Please learn how to kick your fins to get the best from them. Happy finning!
How to kick your fins from hips
Kick so you feel the shinfinTM power in your thighs, buttocks, stomach and torso – the same muscles as for good “no-fins” swimming. (A foot flipper kick is very different, with power from your calf muscles and ankles.)
How to kick your fins with less knee-bend
Focus on streamlining your kick from your hips. So you keep your hips straighter and your thighs higher in the water. Then you will naturally have only a little knee-bend. (A foot flipper kick is very different, with more knee-bend.)
Streamlined kick for freestyle, backstroke & fly
We get a lot of great feedback from swimmers saying that swimming with shinfinTM fins improves their overall swimming technique, arms too. They improve their horizontal body position, breathing and speed. This is especially true for full stroke swimming with shinfinTM fins. ( Foot flippers can’t provide the same benefits. Their biomechanics is all wrong for a proper streamlined “no-fins” kick.)
shinfinTM fins are designed to work best with a good streamlined kick like swimmers use for freestyle, backstroke or fly (not breaststroke).
Your kick balances your arm pull
The shinfinTM kick does more than just add leg power – it balances your arm pull and supports good breathing technique. For example, in freestyle, there is often a larger kick down with the left leg when the right arm pulls (and with the right leg when the left arm pulls) – a diagonal force balance across your body.
Best for full stroke swimming (arms & legs)
I think they work best for full stroke swimming. That is what I really designed them for.
Great for kicking exercises too
For kicking exercises, you might like to keep your arms going but with longer strokes and not pulling so hard. Then your kick technique is most likely to remain the same, so you are strengthening for the right action. Also, you should feel your arm stroke lengthening and becoming smoother, and your breathing nice and regular – other benefits of training with shinfinTM fins. You can use them for kick only exercises, with or without a kickboard, but your body position and hence kicking technique is more likely to change with a kickboard.
Same kick as good “no-fins” swimming
Most importantly, the benefits of swimming with shinfinTM fins transfer across to your “no-fins” swimming too, especially if you swim a bit more just after you take off your shinfinTM fins. This is because the shinfinTM kick is very similar to a proper streamlined “no-fins” kick.
They improve your “no-fins” swimming too
I have a suggestion for you. Immediately after swimming with the shinfinTM fins for a while, take them off and swim a bit more. You should find that your body remembers the shinfinTM kick pattern, so your “no-fins” swimming improves too. If you keep doing this each time you go swimming then you should notice continual improvements in your swimming technique.
Still having some difficulties?
My suggestion for you is this. Put them on and then just “go with their flow” without thinking about it too much. In fact, for the first few laps, maybe hardly kick at all – just use freestyle arms. Then start adding the kick as guided by the flex of the fins – without thinking about it. Swim with them for a few laps to really get into the feel of the streamlined body position and relaxed ankles that they promote. If you keep doing this each time you go swimming then you should notice continual improvements in your swimming technique.