Hi all, I've been lurking here for the past few months. I swam as a young girl in age groups, and was decently fast as a young'un, mostly free and backstroke, but quit at age 12 for reasons too stupid to believe. I then proceeded to not swim a single length for almost three decades. Two months ago, I decided to get back in the water as my kids are getting older and I have more time to work out, and it's been the best thing I have done in ages. I'm enjoying it a ton.
I am am overweight and out of shape and slower than a snail: I swim a 50 free in about 55 seconds "normal," closer to 49/50 if going all out -- molasses pace either way. But after I completed the zero-to-mile program, which came fairly easy (if slow!) to me with open turns, I decided maybe I should venture to one of the local Masters clubs and try it out. When I did, the coach recommended I swim the entire workout with fins, explaining that it would get more yardage in so would enable me to get in shape faster, and also let me focus more on stroke. This seems odd to me, since I feel like it's easier in a lot of ways to swim with the fins, but I'm certainly not a swim coach...
Any advice or thoughts? Is this common? It kind of feels like cheating. But it would be weird not to use them when the coach has told me to or to push back with a bunch of questions, since the whole reason for doing this is to work with a coached group.
At this point I am thinking I could work out 2x a week with that group and then 1-2x on my own, and when on my own only use the fins occasionally (kick sets, occasional drills, or for when I attempt butterfly which I do want to do again someday if only to say I tried!).
Fwiw, there are plenty of lanes available at the pool and time when I swim with the Masters group -- I have had either half a lane or whole lane to myself (!), more space than I get at the fitness club where I swim solo. So it's not an issue of keeping up with the slow lane... Most of the newer/slower swimmers seem to be following the same practice of always having fins though.
sorry for such a long first post, trying to include all relevant info --
Any advice or thoughts? Is this common? It kind of feels like cheating.
Yes, it's cheating in a sense. Looking at it from the coach's perspective he/she probably has seen new swimmers give up because they can't keep up and the fins will enable them to. In my opinion the only problem with this is fins can become a serious crutch. If you're confident that you can keep going without the fins then I would suggest not using them and telling the coach your reasons. I think you'll find that masters groups tend to be very accommodating. Coaches typically respect your decisions. We're all adults, after all!
That makes sense and you are right that we are all adults who get to make our own decisions. :) I just didn't want to start out immediately questioning with the coach recommendation, because what do I know? Not much!
Good point about the coach probably seeing it as a way to avoid people getting discouraged/dropping. I usually do about 2000y on my own, in about 50-55 mins, and the slow lane Masters workout is 90 mins and typically around 2800-3000y. So I probably wouldn't be able to finish the whole thing without fins in my usual speed... but at the same time, my goal is to get better and stronger, not just to get as many yards in as possible right away. I guess I'm a little unclear at this point on whether they will help along the path to better and stronger.
Maybe I will just switch on and off with the fins or something. I don't want to get too reliant on them. (I do find them fun -- luckily haven't had the foot cramps or irritation some others have described.)
As Knelson says, sometimes the coach gives a newbie fins for a confidence boost. We had a first timer at out last masters workout saying he hadn't swum seriously in almost 30 years. The coach had to spend the first 15 minutes getting him to put his face in the water. She had him wear the fins through the whole workout and he did pretty well. I, as I said, declined the fins all together. She wasn't the least concerned since I've been around a while.
I refuse to touch fins. Just got back from a 2 hr masters workout and when everyone else put on fins, I said "I pass". They give me such foot and toe cramps it would end my session in 2 minutes. I have no kick to begin with, so I might benefit from the extra propulsion but the pain they cause is not worth it.
We have some folks in our Masters group who will occasionally wear fins and/or paddles to keep up with faster swimmers during a set. I really don't have a problem with it. We're all adults after all, and there for our own reasons.
I have both long and short fins and will use them for specific training purposes. I'll use long fins to help strength-building during long kick sets.
I'll use my shorts fins (Zoomers) to take my legs out of the equation so I can work longer or harder on other aspects of my stroke. For example, when I do a long fly set where I want to focus more on my arms.
I tend to use the Zoomers more since you can kick faster with them, which makes them less disruptive to your normal stroke timing.
I've also found that short fins will do more to expose problems with kicking technique, as compared to long fins.
I do try to avoid using fins during my taper leading up to a meet to make sure that my "normal" stroke is in sync.
And of course, it's fun every once in a while to strap on some fins and just blast away!
Fins are also a good tool for learning to swim butterfly, if you aren't an accomplished flyer. And as Mark said above, fun to put on and go as afap when learning to sprint. The additional speed will drive your body up on top of the water, which is where you need to be racing short distances.
