Tumbly Turns

I mentioned after my last swim time trial that I was going to work on my tumble turns so that I could improve on my swim time (read - faster speed and increase efficiency). So for the last 6 or so weeks, I taught myself how to do tumble turns - by watching youtube videos and practising them when I was swimming by myself (without the squad).

I think I have the tumble turn thing at 80%. I am getting more comfortable when I approach the wall but I think I do need to speed it up a bit rather than holding back. I am doing my somersaults comfortably, enough that I my feet are landing against the wall however I have been told that I tuck myself in too much (must correct that soon) and I really have no idea what I am doing with my arms really...

I know from looking at the youtube clips that you are suppose to leave them by your side and they stay at that position the entire way through so I am slowly getting the hang of it and slowly learning to approach the turn better.

I don't think I really pushed myself hard enough in the swim this morning as I wasn't feeling out of breath or my arms and back were not aching much but happy to say that I did do tumble turns at each end and I am happy to report that I have taken 30sec off my previous time trial and I did manage to just sneak in under 20min for a 1km swim with a time of 19:58 (fastest being 19:56). 

Source

That was the last scheduled time trial for Tri Alliance for the season. We may do more but they will be the unofficial ones. The swim coach suggested that we could do them with fins one day and see what difference it makes as people often push harder. I know that I took nearly 4min off my swim time with fins on for a 1km.