flip turn arms

First of all  I want to apologize for the lack of posts. Things got busy with everything from swim team, work, and life. I hope to get back on track in the next few weeks.

There are many different ways that people teach flip turns. There are all kinds of methods, and many of them work. Last night I didn't work on how to execute the flip turn, but the concept of what to do with your hands. I have used this method for years, and it has seemed to work for me. I know other use a noodle method or push the hat descriptions, but I have found that this does work for me.

I have the swimmer hold two kick boards, one in each hand. They hold the board so the board is just floating on the surface and their arms are  underneath. They are on their stomachs with their hands by their side. They go to floating position, and then they kick (just to create some momentum) for 3 seconds and then execute a flip turn. The kick boards normally prevent them from using their hands to assist the finish of the flip turn and utilize just the core muscles to execute the turn.

I will normally repeat this a few times, and then talk to them about how a forced them to do a flip turn with out using their hands. "So, do you really need to use your hands and arms to do a flip turn?" I'd ask my group, and the response is almost always no. Ok, so we got it out of their heads that they need to use their arms and hands to even do a flip turn.

Now, we will do the drill again, but this time they need to end up on their back and they need to squeeze the boards together to block their vision of the sky. We do this a few times, and they get used to moving the arms inward during the flip to block their vision with the kickboard. Back to the wall, and we talk about how I want to come into the wall hands by side, and then they flip their body into Superman, then they'll move their arms in and stack their hands; push and rotate to their stomach. After this many (not all) are transitioning quickly from flip to push as now they don't have to waste their time to bring their hands up into a streamline before they push the wall.

It is a method I've used for years, and it has worked relatively well. There many great ways out there on how to teach this same thing, this just happens to be the method I use.