Help with back kick and helicopter turns

[alewar]

I have to show a proper helicopter turn and back kick to upgrade my fundies to tech and would appreciate your feedback on my technique or lack thereof

https://vimeo.com/98353712

What should I do better?

Thx!

 

[Cyprian]

First, congrats on the rec pass in Fundies!

You have the basic motions down so my main advice is this.....

Sllllllllllloooooooooooowwwwwwwwwww ddddddooooowwwwnnnnn.

You are kicking way too fast. I know this because I had the exact same problem when I started and Doug was constantly writing "Slow Down" on his wetnotes. LOL.

Helicopter: Back kick, frog kick......back kick, frog kick. Build a slow cadence, let the fins move the water and do the work. If you go fast you are only getting 1/2 the movement of the stroke, if that.

Back kick: Extend your legs and slow down. You aren't getting any extension on the backward stroke. It affect you are only getting a few inches of "pull" to get the backward motion going. I know you have seen some of the Youtube videos and have access to the GUE videos on the website. Watch how much extension they get on the back kick. You don't have to touch your fins together as some do....but they should be much closer than what yours are in that video. On the backward portion of the kick (the extension) you are trying to slice through the water and not create any drag that will slow down your motion, then load for the pull forward. Again, look at the pull motion on your video...you aren't getting but a few inches of the power stroke needed for the kick. And slow the kick down....

I hope that helps, and good luck on the tech upgrade.

 

[alewar]

Thanks for your advice. I'll slow down next time and work on that leg extension. You don't get access to GUE's videos without a membership. which I don't have, but you are right, I've watched some youtube videos and while I do more or less understand what I have to do, I somehow lack the dexterity to do it. I'll keep trying and posting my progress in this thread

 

[LiteHedded]

they look functional to my eyes.

 

[TSandM]

You've got 85% of both kicks -- solid buoyancy, solid trim, not dropping your knees at all.

What I'm seeing in the helicopter turn is that the back kick component is actually better than the frog kick, which makes me think your frog kick probably doesn't have enough ankle movement in it. My Fundies instructor told us to visualize the helicopter turn as one foot scooping the water to the other, and the second foot kicking it away. If you look at the video, your "kick away" part is pretty good, but your "scoop to" isn't scooping much.

In the back kick, I totally agree -- slow down, particularly the loading phase. Bring the feet closer together and extend them slowly.

For both kicks, reduce the amount of motion in the thighs and knees. (This will work with the frog kick, too. One of the effective things Natalie Gibb did for me during my sidemount class was to make me frog kick with a spool held between my knees. It drove me crazy, but once I figured it out, I had a LOT more power.)

 

[alewar]

Our instructor made me do flutter kick while holding the spool between my knees because I was moving them up and down. I eventually got that one right.
I'll try the same with the frog kick! You can see me frog kicking in my other silly video: Tauchgang in Horka on Vimeo (I know, I should slow down )

 

[PfcAJ]

Whoever's in the wetsuit has the worlds longest string on their pull dump....

 

[alewar]

Whoever's in the wetsuit has the worlds longest string on their pull dump....

It's 30cm long. How long are the ones in halcyon wings?

 

[PfcAJ]

Thats super long (almost a foot for imperial folks).

It doesn't need to be longer than about 3-4 inches (7-10cm).

 

[TSandM]

That isn't you both in wet and dry, right? If it is, something about your dry suit is changing your kick. The wetsuit diver inverts the ankles and approximates the bottoms of the fins well; the dry suit diver is not getting much ankle inversion at all, which is part of the reason for the short, choppy kick. A good frog kick gives you a very noticeable amount of thrust, which makes it quite comfortable and instinctive to put in a nice, long glide phase.