Flip Turns Ad Nauseam

When I made the decision to start competing in the sport of triathlon in the fall of 2003, I did so with a well established base in the sports of running and cycling. I’ve been running regularly since I was 21 years old (27 years ago) and have been a serious cyclist for 11 years. I learned how to swim when I was a kid, but where I grew up in Texas swimming was not a competitive sport like it is now for kids here in the northeast. It is a major sport here. The only sports that counted back then in Texas were FOOTBALL, basketball, baseball and track. Soccer wasn’t even on the radar screen and tennis was “for wussies” (I’d like to see someone call John McEnroe a wussie to his face). Even though I “learned how to swim,” I was certainly no great-shakes in the water.

So in the fall of 2003 I decided to start plunking down my monthly membership payment to the Y and going to the pool for regular workouts. I read Terry Laughlin’s book Swimming for Triatheletes, and got his DVD from Total Immersion. I studied them and practiced the drills and have become a middle-of-the-pack swimmer. I’ve decided that my focus this off-season is going to be on improving my swimming and on finally mastering flip turns. I’m tired of seeing everyone else in the pool besides me being able to do them. I’ve recently purchased the Championship Production Triathlon series DVD on swimming and it has a short section on flip turns. So I was all psyched up this morning when I went to the pool to start working on flip turns!

After my warm-up and a few drills, I went into a flip turn practice session using the techniques described in my new DVD. After doing about six or seven flip turns in a short period of time, I was so nauseated I could hardly stand it. I almost bagged the workout, but was able to swim two more very easy sets of 500 yards before hitting the showers. I’m still a bit nauseated as I sit typing this.

I really admire those of you that can glide through those turns. Maybe, just maybe, one day I will join your ranks!!