**Improve Your Speed into the Wall**

 

How do you handle the last 3 yards into each wall (and into the finish)?  Are you drifting in, losing speed and momentum?  Are you maintaining your speed?  Are you accelerating slightly, gaining momentum and getting maximum speed and advantage on each wall?  Join us for a discussion that could be your game changer for 2026.  

 

**Monday**

**Denniston Turns & Pullouts:  Step #1 – The Approach**

Speed in equals speed out. It’s the key concept for improving your walls, and no one demonstrates it better than Dave Denniston.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/880-step-1-the-approach>

**Tuesday**

**Open-Turn Sequence: Open-Turn Sequence Step #1**

One secret to maintaining speed into the wall is to hold your LINE.  The easiest way to imprint this is to start with open turns -- in freestyle, backstroke or when kicking on your back.  This progression will help you learn proper line as you approach the wall.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1010-turns-open-turn-sequence-step-1>

**Wednesday**

**Turn Drill: Eyes Down**

Keeping your eyes down into the turn allows you to maintain more momentum.  Here’s what that looks like in all four strokes.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/2191-turn-eyes-down>

**Thursday**

**Freestyle Drill: Eyes Down Flips**

To gain momentum into the wall, avoid looking for the wall.  Here’s how to get your cues without looking forward.  The difference can be dramatic!

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/2032-turns-eyes-down-flips>

**Friday**

**Freestyle Drill: Waterfall Flips 2**

To increase speed into the wall, learn how to FLOW into your flip turns -- as if you were standing under a waterfall and letting the water push you into your tuck.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1259-freestyle-waterfall-flips-2>

**Saturday**

**Turn Drill:  Mid-Pool Flips**

Many swimmers drift to the wall in order to turn on their favored arm.  Midpool flips can help you learn to turn equally well on BOTH arms.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1374-turns-mid-pool-flips>

**Sunday**

**Freestyle Drill:  The Finish**

Are you drifting -- or accelerating -- into the finish?  Here’s how to shape your body for the fastest finish into the final wall.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1459-freestyle-the-finish>


Dec. 16, 2025 - Improve Your Speed into the Wall

Kristian uses a 6-step progression to practice his flip turns. Step #1 is a simple pushoff, head first, with arms at your sides and palms facing down.

Now the fine points. Push off gently. Maintain a stable bodyline and point your toes. Head and neck are in neutral position, with eyes looking down. Stay on the surface! Notice that every part of Kristian’s body is under water, but JUST under the surface. This takes great control.


Flip Turn Step #1

“The faster you want to get to the other end, the less likely you are to achieve your goal.”  This comment from Glenn on a recent GoSwim Zoom got us thinking.  Come join us this week as we look at some of the SLOWEST ways to get to the other end that will give you some of the BIGGEST gains in your swimming.

 

**Monday**

**Free Drill: Building the Stroke**

This single-length progression teaches many facets of a great freestyle.  Thank you to the Greater Philadelphia Aquatic Club for the drill!

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1980-freestyle-building-the-stroke>

**Tuesday**

**Free Drill: Building Core Balance**

We love this single-length progression for teaching balanced bodyline and core control.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/2213-freestyle-building-core-balance>

**Wednesday**

**Free Drill:  Relax and Feel**

Take off your goggles, take a deep breath, close your eyes, and swim – feeling how the water feels against your skin.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1906-freestyle-relax-and-feel>

**Thursday**

**Free Drill: Resistance Catch Training**

Here’s some fun you can have with a stretch cord and a Tempo Trainer – and you’ll might NEVER get to the other end!

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1149-freestyle-resistance-catch-training>

**Friday**

**Bruno Fratus: Dog Dig**

Here’s the super-slow drill used by one of the world’s fastest freestylers to find his speed.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/2430-dog-dig>

**Saturday**

**Bruno Fratus:  Dive Glide**

In a hurry to get to the other end?  Start with this start drill.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/2215-preview-dive-glide>

 

**Sunday**

**All Strokes:  Strapless Paddles**

Sculling, especially with strapless paddles, employs slow, precise repetition to build the foundations of speed.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/969-all-strokes-strapless-sculling>

\*\*BONUS  \*\*

**Kim Vandenberg: Sculling**

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1524-all-strokes-sculling-variation>


Nov 11, 2025 - Slower Before Faster

**Teaching Backstroke and Freestyle Together**

 

Where to look.  How to hold the head.  How to initiate the catch.  Join us this week as we explore the similarities between back and free, and how teaching both strokes together can enhance learning and help swimmers “get it.”

