In swimming, it’s the little things that count. Adding an extra dolphin kick here, improving your tempo a little bit there, all pay huge dividends in the long run. Something that many swimmers highly struggle with or even implement poorly into their IM events is the ability to perform a crossover turn.
Back-to-breast turns are one of the biggest steps that a swimmer can take towards narrowing the gap between everyday swimmers and professionals. This being such a tricky turn, we decided to implore the help from one of our good friends, Ashlee Linn. Ashlee was a collegiate swimmer for the University of Florida, with her main event being the 200IM.
She breaks this turn down into three easy steps within the video. The approach, hand placement, and the roll into a normal flip turn. Just know that when you are going to implement a new turn, know that you are going to need patience and you will not be able to nail the turn on day one. This is only one way to go about a back-to-breast turn. It takes a lot of practice and you need to make sure you are always thinking about the minor details.
Feel free to reach out to us in the comments below and let us know how it goes!
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Is her push from the wall llegal? She pushes on her back instead of pushing on her side (90°) or looking down. Same issue as Ryan’s underwater movement that was declared illegal. Thanks for sharing anyway.
The explanation was very helpful and how she broke it into steps. Also, I appreciated that they noted it was difficult to learn and to give it time. So good stuff as this is important to me as an IM’er.
Agree with the previous comments regarding the inappropriateness of beginning shots that felt like “baywatch” scene. Swimswam overall does a good job of focusing on the technical aspects of swimming. Prefer to keep it a safe space in that regard.
Thanks for the input on the video! Much appreciated. As to the “inappropriateness,” that is not on SwimSwam but on us at the phlex swim channel. If you’ve seen some of our other content on the channel, it is all in very light hearted and entertaining delivery for otherwise fairly boring topics on the internet. Our personal totem pole has entertaining content above all so you know to watch at your own risk. Ha! Once again thanks for the support!
Ryan, thanks for your reply. I really appreciate resources like this that do such a good job explaining technical aspects of swimming. As an older swimmer who never swam competitively until masters level, I’m very interested in learning this back to breast transition. On a practical note, all I’m saying is that if my wife of 25 years was sitting next to me at the opening scene in the video, she wouldn’t be happy. Hopefully that feedback is helpful and please understand I respect your artistic freedom. Thanks again.
I really do appreciate your feedback on the video and so glad to hear it was helpful. Thanks for being a supporter!
I looked up where USAS defines a clean IM transition from backstroke to breaststroke here @1:20 URL: https:ater//www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w452d_ZcAA . Clearly looks different and much more difficult of a crossover turn.
The beautiful swimmer in the swimswam video, Ashlee Linn, performed an improvised, faster, easier transition (it’s my opinion) alternative method of an IM crossover turn.
If you freeze frame Ashlee’s crossover turn @1:47, it was clear she left the wall *on her side*, not on her back. It’s a risky move, so I think it could be a DQ call depending on the official. During your video editing for this clip, she must have done lots and lots of turns but your editors may have left a couple of… Read more »
SUPER wedgie
Her breaststroke take-offs are illegal. You must be on the breast when you leave the wall.
You must be on or towards the breast, not ‘on the breast’ when your feet leave the wall.
Do you mind clarifying? Not sure what you mean by this.
Rule states you must be at or past vertical towards the breast when the feet leave the wall. I agree, the breaststroke start did not look legal.
100% agree. These would have been DQs since the shoulders were past vertical towards the back when her feet left the wall.
I want a private lesson from her.
Some of these backstroke finishes are illegal. At 1:42, she touches the wall (finishes her backstroke leg) and yet her back is facing upwards.
Lucky for such swimmers that they move so quickly and that their ST judge must monitor more than one lane. When its down to one judge per lane, or the other swimmers are way behind, a backstroke finish like at 1:42 may correctly result in a DQ.
Link was fixed. Shouldn’t be any illegal turns anymore and if they are, they will definitely be questionable.
All of the pushoffs are illegal. It’s not allowed to push off on your back, except for freestyle, but then you are not allowed to kick until you are back on your stomach. This video should be taken down, or commented and advertised as a way of how not to do it.
Great tutorial. Also helps that Ashlee is easy on the eyes….
Dude. Gross.
Agreed, but the video didn’t really do any favors with the way it started. Reminiscent of “Fast Times At Ridgemont High” and that made me feel v skeevy.
I could not agree more. What is with the shower scene? Very awkward and distracting. Is it an educational video or a teaser for an adult film.