I had a rest day today, but when my wife said she wanted to go to the pool, I decided to join her.  Not having a scheduled workout, I decided to try something new.  I chose to try and teach myself how to do flip turns.

Ever since I taught myself to swim at age 54, so I could do a triathlon, I have been doing open turns in the pool.  I never chose to try and do flip turns, because in a triathlon races, you don’t need to do them.  As a result, I have been swimming for four years now, and have just done open turns.

Why chose to start doing flip turns now?  To be honest, it is mostly because I like the challenge of learning something new.  I also think it might help me with breathing effort in the pool.  If I don’t open turn, then I won’t have the opportunity to grab extra breaths, at the end of each lap.

It was actually quite fun trying to flip.  I was actually able to turn around, push off the wall and swim away in the other direction.  That is the best part however.  My turns were, as filmed by my wife, just about the ugliest flip turns that I have ever seen. 

It’s a start however and I can only improve from here.  I can now compare my video with examples from online, and can learn.  I suspect it will be a while before I become proficient, but it doesn’t matter.  After all, I don’t need to do flip turns in my races.