Dolphin kick

The kick used in butterfly is called a dolphin kick because the legs move as one unit, like the tail of the dolphin. This kick is also used underwater during the starts and turns of butterfly, freestyle, and backstroke (and in the fly-back and breast-free IM transition turns) One dolphin kick consists of two parts: the upbeat and the downbeat and swimmers execute two dolphin kicks during each stroke cycle.

Breaststroke underwater pullout sequence

The underwater pullout sequence is a great equalizer of breastsroke races and it's used during the breaststroke send away (breast start, breast to breast turn and back to breast turn in IM). Even poor breaststrokers who streamline well, have a strong butterfly pull and kick, and can fake a single compact breaststroke kick can compete on the walls with the fastest swimmers, and they will have eight to nine fewer meters to swim.

Tips for perfect open turns

We have already discussed the key points of the freestyle (here) and backstroke (here) turns. So, today we are going to give some tips for a perfect open turn. There are five variations of open turns, four of which are similar: breast to breast, fly to fly, and the individual medley (IM) transition turns of fly to back, and breast to free. The fifth kind, the back to breast IM transition turn, is performed differently and will be analyzed in an another post. 

When doing these four variations of an open turn keep in mind the following:

Tips for a perfect backstroke turn

Being blind to the upcoming wall unnerves many swimmers, whose tentative backstroke walls cause them to lose a lot of time to their competitors. Aggressiveness walls can cover a multitude of swimming errors. Here are some tips, devided into the three parts of a flip turn, that will help you do perfect backstroke turns.

Tips to improve your freestyle turn

There are two basic kinds of turn, the flip turns and the open turns. No matter the kind, it is helpful to think of the turn as having three parts: the approach, the turn on the wall, and the send-away. When the turn is done correctly, it speeds up the swimmer while allowing a brief break from swimming.