Why does this question matter?

As the swimmer moves through the water momentum is built up, and at the wall the swimmer must reverse their body and build momentum back up again. Maglischo and Sanches found that in freestyle events swimmers spend between 38% and 50% of their competition time executing turns in short pool competitions over distances that vary from 50 m to 1500 m.  Maglischo also found that by optimising the technique of the freestyle turn times can be reduced by at least 0.20s per lap (as cited in Araujo et al., 2010, p. 1175). 0.20s is quite a significant time to take off a lap, and it therefore shows how vital executing a quick and efficient turn during freestyle is for success in both swimming races and personal time-trials.

An understanding of the biomechanical principles of the freestyle tumble turn, and knowing how to apply them allows a swimmer to optimise the use of their body during the movement phase. I hope that by reading the information in this blog the swimmers amongst you are able to consider some of the biomechanical principles of the turn and how they can be used to improve your performance in the pool.

                                                                    The above video shows how the Australian Institute of Sport uses the 'Wet Plate' system to biomechanically analyse and improve the starts and turns of the Australian Swim Team.