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 --
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!
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!
