How to Improve Your Breaststroke to Freestyle IM Turn
These two tips can help you change stroke and direction faster and more efficiently
When transitioning from the third to fourth leg of an IM race, you’ll have to perform a breaststroke to freestyle turn. They aren’t complicated – really, it’s just a variation on the kind of open turn you might use in freestyle or during a breaststroke event. But these two simple tips can help you get the most out of this important point in the race.
Tip #1: Reach into the Wall
As you approach the wall at the end of your last length of breaststroke, make sure you hit it with your arms fully extended. When your hands make contact, your arms should be in line with your body and reaching for the wall. That will help keep you from getting too jammed up on the wall and allow you to use the momentum you’ve built up from swimming to draw your knees up under your body to get into a crouched position to blast off into the freestyle segment of the race.
Tip #2: Angle Your Push-Off
Once your feet are planted, it’s time to push off. But how you angle that push-off depends in part on how proficient a dolphin kicker you are.
If you excel at dolphin kicking, plant your feet higher on the wall so that your body is angled a bit downward, toward the bottom of the pool. This will help you stay underwater longer before the freestyle breakout and will give you more time to execute a few additional dolphin kicks.
On the other hand, if dolphin kicking isn’t really your thing, plant your feet a little lower on the wall so that your body angles upward toward the surface. When you push off, you’ll come up to the surface faster to begin your freestyle stroke right away.
These simple tips can help you get more out of that important turn between breaststroke and freestyle when racing any IM event.
