Triathlete Profile holds True Again

ahh stereotypes.

Was he swimming in compression gear?

Why excel at one sport when you can be mediocre in three?

Just regular spandex tri shorts.  Good technique and rhythm but the not doing flip turns gave it away

Why is not doing flip turns giving it away?  I swim with an IM triathlete and she does flip turns at all of her workouts.

LOL....I do 1000m sets without flip turns. I never learned how. I'm too busy working on the swimming to take time to learn. Seems silly to spend the time on them now when I won't have to do a flip turun in the OW!

You can always tell when a person is a triathlete when swimming: multiple sets of insane distances, swimming very slow, weird body positions, no flip turns, a pile of swim aids, and constant checking of their watch.

--Eric

Chances are she swam comptetively at one point. 

People who "get into" swimming just for triathlons will swim long sets, but don't know how to do flip turns, and generally won't learn, as you don't really need them during OWS.

I CAN do flip turns (swam competetively as a kid) but generally DON'T unless I'm doing a set just to see how fast I can do them.

That describes me this AM at the pool perfectly.  No tri shorts, though, just a normal swim suit

Sarc?  If not, prepare for some fireworks!  I've got my donut and coffee ready to watch!

To me, swimming is the "necessary evil" when it comes to triathlons. I've tried learning to do flip turns, but I must be too uncoordinated because I get dizzy and disoriented when doing so. I wouldn't even sign up for a triathlon if I had to swim in a pool and was required to do flip turns.

I started swimming in earnest less than a year ago, and I do flip-turns in all my sets except drill work. I think those few hypoxic seconds are very helpful. Here's how I think of it: If you don't do flip-turns, you're making your training a little easier than your race swimming by taking a quick break every 25 yards; if you do flip-turns, you're making your training a little harder than your race swimming by becoming a bit oxygen deprived every 25 yards. I like going into a race knowing that I'm going to be delivering a little more oxygen to my muscles than I was during training, and I'd hate to go into an OWS worrying if I'll be OK without a wall to grab onto. I made huge gains in swimming in about 6 months last winter, and I think this is part of why. Also, flip-turns are easy to learn; you'll miss a few times in your first few sessions, but within a month or so you'll start to feel confident.

This is how you can tell if someone IS a triathlete, not if someone is NOT a triathlete.

I match part of that stereotype... I don't do flip turns very often and my sets tend to be pretty long. I'm not overly slow in the pool (1:30-1:40/100 for 1000 yds), I don't use toys, and I don't wear a watch.

Still kind of funny to me.

I just wear regular swim trunks to the pool thinking that the extra drag makes me stronger and yes I hardly ever use my legs when working on my reach, catch, pull and finish.  And I don't do flip turns either.  I used to know how but they were never really clean so I don't even bother anymore.  I saw a video (Maybe on this site) for a good open turn and it does work well for me.  In the past year I saw one guy wearing tri shorts and he was practicing for a triathlon.

my sweet tan lines give me away at the pool

Triathletes always claim they don't need to do flip turns because they aren't needed in OW.  I can't tell you how far from the truth that is.  If you take a few weeks to learn how to flip your swimming will greatly improve.  I've seen this time and again with the dozens of tris that train at our club.  Coming to a dead stop, grabbing the wall and doing the dip and slip on every 25/50 is really a colossal waste of energy and zaps energy that could be used to swim more and better.

I can do flip turns but typically choose not to mostly because I don't feel the need.  I sure don't think not doing them wastes energy nor do I think doing them will make one a better swimmer.  I've actually never heard that before.  Do you have any data that shows flip turns use less energy?  I've always thought they were just faster.

I actually just started to learn flip turns last week. I came here to search for a how to and found this video from 2008. It touches on the hypoxic issue helping and about breaking stroke technique each time you wall touch if not doing turns.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=1388

It makes sense that flips use less energy.   Your natural momentum brings your legs over and "cocks" your legs on the wall for the push-off.  Or, to put it more simply:

Better swimmers use flip turns.  Better swimmers are faster.  Flip turns are faster.

However, I understand that tris can't be convinced to do flip turns.  But, when they do, they improve.  Quite the conundrum.

Yes, those fly and breaststroke specialists sure are missing the boat!

John

My opinion:

Flip turns > Open turns

Reasoning?

Open turns allow for a break at the wall. I'm not saying that everyone that does open turns does take a break, but the temptation to hold on and take a nice big breath is really strong. 

I do flip turns. I have swimming background. I throw in quick open turns during longer swims, just to help keep track of laps (like an open turn at every 100 on a 500 swim).

Constantly doing open turns doesn't make you look like a triathlete, it just makes you look like a novice in the pool. That doesn't really matter, unless you're trying to impress a hot lifeguard.

Mmmmm.....no. Hypoxic training does absolutely nothing for you, and is a myth. And you aren't delivering "more" oxygen to your muscles in OWS because you aren't flip turning, you'd have to be holding your breath for a LOT longer than a flip turn before your blood O2 saturation dipped at all.

Not saying you should give up on flip turns, but your reasoning behind it is faulty.

John

Nope, they're just staying legal  

I do open turns.  I just learned how to swim without a nose clip over last winter which was a huge thing for me.  It took a few weeks for me to get it right but the benefits of proper breathing and less equipment made it worth the work and my times improved because of it.  Learning a flip turn doesn't seem like it would offer the same benefit.

Of course, my open turns are a wall touch, twist, turn and off again.  Stopping to grab/hang on the wall doesn't seem like a turn so much as a pit stop. 

If flip turns were legalized for fly and breast they'd be used at the next meet, guarantee it.

The back to breast touch and flip is super fast, and terribly hard to judge.