In 2025, I'm going to be doing a lot of traveling...

Like A LOT of traveling.

I’ll be flying all over the country doing super fun things such as swim clinics, swim meets and speaking events.

Seeing as I’m doing so much travel this year, I thought it would be fun to set myself a challenge:

Swim 1 Mile in every state in the United States

Hence, Project 50 miles.

Over the course of my life, I've already swam in 33 states. Here's the list of states I haven’t swam in yet - do you live in any of them??

So technically I only have 17 states left before I can say I've swam one mile in every state - nonetheless, this year I want to get as close to 50 States as possible.

Every event I run, people get to race me and everyone gets to wear an Olympic Gold Medal.

If you'd like to do that, send me an email to [email protected] (NOT THIS EMAIL) or head to UltimateSwimmer.com and request an event there.

Help me achieve PROJECT 50!

I'm really excited about this. It'll be a lot of fun

The tricky ones are going to be states like Alaska… I gotta work that one out - I really want to visit Alaska…

“The 3 Don’ts”- 3 Common Mistakes in Open Turns

Now let’s talk about Open Turns.

An open turn is used in breaststroke and butterfly to quickly change direction as you reach a wall.

The turn is often the most neglected part of the race. However, a good open turn could be the difference between winning or losing.

In this article, I'm going to teach you “The 3 Don'ts” of Open Turns, so that you can take your swimming to the next level.

#1 Getting TOO CLOSE To The Wall

I see this mistake too often.

I always see swimmers come into the wall and come ALLLL the way in, where their chest is practically touching the wall.

When the hands touch the wall, the dominant should SLIGHTLY bend while the other arm pulls away from the wall to prepare for streamline.

You will be within arms reach of the wall. However, the closer you are to the wall, the more time you are wasting.

Once you’re within arms reach of the wall, quickly touch and push off. No hugging the walls!

Wasted motion is wasted time and it's slowing you down.

#2 Coming out of the water TOO HIGH

This is another one I see all the time.

A lot of times, swimmers touch the wall and LIFT their head HIGH towards the ceiling.

This tends to happen at the end of a race. When you're tired, not thinking straight and gasping for air.

However, it puts you in a terrible body position and significantly slows down your turn. /

Think about keeping your chin right on the surface of the water and skimming the top of the water.

I know it’s hard, but this simple skill could be the difference between winning and losing.

#3 NOT turning to the side.

This is more common with higher level swimmers.

Younger athletes are taught to come straight in and straight out to learn the fundamentals of the turn.

But once you progress into a higher level swimmer, you want to rotate your body more to align your body in the optimal push off position.

If you were to push off the wall perfectly, you would be facing the ground shooting straight forward (see image below)

The goal in the open turn is to get as close to that position as possible.

Instead of coming straight in and straight out with the head moving backwards - think come straight in, ROLL to the side, and push off.

Conclusion

These 3 tips are the key to ELITE Open Turns. Staying low to the water, not getting too close to the wall and rolling to the side.

Work on those 3 main tips and I promise that your open turn will get faster almost immediately.

Go check out my recent vlog for the FULL TUTORIAL.

Until my next newsletter, I will see you all - later