The individual medley rewards swimmers who can hold technique together under fatigue, and nowhere does that show more than at the walls. A clean, legal turn between strokes can save real time and keep a swimmer out of the disqualification tent, while a sloppy one can undo an otherwise strong swim.
This guide breaks down each of the three IM transitions in order, explains the legal touch requirements for each, and covers the turn options swimmers actually use to move faster between strokes.
Quick Answer
In the individual medley, swimmers go butterfly, then backstroke, then breaststroke, then freestyle, each covering one quarter of the race. Every transition requires a legal touch for the stroke being finished (two hands for fly and breast, any part of the body while on the back for backstroke), after which the swimmer may turn in any manner before pushing off for the next stroke.
The Three IM Transitions, Step by Step
Butterfly to backstroke is the most forgiving of the three because it doesn’t require flipping the body over. Finish the fly leg with the required simultaneous two-hand touch, then pull the knees up under the chest with hands contacting the wall in front of the shoulders, elbows extended. Rather than rotating onto the belly, push off directly onto the back and use a few strong underwater dolphin kicks before surfacing into the backstroke breakout. This is technically an open turn, and like all open turns it’s naturally a bit slower than a freestyle flip turn, so the way to make up time is by minimizing the glide: get the feet to the wall fast and push off hard rather than gliding into the touch.
Backstroke to breaststroke is the technical bottleneck of the IM. The rule requires the swimmer to touch the wall while still on the back; only after that legal touch can the body rotate into position, with the shoulders required to be at or past vertical toward the breast by the moment the swimmer leaves the wall. How a swimmer gets from ‘on the back’ to ‘shoulders past vertical’ is where the three turn styles below come in.
Breaststroke to freestyle is the simplest transition. It’s a standard two-hand, simultaneous touch (hands can be separated, they just need to arrive together), followed by an open turn: tuck the legs in, rotate to face the other end of the pool, and push off in streamline. Because freestyle has no wall-contact requirement of its own, swimmers can push off however sets up their kick and pull best.
Choosing a Back-to-Breast Turn: Open, Bucket, or Crossover
The open (or touch) turn is the simplest and most common at developmental levels: touch the wall on the back, pull the feet up to the chest, rotate, and push off on the breast. It’s the easiest to execute consistently and the lowest-risk option for a legal turn.
The bucket turn (sometimes called a backward or suicide turn) has the swimmer somersault backward off the touch. It can be fast when executed well, but it demands strong lung capacity for the breaststroke pullout that follows and takes significant repetition to get right, which is why coaches generally reserve it for more advanced swimmers.
The crossover turn involves touching the wall, then rotating sideways by bringing the forehead toward the knees and pushing off on an angle rather than straight back. Done well, it’s generally considered the fastest of the three options, which is why it’s become the turn of choice among many elite IM swimmers, but it’s also the most technical and carries the highest risk of an illegal turn if the timing is off.
Tips and Common Mistakes
The single most common mistake is gliding into the wall instead of driving the stroke all the way to the touch, which bleeds momentum right before the turn matters most. Count strokes into each wall in practice so the approach becomes automatic under race fatigue.
On backstroke to breaststroke, the most frequent disqualification risk is turning before the touch is legal, meaning any part of the body reaches the wall while already past vertical, or leaving the wall on breaststroke before the shoulders have cleared vertical. Practice each turn slowly and get an official or coach to check it before racing it.
Don’t pick a back-to-breast turn based on what looks fastest on video; pick the one you can execute legally and consistently under fatigue in the third length of a 200 or 400 IM. A slightly slower turn done cleanly beats a fast one that risks a DQ.
Finally, practice each transition as its own drill, not just as part of full IM repeats. Isolating the wall work lets a swimmer sharpen the touch, rotation, and push-off separately before stitching them back into the full race.
Explore more: more swimming technique guides.
IM transitions FAQs
What order do the strokes go in the individual medley?
Butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, then freestyle, with each stroke covering one quarter of the total race distance. This is the order for individual events; medley relays swim a different order (backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle) because a different swimmer starts each leg.
Do you have to touch the wall with two hands on every IM turn?
No. Butterfly and breaststroke require a simultaneous two-hand touch. Backstroke only requires that the swimmer touch the wall while still on the back; a single hand or other body part is legal as long as the body position rule is met.
What’s the fastest back-to-breast turn?
The crossover turn is generally considered the fastest when executed correctly, but it’s also the most technical and highest-risk for disqualification. The open turn is slower but more reliable, and the bucket turn falls in between depending on the swimmer’s underwater pullout strength.
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Photo: Marines from Arlington, VA, United States / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.