A couple of the triathletes I swim with are trying to get their heads around tumble turning. And it's a lot of struggle, especially as there aren't many people you can copy - yes you could copy the Olympic lot (and should), but they turn too quick and are leagues-better than the average swimmer. So may be setting ones sights slightly lower to start off with isn't such a bad idea.
With that in mind here, warts and all, is a bit of video of me turning, taken at the end of June this year. The set I was swimming was a 200M swum slow-25-fast-25. What you see here (not that you can tell) is my turn from slow to fast. The main difference is the fact that on my fast lengths I made sure of 4-5 fly-kicks off the wall. Ordinarily, when cruising, I'll glide further and do at most one kick.
There is a stack of things I don't like about this turn (and more about the one I didn't post!), however it's not the worst tumble turn you'll see, and there are enough "good things" and the fact that it's pretty slow that you could learn something off it.
1) I am not breathing on the last stroke. My last breath is one stroke before the wall, so I am not distorting my balance/line going into the turn.
2) As my right arm recovers (comes towards my head), my left has started its stroke/catch.
3) Both arms "finish" their underwater work at the same time and I move toward the wall as a consequence of this action.
4) My legs do a mini-dolphin kick to instigate the tumble.
5) About halfway through my turn my arms/hands flare out (bad) they should stay where they are in the water - preparing to streamline.
6) My feet come over legs bent, and knees reasonably close to my torso (for a quicker rotation).
7) My feet hit the wall slightly at an angle (i.e. not straight over onto my back).
8) As my feet hit the wall my arms are preparing to streamline (this could be quicker so I don't waster energy on the push).
9) As I start the push my arms are streamlined above my head, and my torso is straight. Note that I am slightly on my side - I don't straighten my position on the wall.
10) I push off and rotate myself back into my prone position. I also "glide" for a brief period before I instigate a few (five I think) dolphin kicks.
11) I take my first stroke _after_ the flags with my head looking down - not up in the air. And I don't breath until the end of my first stroke cycle - at the earliest.
So what do you think?
