Here's Step 2 in our simple progression for learning the underwater dolphin.

There are few things in swimming that cross the lines of all strokes, but learning the underwater dolphin is certainly the most important.

The concept of "working your turns" is something all swimmers know about, but few swimmers take seriously. Maybe they think they don't have time, or are too tired to create QUICK and FAST walls. Here's a drill that will help. For the younger swimmers especially, this proves to be a good drill, and fun.

If you're like most competitive swimmers, the majority of your training is freestyle. This is great, but it doesn't give you much chance to practice your butterfly or breaststroke turns. This drill can be incorporated into any standard freestyle set. It provides the benefits of distance training, and allows you to practice your two-handed turns.

Every part of your race is important but flip turns carry a little extra weight because, pure and simple, fast turns mean fast times.

Turns can make or break any race, so having REALLY fast turns is extremely important to competitive swimmers. Some swimmers, however, focus so much on spinning around QUICKLY, that they sometimes place their feet too high -- or too low -- on the wall.

Way back in the mid 1970s, the University of Tennessee was one of the powerhouses of NCAA swimming. They were famous all over the world for their ability to start, and turn.

Every swimmer wants to have super-fast freestyle flip turns, and wants to execute them with vigorous authority. Sometimes, however, this desire creates more problems than it solves.

Most of the time when we work on starts, we focus on the take-off. Here's a short focal point that starts with the end... the feet.

One of the most common actions in our sport is the flip turn. Depending on how you accomplish this action, you're either making your life easier... or harder.

Quickness and explosive power are essential to fast swimming, but it’s difficult to develop these skills in the pool because of the resistive quality of water.

Showing respect for the officials is always a good thing, but now it can actually help you have a tighter, straighter, faster butterfly and breaststroke turn. In this series of photos, a few swimmers demonstrate a very smart salute.

Here's a cool way to have some fun while improving your swimming. Rocket Launchers are a form of plyometrics, which is a fancy word for any exercise where a muscle is super-stretched before it's contracted. In Rocket Launchers, you're stretching (or loading) the quads as you crouch under the surface, then you're explosively CONTRACTING the quads as you jump up.

Flip turns. Once you've learned how to get your feet over, you may think you've got them mastered. But think again.

If you have a tendency to push off right at the surface of the water, here's a drill that can help you get down to the proper depth.