Starts and Turns

Today, coach Tim sends me over to lanes 7 and 8, where the youngest kids and most inexperienced swimmers of this practice are.  “Perhaps they’ll actually listen to advice from a young person,” he says, and we both laugh.

While standing over both lanes, looking for significant areas of improvement, I notice something that would be beneficial to ask Tim about.  “I’ve been noticing across the board that the kids are flipturning crookedly and as a result are pushing off the wall at a diagonal as opposed to on their back, then turning over onto their stomach.  Is this developmental or is this a serious issue I should talk to them about?”

“Ideally they should be moving to the center of the lane to minimize this issue so yes, please do tell them about it,” Tim responds.

Filming is one of the best ways for younger kids to visually see what they’re doing incorrectly.  When both lanes are done with a set, I pull the leader of lane 8, a little blonde girl named Mandy, out of the water and ask her to watch her flipturn that I had just filmed.  “See how your feet touch the wall at different times?  This means that you’ll push off the wall crookedly, so it’s hard to realign yourself and then you’re moving in a curve as instead of a straight line.”  I jump off the ground using one foot, then using two feet, as an example.  “Which way do you think would be more powerful, using one foot, or two feet?”

“Probably two, because you’re more balanced,” Mandy says.  She then eagerly gets back in the water, ready to start a kick set.  It’s a great feeling, knowing you’re helping out a possible future Olympic swimmer!

Mandy, the leader of the lane.  Watch the separation of her feet as she does her flip.