Poll: Where were you (first) introduced to the frog kick (mastery not required)?

[elan]

Well, no... we didn't use fins
But, as a practitioner of the frog kick with and without fins, the technique is essentially the same. There is a slight difference in foot orientation between the two to get max thrust, but not really enough to spit at. The "modified frog" we use in scuba for very silty conditions is a different animal entirely and would be very inefficient as a breast stroke kick (just imagine the body position you'd have to take to keep your feet in the water swimming on the surface).
Rick

Well in a frog kick one does not spread the legs as one would do in a breaststroke. Plus the feet orientation is different.

The modified frog is not much different from a frog. You do not use the lowel legs with that amplitude but the feet essencially work the same. The power just comes from the ankle movements

Im feeling right away when I start shifting on the breaststroke - my knees start aching

May be we have different schools but that is how I was tought.

 

[vcblklion]

It wasn't until I started hanging out with DIR people that I learned the frog-kick. I was guilty of "silting up" the bottom also. My experience with PADI training isn't very good.....there was a lot the instructors neglected to teach.

 

[Quero]

I answered 'self-taught/YouTube' but I never sought out YT to learn what I consider to be a frog-kick. It was the 'self-taught' bit I wanted. I also don't recall ever consciously deciding to do frog kicks. Early on in my diving I'd observe experienced divers and try out things I saw them do to see how these techniques would feel and what they would do. Frog kicking was one of these things; dolphin kicking was another; backing up was yet another. I have not found much application for dolphin kicks other than just for 'kicks', but I quickly found that frog kicks were more efficient and that I could get much closer to the bottom without lifting any sediment.

As an instructor, I tend to teach frog kicks to OW students only if they are having a lot of trouble due to bicycle kicking since if I have to change their kick anyway for effective propulsion, I may as well teach the frog, but if they can do an effective flutter kick, I avoid loading on extra learning tasks in OW and I leave it for AOW, particularly in the PPB module.

 

[Hawkwood]

... I tend to teach frog kicks to OW students only if they are having a lot of trouble due to bicycle kicking since if I have to change their kick anyway for effective propulsion, I may as well teach the frog, but if they can do an effective flutter kick, I avoid loading on extra learning tasks in OW .....

Darn, that is so simple, I never thought of it that way.

 

[oldogre]

I saw "better" divers doing it, read/looked at You tube, tried it in the Pool, asked a Tech. Instructor to show me, we then spent an hour in the water (off the beach) 1-1. (Thank you Ray!).

 

[claymore]

I learnd the swimming frog kick in swimming classes. I started using the frog kick diving when I found that it was reducing my heart rate when I was swimming laps to train for diving. I was a Hoover and still use a lot of air but the frog kick helps me use less air, SLOW down and reduce silting. I practice doing several variations when I am swimming laps. I really enjoy being able to turn one fin sideways and wiggle the ankle back and forth to poke along and look at things.

 

[scubadada]

I was a competetive swimmer since age 4, including breaststroke. I was able to "frogkick" fins the minute I first had a pair on. Certified by LA County Underwater Unit in 1970.

 

[drbill]

I was a competitive swimmer in high school back in the Dark Ages and the frog kick was used for breaststroke. Mine was illegal then... and still is.

 

[Centrals]

Other.
Technical wreck

 

[Tanked]

I studied frogs.
and a buddy of mine showed me.