What is the current thinking on flippers / fins? (ie, professional coaching recommendations). It seems like their use is very pervasive these days but when I was a swimmer growing up (US Swimming) we did not use them...and I swam with some kids that went to Olympic trials...so it was a good team.
My masters team uses them ALL the time. They don't do kick sets without them. They even use the flippers for main sets at times, and some swimmers sneak them on to keep up with their lane, which messes up the lane order (and in fact they should swim in a slower lane if they cannot make the workout in the faster lane without flippers - IMO). And they use them when they are slow in other strokes (ie, IM's, back, butterfly). Some of these swimmers have mastered kicking with fins (esp those that use huge scuba fins), but they can't kick worth beans without the fins.
Is there any research/articles on fin usage? What do the top swimmers do?
Thanks!
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Former Member
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"...
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"...
