All Strokes - The Seven Competitive Turns

It’s easy to break turns down into two forms, open turns, and flip turns.  We wish it was that easy, but competitive swimmers will need to know all seven of the competitive turns.

Why do it:
Unless you’re only going to swim freestyle, then mastering all the turns will allow you to compete in Individual Medley races, legally.

How to do it:
We’ll just be quickly showing all the turns in this video.  More detailed how to’s are found at our website.

1 – Butterfly-to-Butterfly – Approach the wall swimming butterfly, perform an open turn, and leave the wall on your stomach for your dolphin kicks.
2 – Butterfly-to-Backstroke – Approach the wall swimming butterfly, perform an open turn directly over to your back, pushing off on your back for your dolphin kicks.
3 – Backstroke-to-Backstroke – Approach the wall swimming backstroke.  One stroke prior to reaching the wall, roll over toward your stomach and perform a flip turn.  Leave the wall on your back for your dolphin kicks.
4 – Backstroke-to-Breaststroke – This turn actually has a few variations, we’ll quickly show two.  Approach the wall swimming backstroke, on your last stroke, reach and touch the wall while tilting toward your side, perform a flip turn and push off rotated toward your stomach for breaststroke.  A simpler option is to swim in backstroke, reach for the wall while still on your back, perform an open turn, and push off on your stomach.
5 – Breaststroke-to-Breaststroke – Approach the wall swimming breaststroke, perform an open turn, and leave the wall on your stomach for your breaststroke underwater pullout.
6 – Breaststroke-to-Freestyle – Approach the wall swimming breaststroke, perform an open turn, leave the wall on your side or stomach for your dolphin kicks and the freestyle breakout.
7 – Freestyle-to-Freestyle – Approach the wall swimming freestyle, perform a flip turn, and leave the wall on your side or stomach for your dolphin kicks and freestyle breakout.

How to do it really well (the fine points):
Treat each turn as it’s own skill.  Don’t assume that understanding the open turn, or flip turn will give you the knowledge necessary to do all of these turns quickly.  Also know the rules, especially involving backstroke and breaststroke turns.  In backstroke-to-breaststroke transition turns, you MUST touch the wall while still on your back, and you MUST leave the wall while rotated more toward your stomach.

Again, these are just the basics, much more detailed explanations are available at our website.