Kicking my feet......and going nowhere....

[Walter]

I can't believe you are trying to teach someone to bicycle.

Straighten your legs and you'll get much better results.

 

[Nay]

I'm pretty new too and the problem I have is I'm not 100% sure if my legs are straight or not. I have splits so the frog kick doesn't do much for me. I'm trying to get the modified flutter with my things in line with my body and my knees slightly bent but I end up swimming down when I do that. I'm still fighting my buoyancy so much I can't really get a good position in the water to get my kick right and I really have no idea what kick I'm doing.
Because the flutter is so efficient with my bio-fins, I'm also finding I can't swim very slowly so I end up on top of someone, at the head of the pack or past whatever it was I wanted to stop and look at.
Guess I need to get back in the water and keep trying.

 

[ArcticDiver]

Ok,I seem to be having trouble(no, I am having a heck of a time) trying to keep my legs str8 when I'm kicking my feet....and yes I have the fins on.I keeping kicking like I am riding a bike,help would be greatly appreciated.

Never had trouble with fins once I discovered that it doesn't matter whether your legs are straight or bent. What matters is whether you are "pushing" water with the fins. So, on one stroke the right foot will push water with the bottom of the right fin while the left foot pushes water with the top of the left one. On the next stroke the right foot pushes water with the top of the right fin and the left foot pushes water with the bottom of the left fin. And so on, for alternating strokes.

So, I sometimes swim with knees straight, sometimes with knees bent as I feel like it. But always I can feel the water pressure on either the top or bottom of the fin depending on the stroke.

When on the surface I just about always swim on my back but still follow the alternating stroke idea.

Give it a try. Bet once you feel the water pressure you won't have any trouble either.

 

[Bretagne]

I do not know if it would help you, but my finning is better if I concentrate about the hips movement, feeling the legs move starting from the hips, and I do not think at all about the rest of the legs.

 

[Garyra]

Ok,I seem to be having trouble(no, I am having a heck of a time) trying to keep my legs str8 when I'm kicking my feet....and yes I have the fins on.I keeping kicking like I am riding a bike,help would be greatly appreciated.

I am no expert but I have found that if I do not point my toes I wind up bicycling. Sometimes, I have to sretch before I get in the water so that I can do this. Another thing that I have learned is that if I am kicking correctly, I will gently rock from side to side along my centerline in the water. When I notice that my body is not doing this relaxing roling motion, I know that I am bending my knees too much and focus on the kick that I want to achieve.

One of the hardest habits I had was bicycleing on the surface. During my recue diver class, I was having a horrible time plaing out the victim and getting them to float. My instructor had watched my kick at the bottom and couldn't figure out what the problem was. He wound up watching me for a bit under the water and found that I tend to start bicycling as soon as I break the surface of the water. I suppose it is a carry-over from so many years of treading water without fins. To break the habit, I simply have to remember to point my toes toward the bottom.

 

[saintsfan]

my only problem I have with them is in heavy current they dont seem to move very fast.I dont have any problem keeping up with any other style of fins and for the most part seem to move easier

I've never used them either, but we were diving this past weekend, I with my Avanti Quattros, a friend with Jets, and another guy with splits. The guy with splits could run off and leave us at will. They sure looked faster from our perspective, which was from the rear...LOL

 

[TiB]

hrrmm... not sure if this will help, but even before I signed up for scuba lessons my favorite has been the dolphin kick XD Makes me feel like a mermaid or a fish....


or a dolphin I suppose

 

[getyasum]

Could be all the above and it could also be a bouyance problem!!! I watch new divers all the time working their butts off and going nowhere. Once u gain control of the neutral bouyance thing at every and any operating depth, swimming becomes almost effortless

 

[scubarn0203]

Thanks 2 everyone for the tips........I finally got it,I just concentrated on moving from the hips........and presto I could feel myself moving easily through the water!! Even my instructor said "now that's more like it".................lol