Wow. I'm speechless.
I threw up a post on ST last night asking about flipturns. I then responded to an early poster and promptly headed straight to bed. The next morning I get up to see 37 responses to my post. Sweet!!
I ended up being busy at work so I didn't have the time to check up on the forum but by the time I got home, biked, showered and ate dinner there were 143 responses!
(This is the link, btw):
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=1633254
The first few pages were GREAT. I felt that Namssob did a great job of forcing the issue. Many of things he said reflected my own line of questioning. It is unfortunate that as the thread wore on, more and more posts were directed at attacking the attitude and swimming abilities of non-flip turners. The spirit of debate seemed crippled by the time the last few pages rolled around, but in general I felt that a great deal of knowledge was imparted.
There were definitely some great arguments on both sides. However I felt that the most compelling reason to swing either way, by theory of training specificity, was how flip-turns or the lack thereof, compares to the experience of open water swimming.
The very nature of a pool swim is inherently different from open water swimming due to the 'breaks' at the end of each lane. If you choose to do flip turns then you lose a few breaths for portions of your swim, if you choose to NOT do flip turns then you gain an extra iota of rest for portions of your swim. And THAT, in my opinion, is what the decision should be hinged upon.
I would be damned if I were to end up under-prepared for a race. My Olympian dreams are on the line here. So henceforth, I shall be doing flip turns.
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