font size A A A

Turns - Knee Your Chin!

Posted by Glenn Mills on Mar 20, 2012 08:34AM (13,939 views)

Swimming fast isn't just about a great pushoff and streamline.  

Why Do It:
How quickly you get through the turn has as much to do with fast times, as fast swimming does.  In practice, swimmers can relax a bit too much, open up their bodies, look back, and simply take too much time by being sloppy.

How to Do It:
1. 
 This works for all turns.  Each of these swimmers has a bit too much gap between their chest and thighs during the turn.  The goal of this quick drill is to get their bodies tighter.
2.  Have the swimmer stretch out on the wall, hands on the edge and feet near the surface.
3.  Just as Dave Denniston demonstrates in his turns video, and as Steve Haufler demonstrats in his turns video, have the swimmer TUCK the knees up and try to get them all the way to the chin.  
4.  Practice this both stationary, and with a pushoff.

How to Do It Really Well (the Fine Points):
While drills are great, doing this really well means doing it consistently.  You don't have to do this fast to accomplish it, but you do have to be very focused on staying tight, and keeping the chin tucked through all your turns.  In just 5 minutes, you can see the difference in these swimmers when simply asked to focus on this point.




Responses

Responded Mar 20, 2012 03:49PM

Glenn, we do a similar thing (specifically for open turns) where the swimmer lays out on the water, face down, and on the whistle does a back somersault as quickly as possible. They do this by driving the elbows back into the midrift and tucking their knees in as fast as possible to the chin. The good ones can do 2 complete somersaults without needing to scull over. We also, numbers permitting, time them to see how quickly they can spin.

Responded Mar 20, 2012 05:31PM

Yep... that's on Dave Denniston's Turns video and Steve Haufler's. I struggle with one flip... but I fear my tummy is getting in the way! ;)

Responded Mar 20, 2012 09:20PM

I think I picked it up from Richard Quick

Responded Mar 20, 2012 09:24PM

Everything old is new again. If it originated with Richard, it was probably passed down to David Marsh, who taught it to Dave Denniston, who showed me. It's like Six Degrees to the originator of any drill. Sad that we can't find out who taught it to Richard.

This was a simplified version, that kids can use during practice really... just kick yourself in the chin... it'll tighten things up. :)

Responded Mar 20, 2012 09:26PM

And like all good things it's simple and fun

Responded Mar 23, 2012 07:11PM

a PG16 comment: title could be "make your own nose bleed" hehe :D . Every single time I turn slowly I think of this picture (Actually of Dave's pic, but this one is now also part of it).
Thanks Glenn for the awesome references!

Responded Oct 11, 2012 03:50PM

Hi Glenn, this drill "knee your chin" and the "late hands drill" have made me look good when coaching, over here in Germany, not to mention improving my own turns. The effect is almost instant! So I thought it was only fair to make a point of thanking you for posting all these highly effective tips. My thanks for sharing all your great ideas that are put to good use around the world.


User_go Please login or signup to leave a comment.


Underwater Tag Cloud

1650 Aaron Peirsol active drag active recoveryswimming Adam DeJong aerobic endurance age-group Amanda Beard anchoring android Android app ascending sendoffs backstroke balance Barry Murphy beach reading bilateral breathing birthday swim blueseventy Bobby Savulich Body Shape bodyline brain training breakout breaststroke breath control breathing Brendan Hansen broken swims buoy butterfly Carlos Almeida catch challenge set coaches coaching combat side stroke competition crossover turn Cullen Jones Cullen JonesKarlyn Pipes-Neilsen cycle rate Dave Denniston descend set distance per cycle distance training dive dolphin dolphin kick Dominik Meichtry DragSox Drills dryland DVD efficiency eggbeater kick Endless Pools Eric Shanteau Eric Vendt etiquette EVF fatigue feel Finis finish fins fist drill flip turn flip turns flutter kick Fran Crippen freestyle gallop stroke goals goswimtv.com hand entry hand exit head position heart rate hips hybrid IM inner strength iPhone app Jason Lezak Jeff Rouse Jessica Hardy Kaitlin Sandeno Kara Lynn Joyce Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen Kevin Clements kick kids learn-to-swim Lia Neal long axis strokes loping Margaret Hoelzer Martyn Forde masters Matt Patton medball Michael Phelps middle distance Misty Hyman mobile video monofin negative split neural Olympics one-hour swim open turns open water Over training pace pace clock paddles paralympics parents passive drag propulsion pull pulling pulse rates pushoffs pyramid questiontaper race specific training Rachel Stratton-Mills racing recovery relay starts resisted swimming rhythm Robert Margalis Roland Schoeman Roque Santos rotation Sara McLarty science Scott Tucker sculling SEALs shoulders sighting snorkel speed work sprint Staciana Stitts Starts stations Steve Haufler straight arm recovery streaming streamline stretch cord stretching stroke count stroke rate subscription support swim across america swim camps swim fun swim technique swim training swim video swimming Swimming Golf swimming music Swimsense swimsuit taper teaching Tempo Trainer tether timing training Triathlon tuck turn Turns underwater dolpin underwater pull Vasa water poloswimming water temp weights work to rest ratio Wu Peng

Who is GoSwim?

We are a group of swimmers who swim really fast, and like to help others learn how to reach their competitive potential in the area of professional swimming.

Want More GoSwim?

Subscribe to our RSS feed Subscribe to our RSS feed


 
built by devtwo