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.