INDUSTRY NEWS: New Product Teaches Young Swimmers How to Perform Flip Turns

SANDY, Utah, USA, February 1. ONE of the most innovative swimming products to come along in quite some time has hit the market and it has coaches who work with entry-level swimmers grinning from ear to ear. It's called the FlipTrain Station and it is the first product ever designed and marketed as a teaching tool to help novice level swimmers of all ages learn the freestyle flip turn. Click Here to View Video Demonstration free on SwimmingWorld.TV.

Introduced in Ft. Lauderdale at the ASCA World Clinic and Expo this past Sept., prototypes of the new product drew the attention and the approval of coaches at all levels. The positive response warranted FlipTrain's first production run in the fall and it is now available through an independent web site (www.fliptrain.com) for 2006!

The product is designed to correct flailing arms, spatially orient the swimmer, hold them to proper depth, and develop muscle memory through a tactile and visual method of learning the flip turn. Kids love it and a 6-step FlipTrain drill progression to help them learn the turn is included!

The concept is simple. Give the swimmer a way to move through the proper mechanics of the skill before they've actually learned it. Let them feel it. The FlipTrain Station accomplishes this by providing two underwater platforms for kids to place their hands on as they tuck and flip. With hands on solid objects, swimmers remain oriented and held in place while quickly learning where their hands and arms should be throughout the flip turn. They learn what it feels like to pivot around their shoulders, flip at proper depth, and travel straight in and straight out from the wall. It's the classic training wheel approach . . . and it works!

Each hand-platform is held suspended at a 10 inch depth by it's own float which in turn connects to the lane line with a simple ball bungee cord. A custom designed deck rack is also available for easy and protective storage between uses. Total weight of a complete FlipTrain Station is 10 lbs. (5 lbs per side) and the product is easily carried, installed and uninstalled in just 2 or 3 minutes. The product can also be disassembled easily if long-term storage is required or space is limited.

FlipTrain is currently in patent pending status and is the culmination of 2 ½ years of design, engineering and testing by inventor and veteran coach, Dave Ryland of Sandy, Utah. Dave is also the inventor and patent holder of an equally innovative teaching and training breaststroke fin, which has been exclusively licensed to the Warnaco Corp. and will be taken to market by Speedo later this Spring.

"It's all about having tools", says Ryland, who focused on two skills that in his 30 years of coaching experience have often times required a hands-on approach. He continued, "The whip kick and the flip turn have always been tough skills to talk kids through. There are aspects of both that are counter intuitive, so it helps tremendously to finally have tools built specifically to help with each."

"FlipTrain has been the single best method we've used to teach beginners how to turn properly and fine-tune those who think they've got it. Our younger kids' coaches love it! . . . It provides the link between visualization and actualization." Duffy Dillon, Head Coach Fort Lauderdale Aquatics (FLA)

For more information or to order your FlipTrain Station go to (www.fliptrain.com), e-mail info@fliptrain.com or call 1-800-291-6731.

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