Dolphin kicking

[SanderP]

Howdy everyone!

The more I get into freediving the more it bothers me that I can't do a decent dolphin kick. So I'm having a really tough time learning this technique. I've searched in different forums, google etc for tips but I just can't seem to learn that frickin' thing. Sometimes I can do it with regular longfins (at least I move forward a little bit). But without fins I don't move forward at all. My problem is definetly that I can't transfer enough power to my legs. Like Pete says in his article (he also gave me a few tips, thanks Peter!):

"I undulate my body but I don't go anywhere."
Causes: Undulation stalls in upper body, poor follow-through to hips, legs and fin.
Cure: Make huge amplitude undulations, over-exaggerate every stroke. Imagine your body slipping over an imaginary hill. Curve your back and hips over the hill and then arch your body on the other side to drive power to your fin. You should feel a rush of speed.

http://www.deeperblue.net/article.php/124/18/2

Trust me, it's really damn frustrating. My buddy could do it perfectly without fins when we went swimming a few days ago. He doesn't freedive or anything, he said it kind of comes naturally. Just great, made me feel even better...

It's surely more fun to swim that way - even the few kicks in what I suceed sometimes feel really good.

Ofcourse It's impossible to learn it via forum and I just have to keep practicing and concentrate on my undulation... but if you happen to check this thread and have something to say, do it. I'm more than pleased to read your thoughts and suggestions. How did you people learn this swimming style yourself?

Sander

:head

 

[laminar]

Hi Sander,

Two ideas for tricking your body into doing an undulation. Don't worry about being perfect, you want to just feel the coordination of muscles along your body in some way before refining it, since you are having difficulty.

1. Try lying face down with a mask and snorkel. Wear small fins or your long blades. Look straight down at the pool floor, breathing normally. Now press your neck, upper chest, and collarbone into the water, straight down, and release. Your hips should rise out of the water slightly. Just focus on the upper part of your body. Your legs should be relaxed. If they sink beneath you, wear a wetsuit or long john or tie a pull buoy around your ankles to keep them floating. The more your press your collarbone and neck and upper chest into the water, the more likely your hips and legs will rise up and float. Continue pulsing your upper body like I've described, each pulse lasting a second. The pulse doesn't have to be huge, even the movement will only be roughly 3-6 inches at the most. Don't worry about moving forward or even if you move backward. The key is finding a sort of ripple from your collarbone area to your hips and then down to your toes. Gradually, if you keep at it, you'll notice your hips and butt rising slightly out of the water and then falling back in, the your legs rising and falling.

Try this for 30 seconds to 1 minute at a time, starting and stopping to think about what's happening. Try adjustments and experiment. This is a great warm-up for any pool workout with the dolphin stroke, so it's great to learn. It also engages all your core muscles, too.

If it's not working for you, go back to the initial step, pulse your collarbone into the water.

The movement of this drill is very subtle and won't really propell you forward, but it will help you link the chest, abs, hips and legs together in one ripple if you keep at it.

2. No fins. Swim goggles. Stand in waist deep water. Spread your arms apart and launch yourself forward as if there is a hill in front of you, arms in front of you. Dive slightly under the water, then kick down with your feet and angle your body toward the surface. When you surface, bring your feet under you and launch yourself again.

Try launching yourself as far forward as possible while still slipping under the surface and coming back up. Your path through the water should be like a sine wave that's stretched out. It is a lot of fun, just be careful not to dive in too deep!

If you get this, you'll be experiencing the undulation with a modified recovery phase. When you feel comfortable doing it, try it from a breaststroke position or at the end of a breast stroke. Try alternating, breast stroke, dolphin dive, breast stroke.

When this feels good, try doing two undulations each time you dive in.

Drill #1 teaches the subtle body ripple or undulation needed for an efficient and enjoyable dolphin kick.
Drill #2 exaggerates the dive-downkick-recovery motion of stroke and helps develop stronger muscles in your back.

Do you have a very stiff back? Sometimes this can really make undulation difficult for some people.

Let me know if I've explained these drills well enough and whether they work for you or not.

Pete

 

[SanderP]

Hi Peter!

I can't thank you enough. These sound like good exercises and I'm definetly going to try them out tomorrow. As for my back, I don't think I have a very stiff back. I'd say I'm overall fairly flexible.

Thank you again and I'm going to report if I'm progressing (becouse thus far I haven't seen much progress at all).

 

[rslomkow]

My favorite (I used to race butterfly)

I find that it is actually easier for people to learn to do the dolphin kick without fins. Fins make it too easy just to wobble your knees and go somewhere and you don't get the power of the dolphin kick.

The power of the dolphin kick comes from you stomach. It is the bending of the hips and the the straightening them out again that drives the majority of of the power.

The problem is that if the rest of you body doesn't ungulate in time you just fight yourself in the water. I would reccomend practicing in a swimming pool and find anyone who can swim butterfly to help you out. The other hard part about learning this kick is it is really hard to learn with your head out of the water, you need to duck your head under. Once you get it you can do it with a kickboard or up against a wall, but it is very tricky to learn that way.

