Fins Swimming Advice

Video Transcript... Hi and welcome to SimplySwim.com. Today we're going to be discussing the use of fins, looking at why we use them, the benefits of using them, and giving you our top tips. Fins are a training aid that are designed to be worn on the feet. They come in a very wide range of styles, shapes, and sizes, including fin lengths such as short fins, long fins, split fins, and monofins. Fins are designed to improve your lower body strength, improve your ankle flexibility, and also allow you to train a lot faster. The benefits of using swim training fins. So we know that fins are great for use in developing your lower body strength, but they also have a number of other swim benefits. Ankle flexibility is a real benefit of swimming with fins as the fins put extra force in your ankles. By improving the flexibility in your ankles, your butterfly leg kick will be much more efficient, and so you can improve all strokes distance off the wall. Fins allow you to maintain a better body position easily so you can focus on other areas of your technique that need improvement, whether this be body rotation, arm technique, or breathing pattern. Using fins makes your training much more time efficient as you'll fatigue faster and so not be able to train for as long. It's great if you still want to train hard but are under a time pressure. So our top tips for wearing fins. Tip number one, work at a distance off the wall. You'll really see the improvements and feel the difference in your races. And don't forget, you're allowed up to 15 meters underwater from a start to a turn, so maximize this in training. Many people think you can't wear fins when you're swimming breaststroke. You can, just work butterfly legs instead of breaststroke legs so you'll get a really good upper body and lower body workout. Don't dive off the side when wearing your fins as this puts you at a slip risk. Normally your feet grip onto the side, so you're at risk of injuring yourself and others. Try using your fins when using a kickboard. Your kickboard is going to give you a good lower body workout anyway, so add onto this by wearing your fins. It'll be much more intense. Avoid using long fins or split fins in training. These require a slow movement that's great for scuba and snorkel use but not great for elite swimmers.