Fins...who uses fins?

It won't surprise most of you to learn this is more or less my philosophy... but with some exceptions. I think there's a good deal of wishful thinking -- none supported by a single study -- in using fins, as is often true with most other swim aids. I've seen a fair number of swimmers and triathletes use fins to tag along in the 1:30-per-100 lane, when their unshod abilities place them in the 1:45 lane. They believe they're somehow getting better training. But as soon as they shed the fins, they're no faster than previously. Wearing fins to be faster is like wearing platform shoes to be taller. Many teams and swimmers don fins for kickboard training sets, thinking that increases the value of kick sets. I think it mainly trains you for races that may involve pushing a kickboard down the pool while wearing fins. Until they offer such races...well, what Kristina said. The potential negative of using fins is you usually end up emphasizing power-kicking rather than integrating the kick and "tuning" it to your overall stroke. Just another manifestation of the traditional training emphasis on "building the engine" (more miles, work, power) rather than "reshaping the vessel" and maximizing economy. I've used fins in coaching with positive outcomes in a few instances: 1) for helping those with a non-propulsive kick do drills that may be more kick-dependent, allowing them to control effort, maintain flow and minimize distraction so they can concentrate on more precise movements. 2) teaching SDK to a few swimmers who had poor kinesthetic awareness. I had them do some underwater 25s counting dolphins, trying to reduce the number required to complete 25. When they reached a reasonable level of efficiency, I began to time them and turned it into a swim golf exercise -- seconds + # of dolphins = score. 3) very infrequently I've had swimmers practice various streamline positions with a strong fin-aided kick, using the extra speed to heighten their awareness of drag-increasing or -decreasing positions. I know you are expecting me to respond, so I couldn't possibly disappoint you. :rofl: :hug: Remember Dartmouth has a great pool and the Mets and Yankees suck. First, as you know, I use no swim aids except fins. So I am very TI that way. I do not kick with fins either. I don't see how that improves kicking. (Although I do believe that fins help build leg strength, which in turn can help kicking.) I do sometimes use fins for SDKs or underwater SDK 25s. I may have to go purchase that shooter monofin that my daughter wants and your teammate uses. Since I'm limited with swimming aids, I might as well have some bloody fun. What's the downside of fun? I also believe monofin racing is a actual sport in other countries. Second, fins have a beneficial place for certain groups of the populace with shoulder or knee rehab/injury issues, as is the case with Allen and myself. Fins are affirmatively good for taking the load off sore downtrodden shoulders and help you carry on with some restorative swimming instead of simply becoming a runner or couch potato. If you have sore/problem shoulders, fins can also help you swim long sets (like long free or fly for me) that would normally send me to the ice bag and ibuprofen, which I like to avoid if possible. I want to have a :drink: and not damage my liver and kidneys by overdosing on NSAIDs afterward. Third, I never use fins to lane jump to a faster lane. Who cares what lane you're in? I've never understood that. Is it a macho thing? Swim in the lane that best suits your abilities and stroke preference with or without fins. Sometimes, I want to swim back instead of free during free sets, so I'll adjust my lane accordingly. And sometimes (very seldomly unfortunately) at my practices, we actually have sprint vs. distance workouts, so I'm not in the same lane as those distance guys. But it's not very nice to say alleged lane jumpers and tris have "unshod" abilities. Some tris are quite swift in the water. Just like some fin users are swift once the fins come off. Plus, I always wear high heels or wedged boots to be taller. I'd rather much be taller than 5'4". So I'm all for height enhancing shoe devices. Except when I'm being Allen Stark's twin on our 100 IM. :rofl: Then I'll stay short. Fourth, I do believe you are correct in saying that excessive fin use can cause your kick to be insufficiently integrated with your stroke. But I believe that applies somewhat more to the longer distances that you yourself are doing. It has less applicability to sprinting, which is what I'm doing. (Not that I don't wish I could do the 200 fly. But I think that is left in my youth unless my shoulders undergo a miraculous tranformation after I go to Lourdes.) Power