In teaching freestyle swimming technique at The Race Club, we often see swimmers gliding off the walls on their turns. The glide-off-turn technique is what many swimming coaches teach their swimmers to do. It is not the fastest way to do a freestyle, backstroke or butterfly turn. At our swim camps, we no longer teach swimmers to glide off walls. Instead, we have them start to kick right away.
In this featured video, Olympic champion Maggie MacNeil becomes the seventh swimmer we have tested at The Race Club using Velocity Meter technology, comparing a glide-off-wall with no-glide swimming techniques. All seven swimmers have achieved nearly identical results.
In this video, you will see unique side-by-side comparitive videos of Maggie using both techniques, with and without the VM technology. You will come to understand why the no-glide technique is the fastest way to leave the wall in swimming.