Help with back kick and helicopter turns

[alewar]

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.

The guy in the dry suit is my buddy. We did fundamentals together. He got the tech card though. We don't know other GUE or technical divers in our region, so we are learning things in our own.

 

[lamont]

your back kick needs to have three phases to the stroke, you want to have your fins together and slice them through the water to reset, then you want to flair them and open them up, then you want to pull on the power stroke... then put your fins together again and extend and slice through the water, then flair, then power stroke, etc...

it also helped me to do them in isolation. do a frog kick with one foot and only one foot around in a wide circle. do a back kick with one foot and only one foot around in a wide circle (backwards). focus on what it feels like to get a good purchase on the water and move yourself with the fin. that's what it should feel like using that fin when you put it together with the other motions in a helicopter or back kick. wax on/wax off. worked for me, but YMMV.

 

[Locus]

Because of the advice in this thread my back kick has gone from flailing to practically functional. Thanks.

 

[johnkendall]

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!

Ok, some feedback:

General stuff first - lift your head and push your pelvis forward. Seperate your hands - this is to add lateral stability.

Heli turns - you are not evenly using both feet, on the first trun you ate doing 2 back kicks for each forward kick, the whole kick should be more fluid, it's not 2 separate kicks, it should be one movement. Keeping your head up here will help with this.

Back kick, your legs are far too far apart, you should be aiming to touch your fin tips together as you extend your legs back, this is where keeping your arms wider apart will help.

And for both - SLOW DOWN

Hth
John

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

 

[Cyprian]

Because of the advice in this thread my back kick has gone from flailing to practically functional. Thanks.

Fun, isn't it?

Once you really get the back kick down it becomes second nature (although there is always room for improvement). I still have video of myself "back kicking" and going no-where. I remember getting very frustrated...lol. My mentor would be watching/running video and I'd line up and start kicking. I would get a few inches back and then end up pushing myself forward due to improper fin technique. A few hours spent at home practicing on the bed as my wife laughed and shook her head...and one day, it just happened.

Then I got to Fundies thinking I was a back kicking machine only to get humbled again. "Well you all have some form of back kick...I mean you are backing up a little, but it isn't good enough. We definitely have to work on that." I still remember those words...lol.

But what really made the back kick happen for me was Fundies, specifically us getting lined up in the three man triangle formation with a line in the center of us and valve drills. You did not float into the line or each other. The divers not performing the skill had to hold position. Why does this work so well? If you do not have a line you can "move" the team all over the place during valve drills and you might be under the impression that you are doing ok. Put that line in the center and the rules change. If you float forward any at all, you better be able to back kick!

Anyway, sorry for getting off on story time!

Good job, Locus....keep at it!

 

[SparticleBrane]

Another suggestion:

Learn to do the kicks WITHOUT FINS ON. You can move surprisingly quickly, backwards, doing a back kick with just your feet. Same with helicopter turns -- you can spin around all day long without fins if you have good technique. I can actually kick backwards faster without fins than I can with fins, because you have to wait for the "reload" stroke with the fins and do that relatively slowly or else you'll push yourself forward. Without fins you can throw your feet backwards quicker.

It also appears, from watching the video, that you are moving your legs but not truly taking advantage of your fins. It's almost as if you had an ankle fusion and you're not using them. Learn to use your ankles to move your fins. A lot of these kicks are all in the ankle movements, with added strength from your lower legs.

 

[WhiteSands]

[Edited: Just realized this is an old thread...]

 

[Locus]

Fun, isn't it? Once you really get the back kick down it becomes second nature (although there is always room for improvement). I still have video of myself "back kicking" and going no-where.

A couple of days ago I was out with some buddies and one of them pointed out a beautiful lion's mane jelly with a 20cm bell drifting upwards just a meter or so in front of me. My thoughts: "Aaaah backkickbackkickbackkick WHY AM I NOT MOVING?!" It definitely works best for me when I'm going slowly. Keeping at it...

 

[AFdivedoc]

Having become fairly proficient at the standard 2 fin back kicking technique, I found I've been doing it the hard way! I found this full foot fin on the bottom on my first dive after a recent typhoon here on Okinawa, and instantly discovered the single fin back kick. Works great! Training video to follow.

 

[alewar]

After carefully reviewing all your great advice I armed my buddy with the camera and went diving again.
It seems I just forgot everything under water and got worse than before. Next time I'll do the dirlls deeper so that I can blame the gas

https://vimeo.com/100732055