The push-off is the fastest you move in the pool after a dive start, so every wall is a chance to carry free speed into the next length. A good push-off has four parts: a solid plant on the wall, a full leg drive into a tight streamline, a glide a little under the surface, and a kick and breakout timed to start as that speed fades. Most of this happens underwater, so a camera on the deck sees mainly your streamline near the surface and your breakout.
Plant and push
Get into streamline before your feet push. From a wall start, let go, sink under the surface, bring your hands together and stretch into streamline, then push: sink, touch, push. After a flip turn, land your feet as the flip finishes, with your arms already reaching overhead.
you're already long and tight when the legs fire.
Plant on the balls of your feet, feet up to about armpit width apart, with your hips at the same depth as your feet. That lines the push up straight down the lane instead of up at the surface or down at the bottom.
Bend your knees to roughly a right angle or a little more open, not jammed into your chest. In a study of 34 state- to international-level swimmers, a knee angle of about 100–120° at the wall gave effective push force with less wasted effort. A study of 18 national-level swimmers found the best turns at about a right angle, with the best point differing from swimmer to swimmer, so treat this as a range to test, not a rule.
loaded, not crunched.
Drive hard through hips, knees and ankles until your legs are straight, and stay on the wall long enough to build that force. A quick tap off the wall feels fast but leaves the wall slower. Keep the push smooth and the body tight; exaggerated movement during the push adds drag.
one long, strong press, finishing through the toes.
Hold a tight streamline
Push off a little under the surface, not right at it. In towing tests with 40 experienced adult male swimmers, drag at 0.4–0.6 m deep (measured to the body's midline) was 10–20% lower than at the surface. At fast push-off speeds (above about 1.9 m/s) about 0.4 m (16 in) deep was best; at slower speeds 0.2 m did as well as deeper.
quiet water above you, no wave on your back.
Hold your streamline: arms squeezing your ears, hands stacked, head down between your arms, stomach braced, legs together, toes pointed. Gliding flat on your front or on your side both work; studies found no meaningful difference between them.
Stay level for about a metre, then angle gently up over the next metre or so toward the surface. That is the glide path the same research suggested for fast push-offs. Find your balance before you kick so you don't drift to the bottom or spear up.
Break out on time
Start kicking as the push speed fades, before you slow to your swimming speed. Kick at full push speed and the kicking adds more drag than it gives; glide too long and you have to re-accelerate from a near stop. For experienced adult male swimmers the crossover was about 1.9–2.2 m/s. Highly trained teenage swimmers in one flip-turn study glided only about 0.7 s, reaching about 2.6 m from the wall. Start with small, fast kicks.
the kick picks up just as the glide starts to fade.
Break out forward, not up. Gently push your chin forward instead of lifting your head, keep your head between your arms as the first arm starts to pull, and make the first strokes strong so you keep the momentum. Lifting the head or opening a gap between head and arm adds drag right at the breakout.
Feel it
A good push-off feels like one long press that sends you straight down the lane a little under the surface, then a smooth handover to the kick and the first stroke. If you shoot up to the surface or slide toward the bottom, your push or your head is off line. If you stall before the first kick, you glided too long; if the first kicks feel like they're fighting the water, you started them too early. The speed you leave the wall with matters more than anything else in the turn, so test changes one at a time.
Fix-its
- You pop up to the surface straight after the push Push with your hips level with your feet, keep your head still between your arms, and hold about 0.4 m depth for a metre before rising gradually.
- You bounce off the wall with a quick tap Plant the balls of your feet and finish the leg drive before you leave. A slightly longer, harder push leaves the wall faster.
- Your knees jam into your chest at the wall Turn or plant a little farther from the wall so your knees sit at roughly a right angle or a bit more open. Very deep tucks cost push force.
- You glide until you stall, or start kicking straight off the wall Use the timing test below: try kicking at different points and keep the one that gets you to the mark fastest.
- You lift your head to break out Push the chin gently forward instead, keep your arms by your ears, and let the first arm pull while the head stays down.
Drill
- Safety first: only practise push-offs where the water is deep enough and the lane ahead is clear. If tucking or pushing hurts your knees or back, stop.
- Streamline push-off for distance: push off with no kicking and glide until you stop. Mark the spot on the lane line or the pool bottom. Repeat, changing one thing at a time (knee bend, depth, head position), and keep what carries you farthest.
- Glide and kick timing: push off and try three versions: kicking right away, after a short glide and after a longer glide. Have a friend time you to a mark 5, 10 or 15 metres (or yards) out and keep the fastest. Retest as you get stronger.
- A to F kick: push off and start with big, powerful kicks, then make them smaller and faster down the lane. Time a few repeats to find the mix that feels and tests fastest.
- Timed 25s: swim 25s, changing one push-off detail at a time (depth, glide length, first kick) and timing each one.
Sources
- U.S. Masters Swimming (Scott Bay) — 1-2-3 Streamlines (2012)
- U.S. Masters Swimming (Scott Bay) — Improving Your Underwater Game (2021)
- NISCA (Dick Hannula) — Turns: Four Strokes (2009)
- Lyttle & Blanksby — A Look at Gliding and Underwater Kicking in the Swim Turn, ISBS (2000)
- Pereira et al. — Kinematic, kinetic and EMG analysis of four front crawl flip turn techniques, J Sports Sci (2015)
- Araujo et al. — Analysis of the lateral push-off in the freestyle flip turn, J Sports Sci (2010), Europe PMC record
- David et al. — Improving tumble turn performance in swimming: wall contact time and tuck index, Front Sports Act Living (2022)
- Lyttle, Blanksby, Elliott & Lloyd — Optimising kinetics in the freestyle flip turn push-off, ISBS (1998)
Last checked 2026-10-26.