Tumble Turns

Front Crawl Backstroke Breaststroke Butterfly Tumble Turns Training Aids Starting Tumble Turns

As with everything in life, it’s all down to practice really. But here are some pointers to help you tumble turn better, set out in the order in which they occur. 1. Don’t lose all of your speed before you enter your turn. The aim is to convert your forward speed into rotational speed, not to drift in to the wall. To do this is to concentrate on the timing of your last stroke. This should not just take you to the wall but start to take you round as well. So if you find yourself having finished your last stroke with both arms by your side before you have put your head down, you have taken it far too early. ‘Spot the wall’ a few strokes out; then you don’t have to adjust at the last minute. Make the final pull a really strong one and about half to two thirds of the way through it start to tuck up. 2. Next is essentially a sit up – it’s just an upside down sit up. You use your abdominal muscles to tuck your body up and start to throw your hips over your head. (If you’re finding that you keep getting your legs up in the air but then lose momentum and fall sideways before completing the whole tumble turn, we recommend you do some abdominal work on land). So, when you have finished thinking about your extra strong pull, the next thing to think about is putting your chin onto your chest. This forces you to do your sit up quickly before losing the momentum from your pull. 3. The next action is physically throwing your legs over. Whether you’re legs are tucked up or have a slight knee bend is personal preference. If they’re tucked up you have more rotational speed (like a spinning ice skater pulling their arms in) but if they’re not, you have to swim less distance to get your feet on to the wall, so it’s swings and roundabouts. One thing we would say is don’t have them too straight or you’ll just have to waste time bending your knees later on to push off the wall. 4. The feet should be planted on the wall either at 10 o’clock or 2 o’clock depending on which way round you want to go. This is to help towards turning yourself onto you front. Get as much of your foot on the wall as possible. Imagine how weak a squat jump on land is if you can only start on tip toes. 5. Before you push off the wall, tuck your head in between your arms, so that you are as streamlined as possible. 6. Finally, as you push off slightly on your side, take your first stroke with the arm on the lower side. Then do as many as you can manage before you take your first breathe. This is tough but if you get into your full stroke before you breath, you lose a lot less speed than if you breathe straight away. In summary to complete a good tumble turn think: SPOT WALL PULL HARD CHIN TO CHEST THROW LEGS FOOT PLANT POSITION HEAD BETWEEN SHOULDERS STROKE BEFORE BREATHE