"uni-turners" (another urgent PSA)

CAN'T TURN LEFT

CAN'T TURN RIGHT

in most lane swims, counter-clockwise is the assumed direction. lane swimming is like driving. swim up the right, pass on the left. 

sometimes we change this custom. swim teams will alternate between clockwise and counter-clockwise directions in order to not smack arms in strokes like butterfly. at the rtc we do camera work with the lens set up between two lanes, forcing both lanes to swim up the middle when coming back towards the camera (in order to get a better look at the stroke). 

both these situations are troubling for me. i can't do flip turns pushing off onto my right side. 

throughout my swim career i've done my best to avoid "opposite lanes". back in high school we started using this method after a couple girls had been smacked hard by some of the bigger guys on the team. everyone (except these select girls) was opposed to the idea, but it had to be done. it was no longer a safe environment. the lanes were mostly separated by gender and when the team continued to bicker day after day about who must swim opposite, coach marie decided that boys and girls would alternate directions between practices. i was so frustrated by opposite swimming that i would take this 'schedule' into heavy consideration when deciding which swim workouts i'd be going to that week. if i was forced to swim opposite, i would make hard cuts inside the flags to flip on the opposite side of lane. sometimes i'd tell the boys before a main set that i was going to lead the lane 'normally' instead and hope that the girls and marie wouldn't notice. as a last resort i'd even switch into a much slower lane to avoid the turns altogether. i just would not face the problem head on. i don't know if i will ever flip right.

and now a similar problem on the track. last week i ran 4x2miles tempo in the assumed counter-clockwise direction. i messed up my left knee, the 'inside' leg that takes all the pressure from those left turns. to be noted is that craig suggested an alternate venue before the workout. but i like the rhythm of the track. point is, i went to physio and the guy tells me that the right side of my pelvis is tilted forward, probably from years of running counter-clockwise around an oval.

what about cycling? well i can't really corner well in any direction, but the right turns are definitely even worse.

so if there's something to be learned from all of this is, turn in both directions when you train. otherwise you'll end up like me: unable to cooperate in a pool, taking 10 days off running to let a knee heel, and getting nervous when you find out the bike course at 2009 junior worlds is made up of only right hand turns.