Question for a Doc

[Aquatic Eagle]

I was born pidgeon-toed and had casts put on my feet in hopes of correcting the problem. The casts were ineffective and I've lived my life so far with turned-in feet. It's never been much of a handicap except the occasional tripping over myself. Now I have gotten into dynamic apnea (horizontal breath-hold swimming) and it has become an issue. The most efficient kick to use without fins is the frog kick and because my feet are naturally turned-in, it is extremely difficult to turn them out to do the kick properly. I'd like to figure out how to get around this without abandoning the no-fins approach to the sport.

Do you think that by using fins to do the frog kick over several years that the fins could act as the casts I once had and eventually correct the problem by gradually turning my bones outward as they should be?

 

[KidK9]

I'm not an MD, but a veterinarian. We have similar orthopedic difficulties in dogs. The problem is that you will be wearing fins and then won't have any correction when you are on land. It needs to be a total correction at all times, and has to be when the bones are growing. For instance, I cant correct a dogs in-turning (carpus varus) or out-turning (carpus valgus) of an adult dog without cutting bone surgically. I hope this provides a little explanation but would be very interested to hear other doctors weigh in.

 

[Aquatic Eagle]

I'm not an MD, but a veterinarian. We have similar orthopedic difficulties in dogs. The problem is that you will be wearing fins and then won't have any correction when you are on land. It needs to be a total correction at all times, and has to be when the bones are growing. For instance, I cant correct a dogs in-turning (carpus varus) or out-turning (carpus valgus) of an adult dog without cutting bone surgically. I hope this provides a little explanation but would be very interested to hear other doctors weigh in.

Thanks for the info. Your answer makes sense to me. I guess I could have surgery to correct it but unless I was going into professional free diving I don't think it's that necessary.

 

[TSandM]

Once bones are adult and the growth plates have closed, there will be minimal to no remodeling as a result of use stress. This is why such issues are best addressed in children, where the bones are still plastic and amenable to techniques like splinting. For adults, surgery is the only option if the bone itself is the problem.

 

[bleeb]

Something that you may want to investigate (if you haven't already), but a while back, I vaguely remember some fairly knowledgeable free divers commenting that the most efficient kick was actually the dolphin. Don't know if this would be more practical for your particular foot shape than surgery, or how well it would work if your main goal is swimming at the surface.

 

[Aquatic Eagle]

Something that you may want to investigate (if you haven't already), but a while back, I vaguely remember some fairly knowledgeable free divers commenting that the most efficient kick was actually the dolphin. Don't know if this would be more practical for your particular foot shape than surgery, or how well it would work if your main goal is swimming at the surface.

It's underwater swimming, not swimming at the surface. Dynamic apnea is the name of the game here. I know dolphin kicks work but every record breaking swim I see on Youtube is using the frog-kick.