best fins for backfinning

[danvolker]

GUE actually teaches how to perform the back kick without fins in a pool environment. It helps to reinforce proper technique that is normally masked by the use of fins. I will personally take off my fins in full tech gear with stages at places like Ginnie Springs and swim around. Its awesome feedback on many levels as most people use fins as a crutch which hides areas in need of improvement.

Some students which may have trouble learning the reverse kick, may benefit from the instructor showing them how to back kick without fins on....Some students that have used many different kick shapes in their past diving, find that they can do the reverse kick easily the moment they see it done. Whatever strategy required to teach the reverse kick to a student --if it works, then fine. So I agree that for some students, barefoot might help.

The large but is, that the END GAME is for the diver to end up using the fins properly--and the END GAME is NOT about how well you can kick yourself around a pool or cave if barefoot--I am sure you did not mean to suggest this was important, but I think it is an important distinction. Ultimately a good GUE diver...a good exploration level diver---any good diver, needs to use their fins well. Like with Cars or snow skis, if you have great skill in using them, you can get a great deal more out of a given pair of fins, a race car, or snow skis--and the high end, performance versions of each, will allow the person with expert skills and high level physical training ---- to achieve far more with the performance models, than they can with the flimsy models that were engineered poorly and are basically garbage.....unfortunately, there is a lot of garbage in fin types commonly sold in dive shops today.

---------- Post added February 7th, 2015 at 09:52 AM ----------

There is a huge similarity between making yourself an effective competitive cyclist, and in making yourself into a diver with optimum propulsive/finning skills.

For the cyclist, you may even have a "coach" in play ( think of this as the dive instructor)....and a huge part of the cycling skill and ability, is the actual Kick shapes used by the cyclist.....the legs, in driving the pedals around in a circle, have a very specific order of muscles that must fire, and certain places in the circle where one quadricep is pushing at the same moment the opposing leg bicep is pulling----and at the same moment, the ankle of each foot is articulating --- the toes are pointing at the lower position in the pedal circle to increase the "throwing leverage" of entire leg, and reduce this leverage at the top of the circle, where the hips get involved to further increase the leverage effects of what the legs can accomplish.... The cycling coach "could" give the cyclist a drill to do in the home, without the bike, where they concentrate on pedaling in the air( on their back) and working on a particular sequence of muscle firings. This may fix some problems in some cyclists, but in others, be totally wasted time, with no benefit whatsoever.

Ultimately, the cyclist needs to develop huge torque when needed, or very high and smooth spin when needed, as well as special whole body sprint coordiations ---sort of like the diver with needs in frog kick, flutter kick, dolphin kick, helicopter and reverse kicks.....Also like in cycling, there are some kicks which in the scheme of things, may be far less important than other kicks.....I would much rather see a diver that has absolute perfect Frog kick and flutter kick, but maybe is reverse kick challenged, than one that spent a year getting to do reverse kick well, does frog well, but has a very ineffective flutter kick--to me, that diver concentrated on a drill, for the sake of a drill, and now is ineffective in many environments that they could have been much better prepared for, if not for all the drilling on what is a rarely required skill. You could almost say this is like the finish line or velodrome style sprint on a bike---to many cyclists, they don't really care to develop a race level sprint, they don't care to learn it's special whole body coordination, and they don't care to train those specific energy systems ( the ATP system). Put them on a mountain, and they can climb great all day--put them in a time trial, they can be very fast--but they just don't sprint....This is where many divers are. I like to see all around cyclists and divers.....I like to see divers that can do all the kicks well. But thanks to the artificial importance of the reverse kick, as some kind of "Badge of accomplishment", some divers train this all the time, with frog kick, and are quite pathetic at flutter kick or dolphin kick. I think this comes from Cave diving ideas--as this is an environment where the reverse kick can be a critical skill. In ocean, with the possible exception of exploration level penetration into shipwrecks, the reverse kick is essentially like the TRACK STAND on the velodrome bike. For some, it is easy, but you don't need this to ride a bike


My point is, if you have the time to learn reverse kick, and it makes sense to you...then learn it....but don't think for a second that it makes you a super human diver...it is more like being able to do a track stand on a velodrome bike.....and what you really need to be able to do is to get around well, and not be silting up the bottom constantly