After her 50 yard backstroke race last weekend, Chopstick tried to tell me what was wrong with her turn. Not actually knowing how to do a flipturn, much less a seemingly impossible backstroke flipturn, I didn't get it. She explained a few more times and it slowly sunk in. She is a right-handed backstroke flipturner and got caught in between strokes. This made her have to glide for a bit at the wall before she could turn.
She made it very clear that she knows how to do it with both arms but just has never practiced the other hand. And it didn't seem like a good idea to do it during a race. Especially one that she was winning and would go on to win by about a second. But the kicker is, she missed her JO by 0.6 seconds. And I think she wants that 0.6 seconds.
Her coach calls this tendency a "favored arm". I see it myself on my turns...if my left hand gets there first, I pull up to grab with my right hand and turn counter clockwise. When I tried it the other way, it felt wrong, like I was in Australia or something.
So we're going up to the pool to practice the turn until she feels comfortable on both sides. She *hates* practicing outside of practice. Sometimes she reacts like I'm asking her to give up her favorite teddy bear when I suggest it. So it was weird to have her remind me that she wants to do it this weekend. I guess she really wants that 0.6 seconds.
I'll take advantage of this rare pool time with her to attempt once again to learn to do a flip turn, maybe I can get some minutes back from my own goals. Report on Monday.
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I'm a part-time flip-turner (is that a word?). I decided after hanging out at the Pacific Masters swim meet in Walnut Creek this weekend that I will hereby always use flip turns. I saw every type of flip turn known... violent, timid, nearly take the ankles off by over-shooting, missing the wall entirely, and just barely touching the wall by a toenail.
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