A technique tip from Fred Devos

[TSandM]

I did a day of guided diving with Fred on Thursday. Part of the purpose was to get some feedback on my technique, and some tips for improvement.

One of the things he told me was that I'm using too much knee bend. The result is that my fins are higher above me than my tank is, and I end up hitting the ceiling with them when the entire rest of me has cleared things neatly. He showed me how to do a frog kick with a knee extension component at the end of it. When I was doing it correctly, I felt as though my legs were STRAIGHT out behind me, although they weren't. It turned out that there was a ton of power to be gotten from doing it that way, and all of a sudden, I wasn't hitting anything any more.

Fred said he wasn't sure whether it is something being taught in Fundies, or whether the divers are just internalizing all the photographs they see, but he'd rather see someone in good trim with their knees more extended than the 90 degree bend one so commonly sees in pictures. He also said that running your knees that way, and extending with the kick, is a bigger challenge to one's balance than keeping them bent (and I can second that).

I just thought I would pass this along, as I hadn't heard this before, and it made a big difference for me, both in the amount of effort I was expending in propulsion, and in passing through smaller spaces without impacting them.

 

[rainman_02]

I got a few chances to observe AG's kick (when I wasn't the subject of a class...it was much easier to observe things). His kick is as you just described, and I watched him move 6-10' with that kick-glide bit.

 

[TSandM]

Yes, one of the things I've learned in the last couple of trips, is that it is WELL worth the money to pay these guys for a day of guided diving. I learned so much from watching Fred, both last time and this time, and the little tips you get are really useful.

It's great that we all get out and dive with others of similar training, but if all you ever see is somebody who dives like you, improvement comes slowly.

 

[ppo2_diver]

I also learned the same from Fred a couple years ago.

 

[lamont]

I already knew about power stroke going into cave1, but Fred drove me nuts wanting to see it all the time. It tended to make me swim too fast and either break away if I was in the lead, or I'd be eating fins. You've really got to pause for a very long time and glide till you stop if you're trying to use that kick to casually dive on your way into a cave and I had a hard time with that slow of a rhythm and would fall back into the less powerful stroke that Fred didn't want to see me doing...

 

[orange_diver]

can you explain in a little more detail at what exact point in the frog kick it feels like your legs are straight behind you? is that the feeling you have at the start/end point? and what degree of bend is that do you think? more like 45 perhaps?

thx

 

[TSandM]

You spread the fins apart to load them in the usual, flexed knee position. Then, as you kick, you straighten the legs at the same time -- when the fins come together at the end of the power stroke, you FEEL as though your legs are completely straight out behind you. I don't know where mine were, but Fred's are at about 30 degrees or so at that point.

Lamont, that was what Fred was pushing for -- One kick gives you SO much more propulsion. But he said it's a balance challenge, because you will glide for so long, it's easy to get wobbly, and because you don't have your fins up and out, it's hard to correct the wobble. But I'll bet that, once I get good at this, I'll see my SAC rate fall again.

 

[RTodd]

Holding your legs at any significantly angle beyond horizontal is not nearly as important as finishing the kick with the blades of the fins angled slightly up. You can get right off the bottom doing this and still not create any silt.

 

[orange_diver]

You spread the fins apart to load them in the usual, flexed knee position. Then, as you kick, you straighten the legs at the same time -- when the fins come together at the end of the power stroke, you FEEL as though your legs are completely straight out behind you. I don't know where mine were, but Fred's are at about 30 degrees or so at that point.

Lamont, that was what Fred was pushing for -- One kick gives you SO much more propulsion. But he said it's a balance challenge, because you will glide for so long, it's easy to get wobbly, and because you don't have your fins up and out, it's hard to correct the wobble. But I'll bet that, once I get good at this, I'll see my SAC rate fall again.

thank you. i feel like i do this intuitively out of necessity when pushing thru the occasional moderate current out here in socal. now i can aim for applying it at other times with less of a powerful stroke and see what that feels like.

 

[orange_diver]

Holding your legs at any significantly angle beyond horizontal is not nearly as important as finishing the kick with the blades of the fins angled slightly up. You can get right off the bottom doing this and still not create any silt.

interesting will have to try that out. so far ive been aiming for parallel.