 

**Monday**

**Better Backstroke Concepts:  Where to Look – Backstroke**

To get the hips riding high and to avoid getting water up the nose, try lying back with the eyes looking up and slightly back – as if looking at the ceiling or sky above where your feet are.  

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/3046-where-to-look>

**Tuesday**

**Freestyle Drill: Freestyle – Head Position**

Great head position in freestyle has just a bit of the back of the head showing above the surface, with the eyes looking just a bit ahead of you.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1918-freestyle-head-position>

**Wednesday**

**Better Backstroke Concepts:  Cup on Forehead – Backstroke**

World’s best drill for developing a steady, stable head in backstroke – and for helping swimmers find the ideal positioning of head, neck and eyes.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/3047-cup-on-forehead>

**Thursday**

**Haufler Freestyle:  Advanced Freestyle #8: Correct Head Position While Breathing**

Avoiding excess head movement is just as important in freestyle as in backstroke.  Teaching guru Steve Haufler uses a Styrofoam head and a pencil to create a memorable teaching visual.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1805-advanced-freestyle-swim-lesson-8-correct-head-position-while-breathing>

**Friday**

**Better Backstroke Concepts:  Kick on Back with Goggles Under Water**

This drill takes core control, and takes the skill of a steady head to a new level.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/3048-kick-on-back-with-goggles-underwater>

**Saturday**

**Better Backstroke Concepts: Backstroke Scull**

This drill helps swimmers isolate the small, simple movement of the hand and forearm that initiates the backstroke catch.  

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/3049-backstroke-scull>

**Sunday**

**Better Backstroke Concepts:  Freestyle Scull for Backstroke**

Teach this sculling drill at the same time as Saturday’s Backstroke Scull.  Start to think of backstroke as being freestyle on your back; the two pulls are very similar!

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/3053-freestyle-scull-for-backstroke>


Nov 18, 2025 - Teaching Back and Free Together

The Space Between the Strokes

If “music is the space between the notes,” a concept often attributed to Claude Debussey (and to Glenn’s Mom, an accomplished singer), then is swimming the space between the strokes?   Join us this week as we talk about how to tune in to what happens BETWEEN strokes – those moments when you’re not pulling or kicking, but simply letting your body move through the water.

⚙️ **3. What Happens to Velocity**

If you imagine two shapes of equal frontal area and force:

• A **streamlined ellipse/tapered body** keeps flow attached → less drag → more velocity for same power.

• A **vertex-ended body** creates early separation → more drag → less velocity for same power.

Quantitatively, the difference can be large:

• For smooth vs. blunt-ended shapes of the same size, drag coefficients (C\_d) differ roughly **0.04 vs. 0.4–0.6** —

a **10× difference** in drag for the same frontal area.

That’s why swimmers — and fish — have rounded, tapered shoulders, hips, and feet, not sharp corners.

⸻

🧠 **4. Swimmer Application**

• **Head and hands:** Pointed enough to part the water cleanly.

• **Shoulders and hips:** Rounded and rotating to delay flow separation.

• **Feet and toes:** Together and streamlined at the finish of each kick to minimize vortex shedding.

Every time a limb creates a “vertex,” you get a small *mini wake* that eats velocity.

Smooth rotation and body alignment help those wakes reattach or dissipate cleanly.

⸻

🏁 **5. In plain words**

**Vertices are velocity killers** —

they cause water to peel off too soon, create turbulence, and waste energy you could’ve used for forward motion.

A swimmer’s goal is to **replace sharp transitions with smooth, continuous curves** — exactly how a dolphin or torpedo keeps water hugging its body until the very end.

**Monday**

**All Strokes: Practice Pushoffs**

Pushoffs.  Streamlines.  Glides and underwaters.  Stretches of time on EVERY length when you’re not pulling or kicking but simply allowing your body to glide through the water.  The SHAPE of your body will determine how well you maintain your momentum.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1914-all-strokes-how-to-push-off>

**Tuesday**

**Kelsi Worrell: Butterfly Full Body**

Watch closely for the moments when Kelsi is not pulling or kicking.  Her body is in balance, allowing her to take full advantage of the pull and kick that she’s setting up in each “in between” moment.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/2322-butterfly-full-body>

**Wednesday**

**Margaret Hoelzer: Backstroke Full-Body Rotation**

Watch for the moments just before Margaret Hoelzer initiates her catch.  Her body is balanced and horizontal.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/933-backstroke-full-body-rotation>

**Thursday**

**Brendan Hansen: Streamline Timing**

In this clip, try not to watch the kick or the pull.  Focus only on what happens between the kick and the pull.  Watch for the streamline.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/237-streamline-timing>

**Friday**

**Joao de Lucca: Freestyle Extension**

For Joao de Lucca, swimming happens between pulls – during the extension.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/2053-freestyle-extension>

