Question Back kick issue

[Trace Malinowski]

Imagine your feet are a ship's bow. Keep them together as you extend them gently through the water. Then pull against the water with the sides of your feet as you move them toward your butt. Where the feet go the fins follow. Take the wing off the tank and use it as a kickboard to practice without fins. It is one kick you can do as well with and without fins.

Trace Doing the Backward Kick

Trace Doing the Backward Kick While Freediving

 

[Alaskan Scuba Dude]

Pretend your fins are oars and you are rowing.

 

[Winmit]

Hi again. I was off for a few days. I was on a new diving spot so didn't have time to practice a lot, but I still managed to "play". I tried most of the things and i can include some personal observations:
1. Trim is definitely a must. don't know whether is only with me but, a heavy-head is kind of easier to compensate than heavy-legs.
2. My legs were too straight. When I bend them in the knees it feels much differently. I can even feel the drag.
3. The pause really makes a difference! But if u don't have good trim, you can not pause, because u are always in a hurry for the next stroke.
4. twisting the ankles, so to have a bigger surface area with the fins looks like helped me. This is contrary to the explanation that the edge of the fin is needed. ?!

Ofcourse don't imagine i managed to do it I just had a few lucky ones. No video to share, but there is a difference and for sure a path to follow in the next exercises
While we are on the topic, is there any "rule of the thumb" about weight placement? What i mean is that i.e. if you put the tank to high it makes your head heavy. If you put i lower - legs heavy. Same applies to the pockets. Whether you put more weights in the upper pocket or the lower. Its a never-ending game.

Thanks to all for the replies

 

[tracydr]

Thanks for all the responses.
1/ pool is not an option ;/
2/ trim: yes i need to improve it.
3/ will do the exercise slower. i was for sure rushing a bit
4/ strange but when i have tried without fins it actually works much better and i move backward
5/ will try with giving it a little momentum by pushing from a rock

? By Pause you mean to keep it calm with legs bended, ready to glide ?

I started by just learning swimming back kick and then went to gear.

 

[inquis]

While we are on the topic, is there any "rule of the thumb" about weight placement?

I put my tank where I can reach the valve (there's some technique to this, BTW) but still room to tip my head back. I'll then put enough weight on the upper camband against the plate to stop any legward rotation. (Like most people, I am leg heavy with a single tank.) Takes about 6 lbs for me.

 

[Graeme Fraser]

Hi again. I was off for a few days. I was on a new diving spot so didn't have time to practice a lot, but I still managed to "play". I tried most of the things and i can include some personal observations:
1. Trim is definitely a must. don't know whether is only with me but, a heavy-head is kind of easier to compensate than heavy-legs.
2. My legs were too straight. When I bend them in the knees it feels much differently. I can even feel the drag.
3. The pause really makes a difference! But if u don't have good trim, you can not pause, because u are always in a hurry for the next stroke.
4. twisting the ankles, so to have a bigger surface area with the fins looks like helped me. This is contrary to the explanation that the edge of the fin is needed. ?!

Ofcourse don't imagine i managed to do it I just had a few lucky ones. No video to share, but there is a difference and for sure a path to follow in the next exercises
While we are on the topic, is there any "rule of the thumb" about weight placement? What i mean is that i.e. if you put the tank to high it makes your head heavy. If you put i lower - legs heavy. Same applies to the pockets. Whether you put more weights in the upper pocket or the lower. Its a never-ending game.

Thanks to all for the replies

Well done. Before you know it, a 'few lucky ones' will become the norm. BTW, the edge of the fin does work, but it depends on the fin. A typical tech fin will be quite stiff, shortish and have a broad edge.

Regarding trim, it can be quite difficult to know what your trim attitude actually is. One way to check is by hovering above a platform and very slowly lowering down, just to the first point of contact. If your knees touch down first, you're 'leg heavy', if your upper torso / head touches down first, you're head heavy. Try lowering very gently down till you're flat and just 'kissing' but without moving at all. If you remain like that your weight distribution is about right. If your legs slowly start to raise, your head heavy, if your head starts to raise, you're leg heavy. You can then distribute weight accordingly.

Keep going, you're getting there

 

[inquis]

This is contrary to the explanation that the edge of the fin is needed. ?!

The edge provides power toward the end of the stroke. You can get by without it, but taking advantage of it will yield better results.

 

[BlueTrin]

I think doing it in the pool without any equipment teaches you that technically you can do it without fins.

It will emphasis that you need to gain momentum by not pushing in the opposite direction when you get back in position.

IMHO your emphasis on trim bring a pre-requisite for backfinning is not exactly correct: one of my “ah ah” moments is when I realised that you can back fin upwards or downwards by moving your head position up or down. This will affect your trim and trim will dictate whether you back fin upwards or downwards, you can be stable in moderate upwards or downwards trim.

This means that you can correct the vertical direction you are backfinning rather than backfinning only horizontally.

This actually has a really good use: when you’ll do stops or want to keep your buddy in front of you while you do something deploying a DSMB, it is very useful to be able to backfin downwards or upwards to hold a constant depth.

 

[rongoodman]

I usually initiate my ascents by going a little head down and doing a back kick or two. It puts the air in my wing right under the rear dump where I can easily vent it as needed.

 

[RobPNW]

I really stink at back kicks :-(