Finning techniques

[picxie]

Originally Posted by georoc01

<DIV>One of my instructors uses a dolphin kick most of the time. Which would add another to the list.</DIV>

<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>What's a dolphin kick?</DIV>

[CompuDude]

Re Splits: It's simple physics. You can do most of the kicks with them (although backwards is darn near impossible, only a handful of people have managed it), but they are far less efficient than paddle fins are for everything except the flutter kick, which is what they were designed to do from the ground up.

Flutter kick: Splits rock the casbah. Paddles do them too, but less efficiently with much wasted power. (Ditto for mod. flutter)

Frog kick: Paddles rock the casbah. Huge surface area to scoop the water back. Splits can do it, but because of the split their surface area is greatly reduced, and unlike a flutter, the water that passes through the split is vectored incorrectly to help. So it works, but not as fast and with less thrust. (Ditto for mod. frog)

Helicopter. It can be done in splits, but it's tougher. The inner edge of the split tents to catch the water wrong and create drag where you don't want it. Again, paddles win because their one surface can be angled just right.

Backwards: You guessed it, paddles win. Splits aren't designed to be pushed trailing edge first into the water, and they tend to catch an angle and splay out, completely destroying the kick. I have no idea how some (very few) have managed to to a backwards kick in them.

[jacewindu]

dolphin kick is where your ankles stay close together and your two legs move as one to propel yourself forward. it's less of a 'leg' motion and more of a whole body motion.

when i was learning butterfly, i was told that you can imagine moving your chest up and down vertically in the water. by doing this, your hips and legs will follow almost like an underwater snaking motion. clearly, the name comes from the dolphin, and in fact, the dolphin kick is the fastest kick you can do underwater (at least from a pure swimming perspective - scuba gear makes it fairly clumsy at times)

if you've ever seen a monofin (sometimes deep free-divers use these) it basically locks your feet inches apart in the fin's boots, helping to perfect the dolphin kick technique.

[CompuDude]

Originally Posted by jacewindu

dolphin kick is where your ankles stay close together and your two legs move as one to propel yourself forward. it's less of a 'leg' motion and more of a whole body motion.

when i was learning butterfly, i was told that you can imagine moving your chest up and down vertically in the water. by doing this, your hips and legs will follow almost like an underwater snaking motion. clearly, the name comes from the dolphin, and in fact, the dolphin kick is the fastest kick you can do underwater (at least from a pure swimming perspective - scuba gear makes it fairly clumsy at times)

if you've ever seen a monofin (sometimes deep free-divers use these) it basically locks your feet inches apart in the fin's boots, helping to perfect the dolphin kick technique.

Yup, great kick for freedivers, but as you noted scuba gear doesn't allow it to work effectively. That, and it uses a tremendous amount of energy and air to move you... and greatly limits your agility... is why they don't bother to teach it for scuba.