GoSwim Video of the Week: Turns – Hot Hand Open Turn

By USA Swimming / GoSwim. 

Every coach since the beginning of time has told their swimmers to “NOT GRAB THE WALL” on your breaststroke and butterfly turn. Here’s how simple that is.

Why do it:
When you grab the wall with both hands, typically swimmers will pull in and up, making the turn too slow. This needs to be avoided.

How to do it:

1. Whichever side you turn to, there will be a hand that barely makes contact with the wall… if you spin toward the left, that’s the left hand.
2. As you approach the wall with your eyes down (subtle reminder there), touch the wall with both hands.
3. The HOT HAND is the one on the side you’re going to spin to. We refer to HOT as if the wall is SO HOT in that spot, you HAVE to get your fingers off the wall as quickly as possible.
4. DO NOT grab the wall with the HOT HAND, but imagine touching, and IMMEDIATELY sliding the hand off the wall into the spin as quickly as possible.

How to do it really well (the fine points):
Quick, quick, quick. The hot hand makes contact, but that’s it. It touches the wall at the same time as the other hand, but only for an instant.

By getting the hot hand off the wall as quickly as possible, you also start to initiate the spin into the turn more quickly. Very simple, but very important.

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