Most kicks have their uses but unfortunately all too often the only kick taught is a flutter from the hip and divers aren't taught how to get trimed horizontal.
Some advatages to a flutter are that it requires little room side to side and you can get constant thrust (there is no neutral or load part of the kick cycle).
Some disadvantages are that when done as often taught (streight legs from the hip) water is pushed up and down as well as back. That means that a diver can stir up silt even when they are well above the bottom. The problem is even worse if the diver is trimmed head up (as is so typical). I've seen divers 15 feet off the bottom make a terrible mess below and behind them without ever being aware they were doing it. The high vertical hight of the kick also places the feet and lower leg outside the divers slipstream which help to eat up thrust gained from the previouse phase of the kick. The kick can be modified to be less distructive and probably more useful by assuming a horizontal, knees bent position where the fins never drop below the line formed by the horizontal divers mid section/knees.
From that position the diver can switch from that modified flutter to a frog, reverse frog or helicopter turn without any change in posture. BTW, part of a reverse frog amounts to putting on the brakes...you can use the kick to slow, stop or move back. Using a foreward frog with one foot and a reverse frog with the other will quickly pivot the diver (a nice tight turn) to any degree desired.
All of that can be done an inch or so off the bottom without stiring a thing. A good way to practice is to place your fist at about your breast bone and move different directions over something like a training platform with the bottom of your fist just skimming the platform and no other part of your body touching. go foreward, back, pivot, hold ect. If any part of your body other than your fist touches then you aren't horizontal.
To take it a step further, ascending and descending in the same position allows the most control over movement in all directions. by frog kicking foreward or backward as you ascend or descend you can maintain a constant distance from your buddy while looking at them through the entire ascent/descent. movement up/down is made primarily through buoyancy control. A quick frog kick provides the thrust to get in your buddies face immediately to respond to a problem. by contrast if you are ascending/descending head up as people are often taught, you must change positions in order to swim foreward...hence buddies drifting apart or into eachother and unable to move together quickly enough to respond to a problem if they needed to. To look up, simply look over your shoulder. If you feel the need to go vertical a few feet below the surface then do it but through the rest of your ascent it's your buddy you need to be looking at and NOT the stars (as most are taught) especially when you're still down deep.
Putting into practice some of these techniques will give you control over you're movement and position in the water that you probably never even imagined. Someone should put it in a class or something!
There are other kicks like the dolphin that I haven't found much use for.
, I've found that the frog kick is somewhat similiar to the kick used in the breaststroke.
