I have heard numerous articles of how using flippers can improve your kick.... I would like to hear from those who have used flippers before on your training sets and the pros and cons of using one. I admit that I have tried it out before, but usually results in cramps after usage, and the skin at the back of my heel starts peeling. Despite all the bad exp I had, I still believe there certainly must be some good in using flippers. Thanks. :)
Mea culpa. I shouldn't have used the term purist. After all, I am a big aficianado of body suits, and this certainly would not qualify me as a purist in many swimmers' minds.
What I do believe, just from seeing so many fellow swimmers get addicted to fins, is that you need to use them sparingly, if at all. Remember when foot and hand weights were in vogue for power walkers/joggers? Then people started getting hurt because these threw the natural gait off and strained joints that weren't designed by nature to have an extra couple pounds placed at a distant point of leverage?
I may be wrong about this, but I believe that fins and other apparatus--hand paddles much more so even than fins--throw your natural swimming stroke out of whack and place additional stress on your hip, shoulders, and other joints. In college and high school age swimmers, this may or may not be a problem, but in many older swimmers--myself included--it's often courting orthopedic disaster.
Bottom line: if you want to use anything legal in the water, more power to you. Tan had asked for opinions on flipper use, and I offered mine, and I stand by it--with the word "purist" excised forever from my self description!
Mea culpa. I shouldn't have used the term purist. After all, I am a big aficianado of body suits, and this certainly would not qualify me as a purist in many swimmers' minds.
What I do believe, just from seeing so many fellow swimmers get addicted to fins, is that you need to use them sparingly, if at all. Remember when foot and hand weights were in vogue for power walkers/joggers? Then people started getting hurt because these threw the natural gait off and strained joints that weren't designed by nature to have an extra couple pounds placed at a distant point of leverage?
I may be wrong about this, but I believe that fins and other apparatus--hand paddles much more so even than fins--throw your natural swimming stroke out of whack and place additional stress on your hip, shoulders, and other joints. In college and high school age swimmers, this may or may not be a problem, but in many older swimmers--myself included--it's often courting orthopedic disaster.
Bottom line: if you want to use anything legal in the water, more power to you. Tan had asked for opinions on flipper use, and I offered mine, and I stand by it--with the word "purist" excised forever from my self description!
