WHY USE FINS OR FLIPPERS WHEN SWIMMING ?
- Using flippers will improve a swimmers body position and their
technique. When a swimmers uses fins, they can move faster through the
water and their body will sit higher in the water. For those who have a
poor kick, or their legs sink, their feet will stay higher in the water
helping them to stay in a more streamlined position.
- Using flippers will increase your fitness and cardiovascular
conditioning. Many swimmers forget to use their legs when swimming and
they drag along behind them. Your largest muscles are located in your
legs. By using the large muscles in your legs, you will get greater
cardiovascular benefits, burn more calories and increase fitness levels.
- Using flippers will help you to increase your ankle flexibility. If
you can increase the range of motion in your ankles you will move
forward more quickly through the water. This is particularly important
for those swimmers who are not flexible because when they kick, their
feet catch onto the water and it feels like they are being pulled
backwards. Good swimmers will point their feet and toes so that there
is a straight line from the knee to the toes. Using fins will strengthen
your ankles and feet and forces swimmers to extend their ankles more
when kicking. This leads to more flexibility in the ankles over time,
and a more efficient and faster kick speed.
- Using flippers will give you the feeling of swimming fast through
the water. When you take your flippers off, you should be aiming to
replicate this same feeling. The transfer of this feeling of swimming
higher in the water and faster to doing the same when you are not
wearing fins is called neuromuscular patterning. The aim is for the
muscles and nerves in the body to remember the feeling of swimming
higher and faster and duplicate it the next time you swim with or
without fins. By switching between wearing fins and not, you can
duplicate this pattern over and over again leading to body position,
technique and speed through the water.
