In the sprint group, we have often faced the dilemma of how to practice turns at race speeds. Two seasons ago, we were getting into the walls so fast at ACC's we were jamming turns, thus not turning in the kind of times we expected. Since then, we have worked very hard to come up with a solution. We've worked between the bulkheads and while we generate plenty of speed, there are not relevant marks on the bottom from which to work. We had some success with towing each other in on stretch cords, but that is a sketchy proposition and doesn't allow for much of a push off the wall. We relegated ourselves to diving from the side, but there was a lot of navigating involved in that, not to mention the risk of injury as a result of the directional adjustments.
So, I came up with this: our pool has an adjustable depth (a leftover feature from the Olympics) and can be anywhere from 11 feet deep to zero. My idea was that we could do one of two things: dive straight into the turn from about 12 feet away, or push off the face of the wall created in bringing the floor up.
The results were excellent as well as bringing a little comic relief to workout last week.
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