Dynamic Turns

[MIG]

I have just put up a small info sheet up....
"Dynamic Turns is 3 easy steps"

It is intended for No Fins and Monofin...
But certain Stereo fins can use it..
(it depends on the angle of the blade and suction to the wall)

Let us know how you get on....

Cheers
MIG


NT Style Dynamic Turns

 

[Haydn]

Ooooooops Marcus. Great pics though. The technique??.....well I dont agree. And I bet this thread runs on and on with everyones opinion.

Try this instead....no, try it as well and make up your own mind. The secret in this technique is rotation, rotation, rotation.

1. You glide into the wall, flat body (not on one side), both arms extended, left hand on top of the right.
2. Take a peek at the wall to spot the distance, and reach with your left arm across your shoulder line to touch the wall as far across your right shoulder as you can reach. (do not touch the wall straight ahead). Its helpful to imagine a small hand hold jutting out of the wall two feet to your right which you would use to pull your body around. There is of course only a flat wall but you use the weight and speed of of your body hitting the wall to give your hand a grip on the wall and you may get some leverage to help pull you into the turn.
3. As you reach across your shoulder line you also turn your head to look over your right shoulder. This look and reach will initiate a right hand turn. (This momentum is better than the stop start idea of hitting the wall straight on, and then having you use muscles to get your legs under you and onto the wall).
4. As your turn is initiated you use your left hand to assist the rotation by using it as a breastroke arm pull parallell to the wall as if you are trying to change direction to across the width of the pool. At the same time, your right arm is initiating a front crawl stroke pull down to your hip, but instead of following through to the normal arm pull recovery past your hip and out of the water, you twist your wrist at the hip and bring the arm pull back in the opposite direction, up to the full stretch dynamic reach in front of your head. Your right hand will have pushed water in the opposite direction of the left arm. Because your arms will be apart and going in opposite directions, you will rotate on a sixpence. Your legs will find themselves on the wall.
5. You then streamline your right hand as it passes under your face (so stop pushing water) on to full extension reach in front of your head ready for the push off. You bring your left arm back to full extension and locking on top of your right hand as
6. You kick off the wall in one non stop gliding motion.

This method would take approx 30 minutes of copy cat training. ie I would demonstrate and after half an hour you would be perfect. It does take timing and balance and a feel for the water to get the rotation working though.

Its also useful to imagine doing the turn, but with no wall. How would you turn then. Try doing a dynamic turn within the width of one lane, half way down the pool. See how much effort it takes if you come to a stop. Now try not to lose momentum but use the momentum to assist a tight turn to the right.

Happy days. I am still stuck on getting good bi fin turns though. The fins really do stick to the wall (the monofin never did).

 

[apneaboy]

Is there any videos for that technique Haydn??

Cheers

 

[Haydn]

Nope. Great idea though for a get together in the summer and make a few.

 

[trux]

There are some videos of turns for example here: turn @ APNEA.cz
And of course, you will see plenty of them also in many DYF videos: video DYF @ APNEA.cz

 

[hunlee]

I think I do the turn Haydn describes, not sure... so many words..!!
Here's a clip from youtube with Peter Pedersens 2004 WR,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4BgRlIF_9M
this is the turn I do and find the most effective, the best advice I can give my students is to think slalom...
you have to touch the wall with one hand then do like a quick hip slide to bring your fin
up against the wall for the kick off, if you think the way you turn your hips quickly in
slalom skiing, you may get it a bit more effective.
I believe the only way to get real good at the turns are to do it again and again, and you will find that your body adapts to become more streamlined, so relax as much as possible,
this will allow the body to do some of it's own adjustments to becoming more efficient.
hmmm, is it okay for the whole little video frame to come up here, should i avoid this in future? if so, how???

