Announcement
Fastest Back to Breast Transition: The Crossover Turn
Our team has been practicing crossover turns for a few weeks now. They are the fastest transition from backstroke to breaststroke during the individual medley. Here’s a helpful video from The Race Club by former olympian Gary Hall Sr. who explains the why the crossover turn is the fastest turn and demonstrates 5 steps to master it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPrSVDBdaDM
So they say it’s the fastest turn, but are people actually doing it at a high level of competition?
Here’s some clips from international competitions. See if you can spot any open turns or bucket turns.
Mens 400IM Final – FINA 2017 World Championships(skip to 2:03 for BK to BR transition)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEvSOEthRLE
Womens 2016 Olympic Trials (skip to 3:20)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwDaZd5r2JY
Men’s 200m IM Finals – Rio 2016 Olympics (skip to 2:37)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-XGSYnhUjg
Womens 200IM Finals – 2015 Pan Am Games (skip to 2:12)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AhFgcDtNSo
Mens 200IM Finals – London 2012 Olympics (4:20)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTbbnhnnMQU
Womens 400IM Finals – London 2012 Olympics (4:59)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArKGCqlVbLQ
Womens 200m IM Finals – Bejing 2008 Olympics (skip to 0:37)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnpNLlxYkww
You will probably see that there are indeed some open turns at high levels of competition, but the majority of the field are doing crossover turns and very few (or virtually none) are doing bucket turns.