Dolphin kick for horizontal.

[Perry15]

I have been practicing my dolphin kick doing lengths at my local pool.
I've done 50 meters on one breath. I feel i can go longer, it's just I lose a lot of energy because i find when i dolphin kick i descend as opposed to going straight. Any tips?


Although when i get into depth free diving i will be happy with it. hahaha

 

[madprops]

if i were you i would talk to your roommate, that guy is great!!!! did you know he used to be a swim coach:t

i'm guessing he is in the room across from you just waiting to tell you what your doing wrong. i thought i herd him talking about going to the pool today. maybe if you ask him really nice he might help you

but you know i could be wrong it was just a feeling

 

[Perry15]

Yeah, i think you might be on to something. haha

 

[Kars]

Preferable you have one of those digital uw camera's you can have yourself filmed, it's likely you'll notice many things you can improve. My wild guess is on your shoulder and upper back flexibility.

The second option is to be observed by a capable coach.
Show your coach examples of good monofinners, so he'll recognise more differences and get a better understanding how monofinswimming works.


Shoulder flexibility and monofin technique:

What you can do on that is to take a little float, hand on the edges, a (monofin)snorkle and do 15 min of surface monofinning. Alternating speeds between medium and sprint, focus on striating your legs followed pushing your hips and back up. Keep the head down to have room for 4 fingers between chin and chest. Do the first lanes a slow to modest speed to find, tune and get a feeling for your technique.

Another exercise would be to swim on the surface on your back, holding an pound (or two) of weight in you monofin posture arms. While swimming try to keep the legs under water and push the middle back down. The weight will help to stretch you shoulders and back.

When you swim monofin underwater try to have powerful smaller undulations and imaging pushing your arms and shoulder forward instead of downward.

Have a correct weight setup, breath in the right amount. Are you horizontal and neutral at your dynamic depth?

That's all for now, this should be helpful.

Love, Courage and Water,

Kars

 

[Perry15]

Thanks Kars, I'll definitely put these tips into action.
Is dolphin kick the best technique? I find it's the most relaxed.

 

[Erik]

Thanks Kars, I'll definitely put these tips into action.
Is dolphin kick the best technique? I find it's the most relaxed.

Check out some monofin vids!

 

[mermaidgirl]

just for conditioning, I dolphin kick a 500m with a kickboard as part of my regular workout. Then put my mono on and do my pyramid sets. I rotate different sets to alleviate the boredom; fin, no fin, finswimming with flip turn ,etc.

 

[ahofbauer]

Hi there!

Some fins, monos as well as some stereos,
have the uncanny ability to push You
down. It seems to be something related with
the angle, but I´m not sure about it.
Try another kind of fin...maybe You are not
the problem.