 

[BennyB]

I kind of do that turn but it's very hard to perfect turning when you train in a pool with a ledge and your scared of cracking your fin on said ledge. Also very hard in a shallow pool.... I guess the point i'm trying to make is that my turns suck

Hunlee, it's fine to post vids like that, especially that one, it's in my top 5 motivational freediving vids of all time.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[Haydn]

The trouble with trying a turn over and over again, is that you get good at it. That means even if the turn is inefficient, you will get good at an inefficient turn. Far better to try a few different turns before any of them become muscle memory.

As far as looking after your fin is concerned. Forget it. Fins are only a piece of equipment. You can spot a good freediver (a well practiced and trained one) by looking at his worn out equipment.

Mig broke his brand new mono fin on the first turn. It did just 25 metres.

 

[BennyB]

Easy to say, but after 3 months of research and looking for a fin maker, then a couple of weeks of negotiations in broken english then taking pot luck and sending hundreds of euro to someone in Russia or Ukraine that you don't know, then having the perfect mono turn up a month later and then snapping it in a pool 3 months after that, the next mono you get you will treat with kid gloves. My Kershkov mono broke 2 days before my 52m constant weight dive at the 2006 WC in Egypt, couldn't have picked a worse place and time if you tried (except 52m down of course!).

I'm all for training to comp conditions, but saying that I also like to use the same mono all the time. I have a couple but if i'm going to use one in comp that's the one I want to train with too. And even when i'm careful with my mono it still gets the crap beat out of it.

Anyway this has nothing to do with turns.... nice pdf MIG, turns are probably the achilles heel of most monofin freedivers so it's great to have a little guidance out there.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[hunlee]

Ben, just an aside, I was under water in the DYN pool in Hurghada, I HEARD the crack,
man, it broke my heart...
Hope you're having better luck this time!

Agree about the muscle memory, what's very helpful is getting someone to film you,
and film you again, and again, till you're happy THEN start cementing it with hours of repetition.

 

[apneaboy]

You can spot a good freediver (a well practiced and trained one) by looking at his worn out equipment.

Haydn I remember your fin, or whats left of it. Its more araldite with footpockets on. Your quote is quite brash as you are basically saying you are the best freediver EVER rofl rofl rofl

Anyway this is a good thread because it just motivated me to practice my turns, i've needed to concentrate on them for ages especially as i'm in a 25m pool.

Cheers for the ideas, i'm off to the pool in 4 hours 15 mins.

And Benny B's fin... ouch. I got the same feeling about that as when you see another bloke get kicked in the nuts.. you can almost feel it yourself!!

 

[BennyB]

And Benny B's fin... ouch. I got the same feeling about that as when you see another bloke get kicked in the nuts.. you can almost feel it yourself!!

You couldn't have said it better

Thanks Hanli - my Hyperfin has fared better, it's almost a year old now :thankyou Probably should get a couple of russian fin maker's phone numbers for my speed dial though, just in case :duh

 

[Haydn]

Hey Guys, You all know Im not the best freediver ever, just a well practised and trained one with worn out equipment, not so much of a blubber belly now though but still the wrong side of 50. The thing is, you never can be a good freediver unless you use your equipment until it does get worn out. I think that is especially true for dynamic. Dynamic requires you to swim the miles, lots of them. Not just a few 50m splits in a 30 minute pool session. But literally 50 turns in a session. Dont be afraid to damage your kit. As for comps, I always used my old training fin because I never gave myself time before a comp to get training with my better ones, and that was stupid. I do know what its like to try to keep your kit in good order, so much so, that we are scared to use it. My best fin was bought in Tomsk when I was there for training, I havent used it once since I got home. I dont want to damage it. Now its just a souvenir. Somehow that defeats the object. But it sits next to my worn out one, which has done so much for me. And when I get back in the water with a mono, it will be with the worn out one.

Anyway, Mig broke his doing tumble turns in Tomsk. Gosh, I wish I could do all that again...........maybe I will. But for now, I use my brand new Omer carbon fibre bi fins and I am careful with them. But I hope they get worn out by the end of 2008, but not broken.

See you guys somewhere wet.