Kick styles

[Airleron]

I generally use the frog kick 90% of the time. I tend to cramp using other types of kicks for an extended period of time. When in current, well, it has to be flutter.

Lisa

 

[BgDadddy]

I'll use the frog kick until I get tired and then switch to something else for a bit.

I'll use the flutter going against a current.

 

[diver_doug]

I think your best bet is to learn different kicking styles and use them as you see fit. I frog-kick most the time; not for any particular reason other than that it is the most comfortable kicking-style for me. If I want to cover a long-distance quickly or fight a current, I'll use a flutter kick. Sometimes I'll alternate between frog-kicking and flutter-kicking just because that's what I feel like doing. There are definitely some instances (wrecks, caves etc.) when frog kicking is the ideal method, but in general I think it's a matter of doing what works for you. Also certain fins are more geared towards certain kick styles.

 

[TSandM]

I found the frog kick so comfortable, and so useful for the kind of slow, critter-admiring diving that I do, that I abandoned the flutter altogether . . . until I got to Cave 2 in flow, and the instructor insisted on it, and I hadn't the muscles or the coordination to do it very well. Lesson learned -- whatever kicks you prefer, practice the other ones frequently, so that when you need them, they are fresh and you have the strength to use them.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I know where you are coming from with this, but I think you only have it partly right. A flutter kick is still going to direct water above and below the diver, so if you are close to a silty bottom you are going to move water into the bottom unless you are really barely moving. I agree many divers overdo it, but it is a kick that lends to more silting than a proper frog, which directs water almost straight back instead of down and back.

I'll generally frog kick when I'm diving ... particularly in silty locations (i.e. most of Puget Sound). But if I'm in a place like that and the conditions call for a flutter kick, I'm gonna ... as my old ski instructor used to put it ... "bend ze knees" ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[seaducer]

I'll generally frog kick when I'm diving ... particularly in silty locations (i.e. most of Puget Sound). But if I'm in a place like that and the conditions call for a flutter kick, I'm gonna ... as my old ski instructor used to put it ... "bend ze knees" ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Hmm, my old ski instructor couldn't stop laughing long enough to impart any jewels of wisdom:depressed:

 

[amw5g]

Didn't see any mention of the dolphin kick in any post, so I'll suggest that as another to consider, as situations warrant. I use it in two specific situations: to begin a head-down descent (new neoprene is just a little overly buoyant at surface); and to overcome hastily a fixed object on the bottom that I didn't notice until I'm nearly on it (I get so engrossed in what's below me, I sometimes forget to look ahead). In the latter case, it's the immediate up-and-over propulsion with one stroke that's all I need.

We've just completed our AOW, and it was in that training that we got good exposure to frog, modified flutter, and helicopter turn. Prior to the course, we really only flutter kicked, and now I think I'm frog kicking perhaps 75% of the time. As a child, I did lots of competitive swimming and breaststroke (like a frog kick) was my specialty, but it didn't come easily to me underwater, and with fins. Also due to swim training, I have a very rigid breath cycle with frog kicking that I'm working to break. But after a week of very frequent diving, it's coming along, I think, very nicely. Didn't think the FK would be so useful, but I've come 'round.

 

[Krazytomdiver]

As a dive guide,the older I get the less I kick but if I have to,flutter works best. Mastering controlled breathing techiques and mind control seems to propel me just fine.(drift dives)

"living life without a hard bottom"
KT