I started swimming seriously when I was training for St. Anthony triathlon in April 2009. Around that time, I decided to join Concourse Masters Swim, which had been a great blessing to be able to swim with other triathletes at 5.45AM twice a week (who's crazy enough to do that, right?) and I learned so much from our coach, Oliver.
In the winter, when there weren't too many triathletes showed up for the workout. Oliver had been teaching us other skills besides free style. It was actually kinda fun. We spent a couple of weeks learning breast strokes, back strokes, which was very useful because now I swam back strokes or double-armed back strokes in between hard sets, and butterflies. I could swim butterflies half of the pool length, which was not too bad for a newbie.
Lastly he taught us FLIP TURNS. I know there was no wall in the lake or ocean but it was just so cool to be able to do it. Plus it did shave a few seconds, protect my shoulders from grabbing the wall a little too hard, and the ability to swim continuously, not breaking every 25 meters. I remembered, besides me, there were Leslie and Debbie that morning. Those two could flip with no issues. They just needed little tweaks to make it perfect. I, on the other hand, just couldn't get it. I inhaled water, that was when I learned that I had to blow air out as I attempted to flip. My back almost hit the bottom of the pool as I was pushing off the wall. I got motion sickness from trying too hard and too often. I was over it. Some times, after a few months, I tried it again and made a fool out of myself. I googled and watched a few you-tube videos on how to flip correctly. I still couldn't do it. I gave it up for a while, then early this year, I made doing flip turns as my 2011 goal. I had to be able to do it while I was training for Augusta. Different people gave me their tips after they saw me flailing in the water or under the water, I should say. I was watching kids swimming and flipping at Dynamo while I was waiting for TNT swim GTS. They made it look so easy. At the end of the season, I gave up. That's it. No more flip turns. Forget about it. Who says that you need to be able to flip turns to swim well? I was at peace with my decision.
Last Wednesday, only 3 people showed up at the workout. The other two swimmers were brand new to the group. After we swam around 1,000 meters, Oliver stopped us, reviewed the flip turn theories and of course he demonstrated a couple of perfect flips. I was so over it. I didn't want to try again but I didn't say anything. He told us to swim 6X50 and we had to flip. I told him that I would do a flip at the end of the 50's, so I wouldn't mess up the work out. I told myself to just do it, don't think too hard and remember to keep the feet apart as wide as the shoulder length. I was approaching the wall and I tucked my head, put my arms on my sides and kept the feet apart. I planted my feet on the wall. I pushed off the wall in a streamlined body position. WHOAA... I did it. That was it. I did a flip turn. Did anybody see that? Of course not, Oliver was watching Sarah at the time. I told Oliver that I thought I did it right. He told me to flip this time at the end of the pool and swim to the other end. I was a little nervous because it could be just a fluke. I did another flip turn and felt so natural as my body twisted to the left and took my first breath to the right. After I reached the wall, he was quite impressed and told me that was very good. I couldn't believe I finally got it. The next set was 16X50 with flip turns. I flipped every single time. I ended my workout after flipping more than 25 times. I saw Debbie in the locker room and told her that I finally got the flip turns thing. She was excited for me, even though she probably thought I was crazy being so psyched from doing flip turns.
The next morning I went back to the pool after running 4 miles. I had to make sure what happened yesterday wasn't just a one-day Christmas miracle. The first few turns I was a little bit too deep in the water as I was trying to come up for my first stroke. Something wasn't quite right, then, I remembered something important. Keep the feet shoulders apart. That was it. I tried again and it was much better. Perfect. Bill was in the pool too, so of course I told him about my accomplishment from yesterday. He watched me did a couple of turns and said that I did great. Maybe he was lying but I still liked the compliment. Flip turns are just like riding a bike. Once you do it right, you get it. That was my Christmas present from God this year. Merry Christmas!!!
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