My journey into tech

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Last pool practice of the winter today. More than two hours work on frog and I'm happy with the result. Works much better for me with the Hog Tech 2 fins than the Deep6. Yes, kick is still quite the work in progress, but night and day from where I used to be.

 
Marie I admire your dedication :)

I’m not an instructor, so maybe not entirely qualified to comment, but after watching the video above, maybe these comments help you:
- great news is that you are pushing water backwards (rather than downwards)
- it looks like you are pushing water with the upper part of the fin, ie with pressure on the instep of the foot. This is exactly what is needed for the proper flutter kick, so keep the technique, just alternate the legs and you have a proper flutter. For the frog, shouldnt you be pushing water with the other side the fin? (Look at which way the fin bends when you kick)
- i’m not familiar with the type of wing you are diving, but in the clip it does look like it has a lot of gas in it. How full are your tanks in the video? My gut tells me that you might be overweighted, because at depth of 2 feet the wing shouldnt be that full. But maybe you are perfectly weighted and it’s just the wing shape I’m unfamiliar with (plus full doubles), but maybe worth checking out.
 
I was not overweighted. I had thin base layer on. Only weights were the 4lbs of tail weights (what a diving friend refers to as “your very colorful testicles” :rofl3:). Wing is a 10-12 year old Dive Rite Rec wing. Horseshoe shape. I’m still getting used to the shape. My single tank wing is a donut. But free is great (I was given the wing).

Like I said, work in progress. It can it from here. Glide was present later in pool session.
 
not an instructor either, but also a remark: Speed of movement should be fast when pushing the water backwards, but slow when retracting the ankles forward. During the kick phase, your ankles should move backwards only. There may be a short gliding phase before pulling the ankles forward slowly.
In your video it looks like you pull the ankles forward quickly during the kick, that will cost you a lot of energy to move forward. Better think in three phases: kick fast, glide, slowly pull ankles forward.
 
Your tail weights shouldn't be hanging between your legs like that and your butt d-ring should not be between your legs. It needs to be MUCH higher. No reason not to sort it out now, and it won't be acceptable in your technical courses. Your butt d-ring serves a purpose, it's not for dangling things in betwixt your nether regions.

You can move your legs at the same time, that's great, you'd be amazed how many people screw that up. Frog pushes from the BOTTOM of the fin, right now you're just waving your ankles down at the same time you're opening and closing your legs. We'll ignore the glide part for now.

Ideally the frog is 4 steps. 1) legs "cocked," knees at 90 degrees, legs and ankles together-ish. 2) legs spread outwards from the hips, knees and feet remain the same distance apart. 3) ankles turned and knees and ankles extend together, visualize "clapping" the bottom of your fins together. This is the actual kick phase. 4) glide and slowly recover, "re-cock" the legs. Think pulling the hammer back on a single action.

Some things you're doing: 1) keeping your legs far apart. Bring them together, make gross, concerted movements. 2) you're spreading your knees apart a good amount, but your ankles are barely getting any separation when they should be. They should be moving together, the same distance. 3) you're dropping your knees when you spread them. It makes you think you're moving your legs a bunch when you're really not. Keep your knees up, squeeze your butt cheeks. 4) you're trying to perform the thrust stroke with your fins while your feet are still trying to catch up to your knees, and it's just sort of flapping your fins. Slooooooow down and try and perform every step as an individual action. 5) you're actually pushing the water with the top part of your fin (the flapping thing you're doing is the best way I can think to describe it). You're forcing water down and out instead of back, and you're not going anywhere. That's why it takes you so long to go the distance.

You don't slap the trigger, you don't slap your fins. You don't just squeeze off until you hear a click, you follow through to reset before pulling the trigger again. You don't just slam your finger into the trigger guard, you place your fingertip so that you can control your trigger pull and do it consistently. There's nothing magical about doing a frog kick, but it's like shooting, practice doesn't make perfect, you can't miss fast enough to win a gun fight. Perfect practice makes perfect. Do. Each. Step. Individually. Concentrate on each step coming to completion before the next. Then you can do it all one one motion. You're on your way, but you need to get it right in steps. Just hover and focus on opening and closing your legs at the knees, keeping your feet and ankles aligned, and making sure your knees don't drop. Do it over and over until you get it right. Then add the rest.
 
I’m going to be making a tail weight from some webbing and a hard weight. Just haven’t gotten the waxed thread to do it. Friend showed me how he did his. Goes on bottom bolt.
 
I don't like the third video. He moves the knees up and down again, will silt out when close to the bottom. Nice gliding phase though.
 
I agree and I do find it frustrating that a video so clearly meant for demonstration purposes would have the knee dropping like that.

On the plus side, everything that he described out of the water was valid. It was the demonstration where I had issues. Knees should stay in line with the body.

I don't like the third video. He moves the knees up and down again, will silt out when close to the bottom. Nice gliding phase though.
 
The frog kick looks really unnatural Marie. If it works for you...cool. All of the mechanics in that kick are opposite of what I would expect. You are also directing the wash from your fins down...vice up. That likely won’t cause you any problems with silting unless you are in a really low/tight passage.
 
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http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

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