How to Do Flip Turns in Freestyle Swimming

Video Transcript

"Hello and welcome to Expert Village. I'm Phillip Toriello from the Avila Bay Athletic Club. The flip turn is really the most ideal type of turn in competitive freestyle swimming. It provides the opportunity to come into the wall without stopping, flip and push off. So, you are not stopping your propulsion or forward motion. Flip turns are really quite easy. Really, what you want to do is to tuck your forehead (as I like to say) into your belly button, bring your knees up into your forehead so that you are like a tight little cannon ball. I'll give you a little bit of an example of this right now (just the cannon ball portion). It basically looks like a fetal position, in short. The flip turn can be easily done by coming straight into the wall, swimming into the wall, and just as your arm is about an arm's length away (not a bit closer), what you are going to do is you are going to use your legs and your forward momentum to help flip you into that tight little ball. Your feet will then become implanted on the wall. As soon as they are implanted on the wall, you're going to spring off like a rocket, moving your arms straight above your head, twisting from your back onto your side then onto your stomach, propelling yourself forward with a small flutter kick, breaking the surface and going back into your freestyle stroke. "