kicking is also important for sprinting. No sprinter is using a 2 beat kick. So if you have stronger legs from finning, it might help sprinting. It might help your starts and turns as well. My starts have been much more peachy these days. Plus, I do believe that fins are good for working on exposive speed. Donna tells me that I am low in the water in backstroke, an obvious TI influence. But I think most sprinters are a little higher. I'm higher in my 50s and I have a higher SR there too. Fifth, uh, is there a fifth? I train a lot with fins. When I take them off, I definitely can feel that negative deflating effect. But I do not feel it particularly when I go to a meet and swim 50s and 100s. So because of my shoulder, I train a lot with fins. But I go to meets and beat a lot of folks who may not be training with fins. :thhbbb: (Although we must all agree, musn't we, that Karlyn Pipes-Nielsen, a fin user, is unbelievably fast and accomplished. I also note that I saw a lot of fins in the pre-meet warm ups at nationals last May.) So, isn't it then a good compromise for me and others with shoulder issues to use fins? Now, it may keep me out of the 500 free, but I don't want to swim that thing anyway. Never have, never will. Whoops, swam one in a aquathlon once, but that doesn't count. Not a swim meet. And I think I gotcha in the 50 fly/back/free ;) just like you've got me in the 200 butterfrog and any distance over 200. So cannot we peacefully co-exist, you with your pain free recovered acute injury and me with my more chronic injury? So, in sum, there are some definable great uses for fins. Better to confine fin use to specific uses. Better not to get addicted and use them all the time. But definitely better to use them than not swim at all. Kristina: You're lucky to be on a team with fin lovers. I'm on a old school team of fin haters. No one likes my fins, except a fellow runner with shoulder issues. :rofl: When we do fin sets, everyone looks at me and says "now the playing field is even." But I can still beat them underwater. Which leads me to a theory that us short folks might like fins more because it makes us "swim tall" and we go even faster underwater. I don't think my baby sister agrees with me on this, but I have noticed it. Taller folks are much more dismissive of fins, just in my personal experience of course. ;) Terry, you are much taller than me.

It won't surprise most of you to learn this is more or less my philosophy... but with some exceptions. I think there's a good deal of wishful thinking -- none supported by a single study -- in using fins, as is often true with most other swim aids. I've seen a fair number of swimmers and triathletes use fins to tag along in the 1:30-per-100 lane, when their unshod abilities place them in the 1:45 lane. They believe they're somehow getting better training. But as soon as they shed the fins, they're no faster than previously. Wearing fins to be faster is like wearing platform shoes to be taller. Many teams and swimmers don fins for kickboard training sets, thinking that increases the value of kick sets. I think it mainly trains you for races that may involve pushing a kickboard down the pool while wearing fins. Until they offer such races...well, what Kristina said. The potential negative of using fins is you usually end up emphasizing power-kicking rather than integrating the kick and "tuning" it to your overall stroke. Just another manifestation of the traditional training emphasis on "building the engine" (more miles, work, power) rather than "reshaping the vessel" and maximizing economy. I've used fins in coaching with positive outcomes in a few instances: 1) for helping those with a non-propulsive kick do drills that may be more kick-dependent, allowing them to control effort, maintain flow and minimize distraction so they can concentrate on more precise movements. 2) teaching SDK to a few swimmers who had poor kinesthetic awareness. I had them do some underwater 25s counting dolphins, trying to reduce the number required to complete 25. When they reached a reasonable level of efficiency, I began to time them and turned it into a swim golf exercise -- seconds + # of dolphins = score. 