Smooth swimming fins FAQ

The FAQ listed below are only about the smooth swimming benefits of leg fins. For all FAQ please see the FAQ summary.

Do fins lift your knees & straighten your kick?

Leg fins lift your knees & straighten your kick. So your swimming feels a lot more streamlined without your knees dragging through the water. They give you a better kick for freestyle, backstroke and fly.

Because regular foot fins are on your feet, they sink your knees down too far in the water when you swim. They also make you bend your knees too much. You can feel your knees dragging through the water. So they don’t give you a better kick. Instead, foot flippers force you to do a different kick to good swimming without fins.

Good squad swimmers keep their knees much higher and straighter, and they swim a lot faster. However, you see many swimmers at the pool who kick with low, bent knees. So their kick feels inefficient and lacking in power. This is a common problem for swimmers, even without fins. But foot flippers make it worse.

Leg fins overcome these problems because they attach to your legs. So the water flow over the fins lifts your knees up. If you fit them a bit higher, they lift your knees up more. This even works at slow speeds. It also works even if you don’t kick and just pull with your arms. They give you higher knees and straighter knees, for a better kick for freestyle, fly and backstroke. A better kick helps you to improve your arm pull as well. So these fins speed up your whole stroke swimming.

Your body remembers your higher knees, straighter knees and better kick, even after you take off your leg fins. So they give you a better kick for your normal swimming without fins too.

Now you can have fins for extra speed and have higher knees, straighter knees and a better kick!

Do fins lift your thighs horizontal & streamlined?

Leg fins lift your thighs horizontal for a more streamlined kick. This reduces thigh drag and increases the thrust from your kick. So they give you a faster streamlined kick for freestyle, backstroke and fly.

Because regular foot fins are on your feet, they slope your thighs down in the water when you swim. You feel the extra drag from the water pushing against your sloping thighs. This thigh drag wastes your energy. So foot flippers don’t help to lift your thighs to streamline your kick. Quite the opposite. Foot flippers sink your thighs and work with different kick to good swimming without fins.

Leg fins overcome these problems because they attach to your legs. The water flowing over the fins pushes up on your shins, which lifts your knees. So this lifts your thighs horizontal and streamlined. Most people feel this as soon as they swim with them.

Many swimmers know they should have their thighs horizontal. But still their thighs keep sloping down when they kick. Wearing leg fins helps you to get rid of the bad habit of sloping your thighs down in the water. The trick is to relax and forget about your old kick. It often helps not to kick at all to start with. Just get some speed from your arms and let the fins lift and straighten your knees. Then add a gentle kick and let the fins guide you into a streamlined kick from your hips. You will feel your kick power coming from the larger muscles in your thighs, buttocks and torso. Build your kick from there. With practice, you will lose your bad habit and your body will remember this new streamlined kick instead.

It helps if you already have enough hip joint movement range to straighten your thighs, at least in line with your upper body. If not, then doing stretches on land can help to increase your range of hip joint movement. Swimming with leg fins will also help to improve your range of hip movement.

Now you can have fins for extra speed and have your thighs horizontal for streamlined swimming!

Do fins lift your hips & straighten your kick?

Leg fins lift your hips & straighten your kick, which lifts your torso horizontal. This reduces water drag on your chest. They also encourage you to kick with straighter hips, to improve kick technique and streamline your legs. They improve your kick for freestyle, backstroke and fly.

Because regular foot fins are on your feet, they sink your hips down in the water when you swim. You can feel your chest dragging through the water. Foot flippers also make you bend your hips too much. This slopes your thighs down in the water and increases thigh drag. So they don’t help to improve kick technique. Worse, foot flippers reinforce a different kick to good swimming without fins.

Good squad swimmers have higher hips, kick with straighter hips and swim fast. However, you see many swimmers at the pool who kick with hips too low in the water and who bend their hips too much when they kick. Their legs slope down in the water, increasing drag. So their kick doesn’t feel so good and is low in power. This is a common problem which gets worse with foot flippers.

Leg fins overcome these problems because they attach to your legs. So the water flow over the fins lifts your legs and knees. This lifting gives you higher hips and straighter hips which improve kick techniques for freestyle, fly and backstroke. In fact, these fins speed up your whole stroke swimming as improving your kick helps you to improve your arm pull as well.

Your body remembers your higher hips, straighter hips and improved kick, even after you take off your leg fins. So they improve kick technique for your normal swimming without fins too.

Now you can have fins for extra speed and have higher hips, straighter hips and improve kick technique!

Do fins streamline your whole body to swim faster?

Leg fins streamline your whole body to swim faster, whatever your body shape. The more streamlined your body, the less drag and wasted energy. So moving through the water feels more efficient and that helps you to swim faster. They work best for freestyle, backstroke and fly.

Our bodies are all different shapes. But when you look at swimmers in the pool, people with all sorts of different body shapes still look streamlined if they are swimming well. Whatever their body shape, if they are not swimming well then they do not look streamlined in the water. This means we can all improve our body streamlining to swim faster, regardless of our body shape.

Because regular foot fins are on your feet, they sink your whole body down too far in the water. They sink your hips and slope your thighs down. They also make you bend your knees too much. You can feel the extra drag on the front of your body and thighs. So foot flippers don’t streamline your whole body.

Leg fins help you streamline your whole body because they attach to your legs. They help you to swim faster, by better streamlining from your toes all the way up your body. They streamline your whole body whilst you kick. When you swim forwards, the water flow on the fins gently lifts your feet, shins and knees. So your knees become straighter. That lifts your thighs more horizontal too. So your hips straighten and lift higher, to reach a horizontal line with your shoulders. The end result, is better streamlining of your entire upper body and legs along this horizontal line.

It is a chain reaction, triggered by leg fins being on your legs, not on your feet. Even better, with practice, your body remembers this streamlining even after you take them off. So you swim faster without fins too.

Now you can have fins to swim faster and streamline your whole body!

Do fins give you smooth thrust throughout your kick?

Leg fins give you smooth streamlined thrust throughout your kick. You feel the smooth force during your down kick, your up kick and the transitions between kicks. They work best for freestyle, backstroke and butterfly. You need smooth forces throughout your kicks to optimise your stroke efficiency.

Because regular foot fins are on your feet, when you swim with them you can feel the thrust pulsing during each kick. The forces build up towards the end of each down kick. You can hear the changing sound as the water surges past your ears. So foot flippers give you a fluctuating thrust throughout your kick. Many swimmers find it difficult to get a smooth thrust from their kick, even without fins. But foot flippers make this problem even worse, increasing the surging of the propulsion. They do not give continuous thrust throughout each kick, as is needed for best body streamlining and stroke efficiency. So foot flippers alter your whole stroke.

Leg fins give you smooth thrust throughout each stroke because they attach to your legs . They lift your legs horizontal. So you can kick from your hips with only a little knee-bend. They also flex smoothly towards and away from your legs during your kick cycle. This keeps your kick forces as smooth as possible throughout your kick. And that helps you pull smoothly with your arms too. Together, this gives you a continuous streamlined thrust during each stroke for more efficient swimming. You hear a smooth and steady sound as the water flows past your ears to tell you how consistent your speed is.

Leg fins teach you a streamlined thrust throughout your kick, even if you don’t yet do that. With practice, your body will remember their continuous streamlined thrust, even when you go back to swimming without fins. So they improve your normal swimming stroke too.

Now you can have fins for extra propulsion and have a streamlined thrust throughout kick!

FAQ summary

The FAQ listed above are only about the smooth swimming benefits of leg fins. For all FAQ please see the FAQ summary.