You bend your body down in a point with your butt at the top, your legs straight and your head down. As you straighten your torso and body your let your knees bend a little bit. You can ignore the arms on this animated gif from the bbc. Hope that helps!

 

[ggarrett]

My favorite (I used to race butterfly)

I find that it is actually easier for people to learn to do the dolphin kick without fins. Fins make it too easy...

That's a helpful little visual.

I always recommend fins to people struggling with butterfly. Fins give enough added power for folks to get the feel of the rhythm of fly. But you're right, one has to drop the fins to really learn.

One missing ingredient that I find valuable for freediving: the glide. Sometimes I will swim a mile of butterfly. Going that distance, I use a different pace. To make it, I glide and relax right after my arms reenter the water. Depending on the day, this relaxed gliding butterfly results in anywhere from five to eight strokes per 25 meters. This pace does not break any records. However, when I return to DNF and use a bit of dolphin to set up my armstrokes, I find that my dolphin kick is very harmonious with the water.

I also visited the sea and swam in it. This dolphin practice gave me a real fishlike feeling while snorkeling. I am sure most people in DeeprBlue have had that sensation. It helped me understand why most freedivers who live on the coasts love constant weight so much. Different strokes for different folks...

Peace,
Glen

 

[pelagicbeing]

Does anyone have any creative suggetsions for conditioning / strengthening monofin muslces dry?

Apart from:

Sit ups
Leg raises
Crunches
leg + arm raises lying on front
Squats
etc...

Thanks

pelagicbeing

apologies if this has been covered before, have searched but couldnt find alot on forum (asisde from AH solomons / emma farrell's articles etc.)

 

[pelagicbeing]

That was 'monofining' muscles..... i have not grown my own monofin yet...but i am ever hopefull!rofl

 

[Tompa]

As a uw-rugby player I use the "dolphinekick" a lot, and it's great for speed! When I try to teach this to the kids in our club I usally let them place their hands in front of the head, keeping them together by locking the thumbs to eachother. The whole movement starts at the fingertips, just roll them up nad down, like your going over a hill as somebody said. Eventhough the whole body is a part of this, allmost all of the power comes from your hips, just as when you swim "one leg at a time". You must use your strenght to gain speed, and at first you probably haft to think about what you're doing, and what mucels you use. As for rugbytraining, we do the same kick, only at the surfas and facing up, this is a great way of llearning to use the full strenght of your legs, as you haft to put some effort in moving the fins down/back, a common movment to "cheat" in... Hope it helped and keep doing laps and i promise you will get there!

 

[SanderP]

Thanks a lot to everyone who have replied! You've been a great help. Now I think I can pretty much dolphin kick with longfins (haven't tried it with shortfins or a monofin yet). It feels great! With long blade fins I can somehow feel my legs better and I can easily transfer the power to the fins (and move forward really fast). I'm still in trouble with no-fins dolphinkicking, but it doesn't matter that much anymore since I'm having a lot of fun swimming with fins.

Thanks again everybody and I'm always open for further tips.

 

[matrixed82]

Hi Sander,

check out the video on this site, the link is on the top right corner.

Might help you to visualize the movement.

 

[laminar]

Hi Sander,

I'm glad that you're having fun with it. That's the most important thing!

Pete

 

[TNdiver]

I have the same problem. I can make it work alright with fins, but dont go anywhere at all with out. Its amazing how much more comfortable i was when dolphin kicking on my ascents. I covered alot more water in shorter time, but just the movement alone was more relaxed feeling than regular bi-finning. I dont know when my next chance to dive again will be, but i plan on working on my dolphin kick in the pool till then. I cant imagine how what the results will be once i get it right, as inefficient as my kick is now (not moving with out fins). One thing that might help is to find some videos, especially people doing dynamics. Most vid's ive found were of people using monofins. Study their form and you might pick up on it a little.

 

[trux]

One thing that might help is to find some videos, especially people doing dynamics. Most vid's ive found were of people using monofins. Study their form and you might pick up on it a little.

You can try checking the Freediving Video Collection - there are hundreds of videos. However, I do not remember seeing any top competitor using dolphin kick with bi-fins. Quite a few recordmans in dynamic apnea use bi-fins (i.e. Tom Sietas, Stephan Mifsud, and many others), but they use them in the standard way, not using dolphin kick. Those who prefer dolphin kick will be much more efficient with a monofin anyway, so it makes little sense doing it with bi-fins. The advantage of bi-fin versus monofin is that you can go very slowly and very relaxed, consuming so much less oxygen over the same distance (although needing longer time). And that's what both Tom Sietas and Stephane Mifsud do.

 

[TNdiver]

I dont remember seeing anyone dolphin kicking with bi fins either, but watching it with a monofin should still help you to see the way its done. I would assume most people would want to get familar and comfortable with dolphin kicking before investing in a mono especially if they dont have alot of money to spare. I think it would be good to watch the bi-finners too though. Theres always something to learn from someone.

 

[trux]

In that case you will find dozens of videos of dynamics with monofins in the Freediving Video Collection. Look for example at Pedersen or Molchanova who are generally considered as having very clean style. Though I believe at Molchanova I have only CWT videos - the style at CWT is little bit different than at DYN.