! First I just practised rolling over in the water and coming up on my back facing the opposite way. Then did some more practice with trying to judge the wall and twisting onto my front after the turn. I can basically do it but I still need to work on judging the distance from the wall, pushing off straight, and turning nearer the surface as I find I’m diving and it takes ages to find my way back up once I’m disorientated!

I will consider this done when I can swim a length up to the wall, flip straight and be able to continue to crawl the return length.

It was so much fun though, all that messing about in the water and turning around and stuff! And great exercise – you use a whole different set of muscles flipping, and I was treading water a lot and doing dead starts so felt nicely tired afterwards. And it’s really beautiful being able to see the surface from beneath as you come up on your back.

I hadn’t been able to try this for ages because of bad sinus problems over Christmas that seemed to be kick-started by the chlorine in the pool where I usually swim. However, at the end of my swimming class in another (nicer) pool last week, we worked on flip turns and even the little time I’d devoted to them late last year paid off: I was able to swim up to the wall (slowly), flip, and get my feet planted sideways on the wall before pushing off. I’m not very spatially-aware, but I was making contact more often than not. I have to use a nose-clip, though, and won’t consider I can really do a flip turn until this aid is eventually abandoned! But I figure it’s an idea to get the turn into my muscle memory first before being disoriented by water going up my nose!

The first nose plug didn’t work. I’m going to try another.

I can now a flip turn. I’m still not comfortable doing them, but I can do them. Now I just have to get used to doing them while I’m swimming laps. I’ll mark this goal complete once I’m consistently doing them.

The swimming lesson times for fall are now posted. I just emailed mom to see if she wants to take a lesson with me. Yeah! Hopefully this will work out and I’ll learn to do flip turns and butterfly.

I hope to take an advanced swimming class this fall and learn how to do a flip turn and improve the strokes I do now (crawl, backstroke, and breatstroke).