Gandalf-the-Diver
Contributor
Have you tried the Hollis F-1 Bat fin?
Modified Flutter versus Frog Kick (from a different point of view)
- Thread starter Doctor Rig
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FishWatcher747
Contributor
@AngeloFarina, what is your opinion about doing the dolphin kick as a useful recreational diving kick?
There are instances close to a silty bottom or close to a reef that it is not appropriate. But for example in the deeper Cozumel dives one isn't close to the bottom. The diving is going around and not on top of coral formations. Here dolphin kick is perfectly appropriate.
The knock on dolphin kick (I'm not talking about modified dolphin kick) is it is too powerful and tires one out. What about a slower dolphin kick as an efficient kick?
I have been experimenting with this.
There are instances close to a silty bottom or close to a reef that it is not appropriate. But for example in the deeper Cozumel dives one isn't close to the bottom. The diving is going around and not on top of coral formations. Here dolphin kick is perfectly appropriate.
The knock on dolphin kick (I'm not talking about modified dolphin kick) is it is too powerful and tires one out. What about a slower dolphin kick as an efficient kick?
I have been experimenting with this.
I also experimented a slow dolphin kick as a way of getting used to the monofin. At the beginning of a finned swimming course, the students do not own a monofin. So we intorduce dolphin kick, and only when they master it decently with normal fins, we suggest them to buy their first monofin.
Dolphin kick is a powerful kick. It can be used also with normal fins for short burts angainst a strong current, where normal flutter kick "is not enough".
But it looses efficiency when speed is reduced.
At slow speed, it is entirely equivalent to other kicks, particularly if the whole body is not involved in the movement. A proper and efficient dolphin kick requires that the body is entirely hydrodynamic, with arms fully extended, keeping the tank in front of the swimmer, and the head within arms. The ondulatory motion should start from the tank, and extend along arms, body and legs, arriving at the fins. Something like this:
Dolphin kick is a powerful kick. It can be used also with normal fins for short burts angainst a strong current, where normal flutter kick "is not enough".
But it looses efficiency when speed is reduced.
At slow speed, it is entirely equivalent to other kicks, particularly if the whole body is not involved in the movement. A proper and efficient dolphin kick requires that the body is entirely hydrodynamic, with arms fully extended, keeping the tank in front of the swimmer, and the head within arms. The ondulatory motion should start from the tank, and extend along arms, body and legs, arriving at the fins. Something like this:
What a bizarre sport.
Yes, but they are moving unbelievably fast. The first 100m split of the 400m is 4.5 seconds faster than the men's 100m freestyle world record.
My original dive buddy when I first started diving chose to use the dolphin kick instead of learning frog kick. I never got a good explanation why he chose dolphin. Seems to use a ton of energy.
If you look closely, their kick starts from the shoulder blades. In fact people who are good at butterfly are known to have a joint in the middle of their spines:
I could never do bat well, but when I do a dolphin kick in gear, I hit the back of my head on the 1st stage -- all the time if I hang the tank where I can turn the valve without undoing the harness, only some of the time if I have it where I normally do.
-- Why Michael Phelps Has the Perfect Body for Swimming
I could never do bat well, but when I do a dolphin kick in gear, I hit the back of my head on the 1st stage -- all the time if I hang the tank where I can turn the valve without undoing the harness, only some of the time if I have it where I normally do.
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