**Saturday**

The defining aspect of James Guy’s freestyle is not his pull or kick.  It’s his bodyline during extension, the moments when he is moving forward in horizontal balance.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/2579-freestyle-full-body>

**Sunday**

**Kara Lynn Joyce: Learn to Swim Soft to Go Fast**

To feel what happens between strokes, three-time Olympic sprinter Kara Lynn Joyce slows down.  It’s all about bodyline, head position, hand entry, catch, and technique.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/661-learn-to-swim-soft-to-go-fast>


Nov. 4, 2025 - The Space Between the Strokes

**Back-to-Breast Turns**

Join us this week as we give teaching progressions for all four versions of the back-to-breast turn:  open turn, spin (or bucket) turn, somersault turn, and crossover turn.  Thank you, Steve Haufler for providing clear instruction and visuals!

**Monday**

**Haufler Turns:  Teaching Ready Position and Pushoff – Ready Position**

The key to learning all five of the open turns, including the back-to-breast turn, is to master “Ready Position.”  Steve Haufler gives us visuals and key words for teaching this skill.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/754-teaching-ready-position-and-pushoff-ready-position>

**Tuesday**

**Haufler Turns: Teaching Ready Position and Pushoff**

Here’s how to take your swimmers from “Ready Position” to actual pushoff.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/755-teaching-ready-position-and-pushoff-ready-position-push-off>

**Wednesday**

**Haufler Turns:  Teaching Progression for Back-to-Breast Open Turn**

We love Steve’s 5-step progression for teaching the Back-to-Breast Open Turn.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/760-teaching-progressions-for-back-to-breast-turns-open-turn>

**Thursday**

**Haufler Turns:  Teaching Progression for Back-to-Breast Spin Turn**

Here’s Steve’s 5-step progression for teaching the Back-to-Breast Spin Turn, sometimes called a “bucket turn.”

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/762-teaching-progressions-for-back-to-breast-turns-spin-turn>

**Friday**

**Haufler Turns: Teaching Progression for Back-to-Breast Somersault Turn**

Here’s Steve’s 5-step progression for teaching the Back-to-Breast Somersault Turn.  This is *not* a crossover turn, which will be covered in Saturday’s video.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/761-teaching-progressions-for-back-to-breast-turns-somersault-turn>

**Saturday**

**Haufler Turns:  Teaching Progression for the Back-to-Breast Crossover Turn**

Steve’s 5-step progression for teaching the Back-to-Breast Crossover Turn.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/763-teaching-progressions-for-back-to-breast-turns-crossover-turns>

**Sunday**

**Haufler Turns: World’s Best Drill for Improving Your Open Turns**

We agree.  This is the world’s best drill for improving your open turns, including the back-to-breast turn.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/765-the-world-s-best-drill-for-improving-your-open-turns>


Oct. 28, 2025 - Back-to-Breast Turns

**Freestyle Flip Turns – Be Ready to Push Off When Feet Hit the Wall**

One skill that separates a good flip turn from a GREAT flip turn is the ability to push off instantly when your feet hit the wall.  This week we look at elite examples of this skill, and offer some drills for improving your own flip turns.

**Monday**

**Ricky Berens: Flip Turn Foot Placement**

Hit the wall with the balls of your feet and be ready to JUMP off the wall.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/1618-flip-turn-foot-placement>

**Tuesday**

**Jason Lezak:  Turns**

Silent clip with multiple angles of Jason Lezak executing flip turns.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/358-turns>

**Wednesday**

**Kara Lynn Joyce: Flips Flips Flips**

This particular type of mid-pool flip, demonstrated by 3-time Olympic sprinter Kara Lynn Joyce, is highly effective at improving your ability to push off as soon as your feet hit the wall.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/671-bonus-flips-flips-flips>

**Thursday**

**Kristian Golomeev: Jump Flips**

Jump Flips will improve just about every aspect of your flip turn: speed, tightness, and timing.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/2272-jump-flip>

**Friday**

**Scott Tucker:  Bonus Turns**

Scott Tucker demonstrates exceptional timing on his flip turns, being in position to push off as soon as his feet hit the wall.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/692-bonus-turns>

**Saturday**

**Joao de Lucca: Joao Pause Flips**

Great flip turns are about timing and a solid, direct push off.  Joao de Lucca uses this “flip-and-freeze” drill to hone his skills.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/2188-freestyle-joao-pause-turns>

**Sunday**

**Joao de Lucca: Underwater Flips**

This is a demanding drill, but will help you develop speed, tightness, and timing in your flip turns.

<https://www.goswim.tv/lessons/2168-underwater-flips>


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