Freestyle - Swimming With Fins

Posted by Glenn Mills on Jan 25, 2011 08:42AM (11,682 views)

Sure, fins can be used for all strokes, but today, let's just focus on using them for two types of freestyle.

Why do it:
Swimming freestyle with fins can do a couple things, first, it can allow you to grab a bit more glide out front and get some great feeling of water flowing past your body with less work than normal, and second, it can get you at or above end of season race pace at just about any time during the season.

How to do it:
1) Swim some smooth freestyle, and even with a gentle kick, the extra push you'll get from the fins will allow you to stretch a bit more out front.
2) Don't focus on how you're kicking, but rather, how the water passes your body and look for the spots of extra resistance. The lower effort at just a bit higher speed will create a bit more resistance from the water and allow you to find those key places to clean up.
3) Throw in some high intensity sprints, using a very strong kick to force the front end of your stroke to keep up.

How to do it really well (the fine points):
Have goal times for your sprints... don't just try to swim fast. A good example would be to break some sort of record, or your best time, in practice from a push off rather than from a dive. This will show you how to hold your head, body and how to attack with your arms when it all comes together at the end of the season. Remember, either easy, or intense, fins can really add a nice new dynamic to your training.

flutter kick, fins, freestyle, speed work, sprint, training

Responses

camy	Responded Jan 26, 2011 01:41PM Is the speed reached in the sprints with fins the goal to set for the end of the season ? I wonder how fast champions would swim, with fins !
camy	Responded Jan 26, 2011 01:46PM Another question : should we keep a 6-beat kick ? I feel better with a 2-beat kick when I use fins. Or is it because they are medium size (longer than zoomers) ?
Glenn Mills	Responded Jan 26, 2011 03:22PM Hi Camy. To give you an idea, we've had swimmers clock faster than American and World Records during sets like this. Depending on the length of the fin, you're going to want to really take advantage of the fins. We try to encourage as close to a 6-beat as possible so the swimmers don't end up lunging from one side to the other... not like "loping" like Jason Lezak, but really waiting for the kick to help the rotation or attack of the arm. If the fins are big... make the kick smaller.
ferntri	Responded Jan 29, 2011 07:37AM Hi Glenn, Thanks for a very nice video again :-) I'm a beginner triathlete on the hobby level. I'm not a very experienced swimmer but enjoy a lot doing it :-) -for the records, just completed a 1000 m a TT right under 18 mins (self-timed)- My goal is to join some local triathlons and/or open water swims during this coming summer. I'm following now a self-coached swimming program to improve my crawl technique and endurance...and there are many drills that would "require" the use of fins The question is what type of fins a newbie should get? I can choose between the following that are available in the Norwegian online swim-shop: a) Kiefer Long or Short blade b) Hydro Sportz Finz (http://swimming.about.com/library/weekl ... rofinz.htm) c) Finis Zoomer Z2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCpvT0eI ... r_embedded) Thanks in advance Fern
ferntri	Responded Jan 29, 2011 09:18PM The links didn't come up well Hydro Finz: http://swimming.about.com/library/weekly/a... Zoomers Z2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCpvT0eIp_M...
henrique hinning	Responded Jan 29, 2011 10:34PM I would like to congratulate the site, the content and very good, I've been using several times to improve my teaching
Tarek	Responded Feb 01, 2011 07:10PM ive tried this drill last night with trainning fins ....my time dropped around 1 second .......its a cool drill
camilo_bh	Responded Apr 18, 2011 06:35PM Great tip Glenn. I have just come across Terry Laughlin's Total Immersion Swimming method. Laughlin is not an advocate of using fins, pads, etc. He says these tools might increase strength but in the end will not make anyone faster. Laughlin insists speed in swimming is more related to "streamlining", so he recommend a different approach based on balance and of a better positioning of the body in the water. I can see you are a fan of fins and pads. Do you think Total Immersion's aversion to these tools a bit extreme?
Glenn Mills	Responded Apr 18, 2011 09:24PM Yes. I'll answer very simply. Which Olympic swimmer has never used pull-buoys, fins, kick-boards or paddles. If he can answer that with anything prior to 1980, then the arguments will be valid. If he can't, then you should question the motives of the lecturer. While I agree that balance, length and rotation are necessary for the swimmer to have, they are not the only thing that makes people FAST. Anybody can be long, balanced, and rotated... but without strength added to this combination... they just look pretty. There is a sequence of steps to "faster" that seem to be dismissed. Helping someone go from 1:30 to 1:20 in a 100 yard freestyle can be accomplished with these techniques. While helping someone go from :45 to :43 in the 100 yard freestyle WITHOUT these tools is simply a disservice to the swimmers you're working with. So, what really makes these people fast? I think he answered his own question... don't you?
GW	Responded Apr 19, 2011 08:15AM Everything in moderation. It all has a part to play

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Freestyle - Swimming With Fins

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