I reckon I was about 5, maybe 6, when I was learning the breast stroke & frog kick...
Rick
Rick
Poll: Where were you (first) introduced to the frog kick (mastery not required)?
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OP
Crush
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I reckon I was about 5, maybe 6, when I was learning the breast stroke & frog kick...
Rick
Me too. I've always found breast stroke easier/less tiring than any stroke involving a flutter kick. Starting with my OW checkout dives, I've always switched back and forth between flutter and frog, depending on my mood and how I'm feeling at the time. I'm generally not diving in conditions where silting is a problem, or if I am, I'm usually not close enough to the bottom to worry about it. I haven't been "formally" introduced to helicopter turns (since you mentioned it) but that's my self-teaching project, I think I'm currently at functional but inefficient and not graceful.
Hank49
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I learned like Rick M. Doing the breast stroke at age....7? in a pool.
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Rototilling isn't a function of kicking style ... it's a function of trim, and of performing your kicks properly. I've heard it said many times that split fins inherently kick up silt. That's not entirely so. It's true that they make silting easier ... and that a part of that is inherent in how the fin is designed to function ... but it's not due to the fin, it's due to how the fin is used.
By far the most common reason for silting is poor trim ... divers who dive in a diagonal position, and who keep themselves slightly negative to compensate for the fact that every kick sends them slightly upward. These divers will rototill no matter what fin they're using. Divers in good trim can also silt with any fin if they allow their fins to get outside of the slipstream ... and due to the ease of kicking in a pair of splits, this is more likely to occur in splits than blades. But it doesn't need to. Divers who are aware of what the slipstream is, and who maintain a proper flutter kick within it ... or who use a modified flutter kick by bending their knees and using more lower leg and ankle to make their kicks ... can use splits and a flutter kick just fine without silting. I know many divers who routinely do ... even here in Puget Sound where it's easy to stir up silt with little more than a stray thought.
Focusing on proper trim and an effective use of kicking technique are what reduce or eliminate silting. A frog kick has some advantages over a flutter under a lot of circumstances ... mainly because it is a "glide" kick that offers three phases ... load, power, and glide ... rather than the two phases ... load and power ... that one gets from a flutter kick. But those same phases make a frog kick inappropriate under other circumstances ... where a glide phase is either undesireable or completely useless ... kicking into current, for example.
The effective diver has a number of tools at their disposal that include both frog and flutter kicks, as well as helicopter and back kicks for those who need to turn and move around in tight spaces.
Ironically, a kick we spent a lot of time on in OW class was the dolphin kick ... which I don't think I've ever used since that class ended more than 11 years ago ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
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Crush
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When I use a conventional straight-leg kick and am swimming within a foot of the bottom I silt, even if my trim is perfect. If I use a frog-kick in the same situation I don't silt.
Well, Bob pretty much covered what I was going to say, except this -- when I started diving with Bob, the two things he changed rather quickly with me were my trim and my kick. But it wasn't to a frog kick; he left that for my Fundies instructor to do (I think he had some inkling of how difficult it was going to be). It was to a small modified flutter with the knees bent, which pretty much solved my silting problem from then on out, except when my buoyancy control had me bouncing off the bottom.
I did a dive the other day with a fairly novice diver. But he had put some thought into moving weight and he was nicely trimmed in a horizontal position. He was using a small flutter, or a modified flutter kick (depending), and at the end of the dive, I said to Peter (who was also with us), "You know what was really nice about that dive? No silt!"
Silting is a function of water velocity and direction, and there are a number of ways to correct it. Frog kick is only one of them.
Funny, I've used the dolphin kick several times during dives and always get asked about it on the boat afterward. I just assumed everyone used whatever kick would work and switch them up to keep from cramping, like I do. I'm beginning to realize that's not the case. I fairly routinely switch from dolphin, to flutter, to frog in any particular order where I won't silt. I try to exclusively use frog kicks when I'm close to the bottom or anywhere I might silt a lot.
Learned how to do it between age of 5-7.... Never was introduced to it as a tool for scuba (that I remember). SB has enlightened me to its use in scuba. Been looking at videos (you-tube), and will be attempting if/when I get pool time, or in some summer diving.
aquaregia first introed it to me during our scientific diving class in 2010. I thought he was nuts and relied on it only because he had an atrocious flutter kick (which at the time may or may not have been true; there was video proof somewhere ).
It wasn't until I tried swimming the 900yd in Jet fins for my DM tryouts (a few months later). I gave frog kicking a try and didn't like it, probably because of my surface technique.
Eventually I started experimenting with helicopter turns and back kicks. As I was getting those down I started diving more in a GUE position, and the frog kick just became a quicker and more ergonomic way to kick forward. So hence somehow I just pick up frog kicking.
). It wasn't until I tried swimming the 900yd in Jet fins for my DM tryouts (a few months later). I gave frog kicking a try and didn't like it, probably because of my surface technique.
Eventually I started experimenting with helicopter turns and back kicks. As I was getting those down I started diving more in a GUE position, and the frog kick just became a quicker and more ergonomic way to kick forward. So hence somehow I just pick up frog kicking.
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