Swimsmooth > The Corkscrew Open Water Turn

Trimes is really proud to announce his partnership with Swimsmooth. What does that means? We are going to talk about swimming! Also, we are really please to work with them because we do believe that they are the best. We strongly encourage you to meet Mr Smooth (3D representation/animation of the perfect swimmer). We are lucky in Montreal. Charles Couturier is a SwimSmooth certified coaches and will be contributing to Trimes.org with swim specific content in French!

C’est avec une grande excitation et avec fierté que Trimes vous annonce sa collaboration avec Swimsmooth. Cela signifie que nous allons finalement parler de natation. C’est un honneur pour nous tout simplement parce que nous les considérons comme les meilleurs. Nous vous encourageons à découvrir Mr Smooth. Il est la représentation 3D du mouvement parfait. Charles Couturier, ambassadeur et entraîneur breveté par Swimsmooth, contribuera du contenu français sur Trimes.org!

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If you are looking to excel in open water races or triathlon swim legs then you need to regularly practise your turns. Every open water turn gives you the opportunity to save a few seconds and the possibility of dropping other swimmers who may be drafting off you.

In this post we’re going to look at an advanced way of turning called a corkscrew turn. It’s a fast and tight way to cut round a buoy and a very useful skill to have in your locker. Even if you are not an advanced swimmer, give this a try in training, it’s fun and makes turns a lot easier when you need to cut a tight line at a turn buoy.

The Corkscrew Turn

Take a look at the following image sequence of Paul Newsome demonstrating this turn:

Paul approaches at full speed (1) and slides his arm closest to the buoy (2) past it, note at this point he has his back to the buoy and can’t see it. He then flips onto his back (3) and his recovering arm comes over the top as in backstroke, enters the water at the front (4) and continues the body rotation back onto his front again (5). Setting off on his new heading he quickly gets back up to speed using good stroke rhythm and a healthy burst of leg kick (6).

Turning left (as shown above) you slide your left hand past the buoy to rotate onto your back, whilst turning right you slide your right arm past. Make sure you practise both! In a particularly tight turn you might not be able to turn sufficiently in a single corkscrew, in which case perform two in a row, one immediately followed by another.

If you are relatively new to swimming then this may look like an advanced skill but it is not actually that hard when you get the feel and timing of it.

Turns And Strategy

A conventional turn bends you through a wide arc as you stay on your front and you gradually stroke around the turn (blue line below) :

That’s fine but if the wider path is blocked by slow swimmers you are going to be held up without the ability to perform a corkscrew turn which is much tighter (red). In relation to other swimmers drafting you, if they can’t perform a tight turn themselves then you have a golden opportunity to shake them off your toes.

Practise In Training

There’s very little chance of turning up on race day and performing a good corkscrew turn without practising them beforehand. Get together with some friends in open water, or in an open area of your pool, and work on getting the feel and rhythm of them. It’s a lot of fun and like all open water skills can make a huge difference to your performance on race day, so much so that you should practise these skills all year round either in open water or in the pool.

Swim Smooth!

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