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Underwater Undulation Swimming - No Fins

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CrabDiver

Member
Aug 5, 2014
2
0
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Hello forum members,

I am looking for tips to improve no-fin undulation swimming. I own a monofin however I enjoy the undulation swim technique without fins. I am looking for tips and techniques on how to improve speed and efficiency. I find it extremely difficult to progress even though I train everyday. My swim feels slow, inefficient.

I swim arms stretched out in front of me like I would with a monofin, and attempt to minimize/eliminate any voluntary knee flexing so as to create an efficient as possible whole-body undulation stroke.

I can swim 25 meters without too much problem.
 
Without fins, I think you have to use smaller and faster kicks to get anywhere.

With that approach, dolphin kick becomes very energy-inefficient, but also very fast (there is a video of Lochte (?) doing 50m that way at a swimming comp and beating everyone who stayed at the surface effortlessly, although of course he got DQed for it).

I doubt there is a way to move anywhere near as efficiently as breaststroke using dolphin kick without fins.

If you're looking for technique tips, competitive swimmers usually do dolphin kick for 15m after turns, so there are lots of videos/websites with pointers from that perspective.
 
You can certainly do an UW breast-stroke pull with a dolphin kick, although it would not be completely an undulation. I used to swim that way frequently when I was a comp swimmer because breaststroke can be very hard on the knees if you are training a lot of it (usually much more distance that even a top level DNF freediver would ever train). There is a natural place for the dolphin kick, near the end of the arm finish, if you finish with your arms underneath you using your tricep muscles (some DNF athletes swim this way and some finish with their arms to the side), which is incidentally the same as a butterfly arm finish, which is where the kick traditionally happens. Watch video of high level competitive breast stroke swimmers at the surface and you will see many of them have a kind of powerful bobbing motion as their arms finish--that movement can become a dolphin kick instead, although it is inefficient for the stroke and against the rules.

You need a very powerful and flexible core, lower back, and shoulders to move well on dolphin kick; strap on a mono and it covers poor technique. If you want to get better at it you probably need to do some sprinting to build power and spend some time doing resistance training. Hanging back extensions on a roman chair to full hyperextension are the old standby, and unless you proceed slowly, have a very healthy back, and/or have done the exercises since childhood, are a good way to injure your back. You don't need to be able to do the exercise with much more than your own body weight. And of course crunches, hanging leg lifts, and lying on your back flutter kicking in the air are all good for the abs. They weren't a thing when I was a comp swimmer, but I find a lot of kettlebell exercises to be excellent for building power in the core and especially hips.

And like Sims said, smaller, higher amplititude kicks are required, and certainly no neck weight.
 
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