Flippers / Fins

I would recommend to use fins in certain sets and in certain instances within the practices. I have used both Zoomers and Split fins (ones by both TYR and Kiefer) and a swimmer can benefit and work there legs harder if they consentrate on doing that when swimming hard. I use zoomers in hard sprints during my taper because I really want to work the legs and feel the power of my kick. When I take off the zoomers I still want to use the same power intensity of the kick that I had using the zoomers. I always encourage swimmers to use fins in fly sets because it will help them stay level on the water when fatigue sets in if they start to break down when swimming fly. Now I am not an advocate of someone using fins all off the time for every set, be it for kicking, stroke sets, free sets, long sets, etc. I think a lot of masters have FDS, which is Fin Dependency Syndrome. They will get used to using fins and feel they have progressed with them to the point that they are swimming faster in workout and this will help them swim faster in meets without them. I believe this is wrong and swimmers like this should be weened off the fins. I would recommend fins in some instances for verticle kicking. If you do the verticle kicking right, which is to be as straight as possible, extend arms and begin kicking hard to keep head above the surface, you will really feel the benefits of this not just in the legs but aerobically as well.

My seal friend in the ocean encourages their use becuase she likes to chew on them. I'm sure others are more equipped to answer your question. I use them occasionally but not when the seal is bobbing aorund looking at me before I get it.

On my team, we do use scuba fins, but I would say never in a lazy manner and never to make intervals we couldn't make otherwise. Generally, they're for fly sets (though we do plenty of barefoot fly too) or sets in which our coaches want us to emphasize our kick. The intervals are tight enough that you still have to work hard. So I'd say it's possible to use them in a responsible manner, even if many people don't.

I gave up fins when I gave up smokes. I discovered fins enabled me to keep up with people who could actually kick. So, I'll take the humiliation of being a sorry kicker than the looks of disgust for putting them on.

I've never worn fins for swimming, nor do I plan on it. I don't see how fins strengthen your legs....

IMHO, fins are typically used as a sort of crutch, usually for people with a weak(er) kick. instead of working on building leg strength, many people pull on a pair of fins just to keep up on kicking sets, instead of sliding down a lane for the set. using fins in this situation is very detrimental IMO to becoming a better swimmer. too many people allow themselves to get lazy on kick sets when wearing fins, especially the long scuba style fins. when i swam age group, that type of fin was banned from our pool during our workouts. those fins are the epitome of laziness- they take so little power to get propulsion as compared to zoomers (or my personal preference, no fins). so scuba fins = NO! never ever, other then when scuba diving of course :) zoomers and other short fins = okay in certain situations... like while injured, trying to work on ankle flexibility (especially if you're a runner!), or as frank mentioned during fly sets. something i still don't understand- using fins during warm up, if kicking is included... why? as far as i'm concerned, it's laziness. but does anyone have a good reason on wearing fins during warm up??? so to answer one of your questions (finally, sorry for the rant :) ) i would advise against scuba fins. zoomers and other short fins are not hard to find, and i don't think they're that expensive (i wouldn't know, i haven't gotten a new pair of fins since age group...) and they're designed for swim training. scuba fins aren't.

swimsb: I am going to provide you some links from this website and you can see how people feel about the different uses for fins. forums.usms.org/showthread.php forums.usms.org/search.php

Fins help improve ankle flexibility and range of motion. Fins overload leg muscles and make them stronger as you would with weights and high reps. Swimming with fins makes a lot of sense for people who train not only to race but who train to be in shape to bodysurf, bodyboard or riverboard, all of which involve wearing fins.

Are the "split fins" superior to regular fins? How do they work? Are they also faster? And what do you think of use of "scuba fins" -- the ones with very large flippers? Thanks!

Interesting. Keep the replies coming! I think the issue on our team is we are self-coached by two of the fastest swimmers. They have no idea what goes on in the slower lanes (or maybe don't care?). So there is no coach managing whether people are in proper lanes, whether they are "cheating" with swim aids like fins vs. using them appropriately etc. We also have a couple swimmers who RACE everyone with fins on -- and are fast with fins -- but can't kick at all without fins. So something is not right there...if one NEEDS fins to kick, but cannot kick at all without them, then the person must be overusing the fins...and the kick technique w/ fins is not transferring to w/out fins for some reason...that tells me something is wrong there. And if one needs fins in regular swim sets just to keep up with the lane, I think that person needs to move down a lane. It's pretty annoying to the people just trying to hold their own in a lane, to have others "cheat" with fins going in front of them. We even have one girl (she's 20) who claims her huge scuba fins "don't make me faster". Ummm, yeah,....but when she doesn't have them on she is getting lapped pretty quickly... I don't mind using them once in a while but using them EVERY time you kick, and putting them on in non-fin sets becomes addictive for some people ("FDS" - I like that - Fin Dependency Syndrome) - and those swimmers become annoying to the swimmers not "cheating"...