3) very infrequently I've had swimmers practice various streamline positions with a strong fin-aided kick, using the extra speed to heighten their awareness of drag-increasing or -decreasing positions. I know you are expecting me to respond, so I couldn't possibly disappoint you. :rofl: :hug: Remember Dartmouth has a great pool and the Mets and Yankees suck. First, as you know, I use no swim aids except fins. So I am very TI that way. I do not kick with fins either. I don't see how that improves kicking. (Although I do believe that fins help build leg strength, which in turn can help kicking.) I do sometimes use fins for SDKs or underwater SDK 25s. I may have to go purchase that shooter monofin that my daughter wants and your teammate uses. Since I'm limited with swimming aids, I might as well have some bloody fun. What's the downside of fun? I also believe monofin racing is a actual sport in other countries. Second, fins have a beneficial place for certain groups of the populace with shoulder or knee rehab/injury issues, as is the case with Allen and myself. Fins are affirmatively good for taking the load off sore downtrodden shoulders and help you carry on with some restorative swimming instead of simply becoming a runner or couch potato. If you have sore/problem shoulders, fins can also help you swim long sets (like long free or fly for me) that would normally send me to the ice bag and ibuprofen, which I like to avoid if possible. I want to have a :drink: and not damage my liver and kidneys by overdosing on NSAIDs afterward. Third, I never use fins to lane jump to a faster lane. Who cares what lane you're in? I've never understood that. Is it a macho thing? Swim in the lane that best suits your abilities and stroke preference with or without fins. Sometimes, I want to swim back instead of free during free sets, so I'll adjust my lane accordingly. And sometimes (very seldomly unfortunately) at my practices, we actually have sprint vs. distance workouts, so I'm not in the same lane as those distance guys. But it's not very nice to say alleged lane jumpers and tris have "unshod" abilities. Some tris are quite swift in the water. Just like some fin users are swift once the fins come off. Plus, I always wear high heels or wedged boots to be taller. I'd rather much be taller than 5'4". So I'm all for height enhancing shoe devices. Except when I'm being Allen Stark's twin on our 100 IM. :rofl: Then I'll stay short. Fourth, I do believe you are correct in saying that excessive fin use can cause your kick to be insufficiently integrated with your stroke. But I believe that applies somewhat more to the longer distances that you yourself are doing. It has less applicability to sprinting, which is what I'm doing. (Not that I don't wish I could do the 200 fly. But I think that is left in my youth unless my shoulders undergo a miraculous tranformation after I go to Lourdes.) Power kicking is also important for sprinting. No sprinter is using a 2 beat kick. So if you have stronger legs from finning, it might help sprinting. It might help your starts and turns as well. My starts have been much more peachy these days. Plus, I do believe that fins are good for working on exposive speed. Donna tells me that I am low in the water in backstroke, an obvious TI influence. But I think most sprinters are a little higher. I'm higher in my 50s and I have a higher SR there too. Fifth, uh, is there a fifth? I train a lot with fins. When I take them off, I definitely can feel that negative deflating effect. But I do not feel it particularly when I go to a meet and swim 50s and 100s. So because of my shoulder, I train a lot with fins. But I go to meets and beat a lot of folks who may not be training with fins. :thhbbb: (Although we must all agree, musn't we, that Karlyn Pipes-Nielsen, a fin user, is unbelievably fast and accomplished. I also note that I saw a lot of fins in the pre-meet warm ups at nationals last May.) So, isn't it then a good compromise for me and others with shoulder issues to use fins? Now, it may keep me out of the 500 free, but I don't want to swim that thing anyway. Never have, never will. Whoops, swam one in a aquathlon once, but that doesn't count. Not a swim meet. And I think I gotcha in the 50 fly/back/free ;) just like you've got me in the 200 butterfrog and any distance over 200. So cannot we peacefully co-exist, you with your pain free recovered acute injury and me with my more chronic injury? So, in sum, there are some definable great uses for fins. Better to confine fin use to specific uses. Better not to get addicted and use them all the time. But definitely better to use them than not swim at all. Kristina: You're lucky to be on a team with fin lovers. I'm on a old school team of fin haters. No one likes my fins, except a fellow runner with shoulder issues. :rofl: When we do fin sets, everyone looks at me and says "now the playing field is even." But I can still beat them underwater. Which leads me to a theory that us short folks might like fins more because it makes us "swim tall" and we go even faster underwater. I don't think my baby sister agrees with me on this, but I have noticed it. Taller folks are much more dismissive of fins, just in my personal experience of course. ;) Terry, you are much taller than me.