Flipturn

\\ ˈflipˈtərn
verb (used without object)

1 to change direction at increased speed
2 an act of reversing position without a loss of momentum

Business management and innovation term meaning “changing direction at full speed and without loss of momentum” derived from competitive swimming origins and the “flip turn” motion, which is a somersault movement when a swimmer approaches the wall in a multiple-lap event to change direction. It is done when the swimmer reaches the end of the swimming pool but still has one or more lengths or laps to swim. The unique physics of the flipturn movement – a factor of the momentum a swimmer carries into the wall plus the push off the wall following the flipturn – makes the flipturn a catalyst for increased speed and is faster than swimming the same distance without a flipturn (i.e. a 50-meter race is faster in a 25-meter pool than in a 50-meter pool as a result of the flip turn). This anomaly makes flipturn or “changing direction at speed” an excellent analogy for business management, innovation and the power of change and moving in a different direction, and in some cases may be a preferred term to “pivot.”