Monofin Style... Hydrodinamics vs Comfort.

[Polorutz]

Hi, I recently started joining the finswimming team training sessions as part of my freediving training... I use the finswimming part of the training to develop my cardio and basically to improve fitness so heres my subject of discussion...

Today we did mostly style exercises (sp?), where you have to improve the position of your arms and where you have to kick fluently... etc...

So as the coach corrected me on several ocations I managed to aquire the proper posture for my arms... above mu head and close together... lust like pedersen in his 200m video... however it is a non-natural posture and it's kind of hard to maintain after a while... we did other drills but one was particularly interesting... we call em (pardon the pun) beavers... you do 4 kicks in apnea under the surface, resurface, take one breath then repeat, we did series of 200 meters... and the difference in kick efficiency with the good posture is a noticeable one.

So... I am now thinking about working hard on my posture for my dinamics even though I know that arm posture will not help my relaxation...

any comments?

[efattah]

I always found that diving in a non-hydrodynamic position (but more relaxed) allowed me to go deeper/farther. But it's just me.

[jome]

The classic finswimming posture is uncomfortable for most peope in the beginning. However, if you stick with it for a while and train that way, it becomes second nature.

This style takes some getting used to, it won't feel comfortable, relaxed and right for most people in the beginning, but you can find comfort in the fact that it will eventually.

I have found it useful to train in a way, where I swim slightly faster in training than I would on a normal dive. For example, on a competition dive, I might do about 32s for 50m. So in training, I will try to keep it around 28-29s. This kind of "over training" results in the slower speed feeling actually very relaxed and easy.

The key thing in using the classic finswimming style is the speed. It is the fastest strategy to dynamic I know. Typically with bi-fins, you would go, what, under or around 1 m/s? With "relaxed" monofin style, maybe 1-1.5 m/s. But with the classic style, optimum for a fit male seems to be around 1.5-2 m/s.

This style seems to suite especially the athletic type with good muscle fitness and maybe a background in other sports than diving. It makes the dive fast, short in time, and physically demanding. So for someone with a background in say sprinting or swimming etc, it feels familliar. You don't have to struggle with the sensations of long apnea, just sort of plow through it. A world record class dive can be over under 2 minutes! Just the thought of Tom or Stephane swimming for 4 minutes would feel very uncomfortable to such a person, and in fact often the "classic swimmers" are not very good in static (with exceptions, of course)

Someone with a different background may find other strategies more suitable for their needs.

As far which style is ultimately the best? Well...Some very long and deep dives have been made with "bad" technique, as well as the classic style. And the longest dynamics with bi-fins...In my opinnion, they're just different styles that require different strategies...But of course crappy technique is always crappy technique, but what I'm talking about here is a monofin technique that is efficient and well developed, but is not the "classical style".

[oferdegi]

Hi Polorutz!
I've been practicing with a finswimming group for a couple of months now - it was very strange for me too at the beginning. I think it will become second nature if you stick to it - just do a lot of stretching, focusing on shoulders & upper back, & a good warmup & cooldown. Now I'm also in between, alternating both styles & trying to bring the advantages of one into the other. I think that if you stick to the classic style for a while, even your "relaxed" style will benifit from it, and when you get stuck and feel too rigid in the classic, do a bit of "relaxed" style, trying to capture that fluid feeling & bring it back to the classic. It's really a win-win situation.
You can also exaggerate the classic posture by crossing the hands over (easist to do when holding a kickboard) - afterwards the normal posture will seem relaxed.
Enjoy!
Ofer

The drill where you do a few u/w strokes, surface, exhale/inhale & continue is pure fun, isn't it? It really makes you feel like a marine mammal.

[efattah]

Personally I'm unaware of any deep constant weight dive (>92m) done with 'good' style. All the videos of Herbert, Guillaume, Carlos & Martin show a modified 'relaxed' style of swimming.

Anyone know what the deepest dive is, so far, with 'good' style? What style does Timo Jattu use?

[OceanMan]

Ok for deep divers Eric, but let's not forget Pedersen and Stig Severinsen.

Pedersen did 85m I think in constant weight. It would be interesting to know if his style was the same for CWT and Dyn.

[jome]

I wonder if "good" technique is unsafe for extreme depth? Because it requires big flexibility and movement of the upper torso, would it make one more at risk for lung squeeze? Wouldn't sound too far fetched...?

[Walrus]

It's fairly clear for dynamics, tight streamlining is the best if going fast with a monofin. The small amount of energy it takes is nothing compared to the energy you are expending kicking. The benefits of streamlining more then make up for the extra energy used in your arms. You just need to practise it and it will become much easier.

In constant however there is a long glide phase, could be compared similar to doing a static. In a lot of cases having a tight streamline may stop you from really getting the heart rate down and getting maximum dive reflex at the bottom. There is also fatique, even with a monofin the constant dives are nearly double the length of a dynamic. Whatever you do I think it's definitely worth learning classic finswimming technique, for dynamic it works, for constant you can always modify it. I trained with a finswimming club fo a year, it hugely helped my dynamics and diving. True for constant I have much more 'sloppy' technique there is more leg kick and less tight streamlining.

Cheers,
Wal

[Polorutz]

Very interesting... eric I think Natalia Molchanova has almost perfect style and has he WR for women.

[DeepThought]

There is also the lung squeeze issue, maybe there is more risk in that posture than when going on a sled in a restful posture. Only people who have encountered that problem can testify to it.

If one doesn't actively kick all the way down then speed is reduced and therefore resistance from the medium is reduced in some exponent (compared to the speed reduction). Maybe it just not as beneficial wasting O2 for that amount of speed increase.
I would expect that on the way up a classic posture would be of much more benefit though. Maybe upper body muscles can not get as vasoconstricted as the legs and therefore it is a form of O2 management?