I like to swim with fins some days, I have the zoomers and some regular fins. I notice when I swim finless that I feel slow as a snail.If I have been using the fins for a couple of days. I know some swimmers that only use fins as thats the only way they have been able to learn, to them I say great what ever works for exercise but have noted to them that they should at least be able to swim finless to get out of the pool for safety if they fell into water anywhere.
Pardon my assertiveness but I think you've completely misrepresented everything I have said. I haven't complained nor have I judged other people. I never said that fins should never be used. I believe I actually said that swimming is a sport between you and yourself and you set your own standards. I never suggested you're "cheating" other people and quite honestly the term was being used a litle facetiously.
Watering down (no pun intended :)) my beliefs and dramatizing them to some form of judgmental, ignorant bickering is ludicrous. All I said was I don't count swimming with fins as part of my distance of the day because it inflates the distance I actually feel I swam.
And I'm not attempting to be confrontational or "complain" here but rather clarify what has been said. Perhaps you could now enlighten me on what "issues" I'm "exposing".
I wasn't addressing you personally, but if you're the one who made the cheating analogy then I think my original comment sums up my opinion on that.
It doesn't bother me if you have a personal code that prevents you from counting fin yardage. That's great if it helps you achieve your swimming goals.
Obviously I have a different approach. Fins are a key component of my training and I view them as a tool, not a crutch. Fin yardage hurts. It makes my ankles more flexible, builds endurance, and makes me faster.
Using fins in a race would certainly be cheating, but making comments about "cheating" in a workout seems pretty childish to me. It's Masters and we're all adults. We can make our own choices about how we want to train.
You have no idea what the person in the lane next to you might be doing in their life other than swimming. They could be low on sleep due to work, tired from running, dealing with shoulder issues, or just plain bored of swimming endless yards like an age grouper. Or maybe they just want to swim faster to get faster. All are valid reasons for using and there are plenty of others.
I think that if you feel the need to complain about someone else's training routine, you're only exposing your own issues.
Pardon my assertiveness but I think you've completely misrepresented everything I have said. I haven't complained nor have I judged other people. I never said that fins should never be used. I believe I actually said that swimming is a sport between you and yourself and you set your own standards. I never suggested you're "cheating" other people and quite honestly the term was being used a litle facetiously.
Watering down (no pun intended :)) my beliefs and dramatizing them to some form of judgmental, ignorant bickering is ludicrous. All I said was I don't count swimming with fins as part of my distance of the day because it inflates the distance I actually feel I swam.
And I'm not attempting to be confrontational or "complain" here but rather clarify what has been said. Perhaps you could now enlighten me on what "issues" I'm "exposing".
One of the people I swim with on weekends says "fins are the new pull" whenever we start a pull set. I like my fins and they have kept me swimming through shouder pain but I use them sparingly.
I think they can definitely be a crutch. They held me back a good bit when I first started. I kept telling myself I'd quit using them once my kick got stronger and I'd be able to keep up. My kick never really got stronger until I put them and my ego aside and missed a few time splits on workouts.
Certainly, there are many people that are helped due to injury with fins. I've been there. And not everyone has the goal of developing a stronger finless kick. I look at it this way: If swimming isn't fun without fins, wear the fins.
Fins have saved me. I am back in the water after being out for 18 months and I got myself a pair and I'm so glad I did. I remember Fort's comments on how fins have been helpful and that gave me the confidence to use them.
My right shoulder is buggy and has given me trouble since I first got back in the pool after a 20+ year hiatus. If it were not for the fins, I'd not be in the pool nearly as often. I love them for sets of 50s and 100s. And believe me I pant hard!
They help me feel like I did when I was competing. I use them a lot in practice and right now I am not competing so I will use them as much as I feel like I am getting benefit. I notice my legs really feel it too, which is not something I feel when I don't use them.
I heart fins! :bliss:
Glad to hear the fins helped. Just don't use them if you are in a meet. They will be considered illegal.:bouncing::bouncing::bouncing:
They help me feel like I did when I was competing. I use them a lot in practice and right now I am not competing so I will use them as much as I feel like I am getting benefit. I notice my legs really feel it too, which is not something I feel when I don't use them.
I heart fins! :bliss:
It's not the equipement in itself, but how it's used.
If a person is using the equipement in order to put less effort into something, they are only cheating themselves.... using it in a destructive manner.
On the other hand, equipement can also work well in constructive ways, in making things possible, or harder, or correct things, or isolate certain movements.
I think equipement in workouts is just fine, as long as one is honest with themselves why they are using it... and if they're not honest with themselves... there's a saying 'ignorance is bliss'...
Sorry I'm late to the game, but I like this topic!
Fins are helpful AND a crutch, and as many have previously posted, it depends on how you are using them.
Some great applications for using fins include: help develop kick muscles, achieve better body position, get a feel for race pace speed in practice and enhance SDK ability. I have a few frog-oriented little kids who have spent full practices working on flutter kick with fins to orient their legs with the up and down motion of a straight-leg flutter kick, rather than the "one frog leg at a time in sort of a flutter motion" approach.
If you are using fins to keep up in a lane, I wonder, are you really getting the most out of your workout? If it takes 10% less effort to keep up with the faster people, are you really getting a better workout than if you moved down a lane? Sure you may swim a few more yards, but there is a difference between quality and quantity.
For those who swim while others use fins (or won't do stroke during IM sets), I feel your pain. We used to swim with a swimmer who wore fins for the whole workout, and it can get annoying (especially when the swimmer can't keep up even with fins and doesn't move down).
It is easier said than done to tell yourself (and your lanemates) to swim your own swim, ignore them and use them as motivation. However, if you pushing yourself to work harder helps make the rest of your lane faster, is this all bad?
If you are using fins to keep up in a lane, I wonder, are you really getting the most out of your workout? If it takes 10% less effort to keep up with the faster people, are you really getting a better workout than if you moved down a lane?
I'd really prefer not to swim in the slowest lane. Usually it has very new swimmers who may be much faster than me but have no endurance nor sense of pacing, will stop each 25yards blocking the wall, decide to switch to breaststroke during a free set, won't follow the interval send-offs and otherwise don't understand lane etiquette. They end up drifting back in line, starting out leading the lane but by repeat #5 they are the last swimmer if they bother to tell anybody they are taking extra rest.
