Helicopter turns

[pengwe]

I did the first two days of a Fundies course this weekend. We finish next weekend. Really amazing class, that just encompasses so much.

I'm having a lot of trouble with helicopter turns. I don't understand them at all. We watched the video, discussed them in class, practised them on dry land, and then in the water. When the instructor was moving my feet for me, I had some little flicker of how they might work, but other than that, I just don't get them. I don't know what to tell my feet to do, or how, theoretically, I might be able to turn that way. I can see that they work, because we watched the video, watched the instructor, and also my classmate is quite good at them, but for me they are a mystery.

Does anyone have some tips, or any idea where to start with these?

 

[SkullDeformity]

You frog kick with one foot, then to add on to that by back kicking with the other foot.

 

[Bismark]

initiate the turn with the backkick

 

[rjack321]

Basically back kick with one leg. E.g backkick with the right and you'll rotate counterclockwise.

Esp. when a beginner, try not to focus much on the other foot. It will be ok. Sorta like patting your head, chewing gum and not stepping on the sidewalk cracks.

 

[dsteding]

The way my fundies instructor had us think of this is pushing water with one fin, and then "grabbing" it with the other fin and pushing it along. So a scoop with one foot (frog kick movement) and then a scoop with another fin (kinda a back kick movement).

The other thing Steve emphasized is really do this slow and deliberate. One fin at a time. Also, find a pivot point (like an upright bottle or a stick or something) and center yourself a few inches above it, with the bottle in your lower stomach area. That gives you reference on how you are doing, if your fin strokes are not even you'll do little spirals instead of rotating on one point.

Practice it, these things take time. For instance, I took fundies two weeks ago, I was a back kick retard, but it is coming around. Remedial work in a single tank in Maui helped the back kick immensely, today I was back in cold water in doubles and was able to do it.

 

[TSandM]

The "scoop the water up with one fin, pass it to the other and kick it away" worked for me, too. It's an egg-beater kind of motion. Make the gestures with the fins very small. You don't have to do much to move. A bunch of tiny motions tends to spin you very efficiently in place, whereas big motions tend to produce more of a circle.

 

[lamont]

I learned this by:

1. learn just the forward kick part first with one leg - just kick, kick, kick with one leg (pretty trivial if you can frog kick).
2. learn just the back kick part next with one leg - just back kick once or twice in a row with one leg. learn the feel of scooping the water and pushing the water forwards. don't bother trying to put it together yet as a helicopter turn or a real back kick.
3. put it together front-back-front-back and you should be helicopter turning.
4. do back-back at the same time with both legs for the backkick

i still use the half-helicopter turn with only the backkick sometimes when i deliberately want to both turn and move backwards.

if you've played video games which simulate tanks (e.g. battlezone if you're old skool) then think of your kicks as directions that treads can go on a tank. if pull them both back you'll back up straight. if you pull one back and one forwads the tank will spin. if you do only one tread back you'll back up and turn. works sort of the same underwater...

 

[Soggy]

if you've played video games which simulate tanks (e.g. battlezone if you're old skool) then think of your kicks as directions that treads can go on a tank. if pull them both back you'll back up straight. if you pull one back and one forwads the tank will spin. if you do only one tread back you'll back up and turn. works sort of the same underwater...

Nerd!

 

[mwhities]

I'm not to sure if I'm actually doing them correctly but, I can spin around pretty good. Maybe this weekend I can get my dive buddy out and we can film each other trying the different kicks.

Michael

 

[lamont]

Nerd!

Guilty!

The other thing about the tank driving metaphor is that if you only do the forwards kick half of the helicopter turn you will act just like a tank with one tread going forwards and the other tread stopped and you'll turn in a circle rather than staying in one place.

This is why you commonly read reports of fundies or tech 1 / cave 1 where the instructor takes the students over a rock or other landmark and tells them to try to spin in place when they do helicopter turns. The problem is going to typically be that the back-kick part of the helicopter turn is weak or they're not doing it at all, so they turn around in a circle rather than spinning in place.

You have to have one tread going forwards and one tread going backwards at the same rate to spin in place.