What Swimmers Need to Know About Fins

For most swimmers, there are two primary reasons for using fins.

The first is that they provide extra resistance—they’ll make you work harder and strengthen proper kicking movements. The longer the blade of the fin, the more resistance it gives.

The second reason is that the extra surface area provided by the fin provides extra propulsion. This is great when you’re trying to isolate and other movements, such as your catch and pull, and don’t want to have that sinking or stalling feeling while you’re working on your technique.

With these things in mind, here’s how to choose what fins are right for you and learn the best ways to use them.

Size Matters

When choosing fins, it’s important to think about how flexible and strong your legs are, especially your hip, knee, and ankle joints. If you’re new to swimming and come from a sports tradition such as running or cycling, you might assume that because your legs are strong, you should choose a longer fin. Swimming, however, requires much more than just strength; your joints may not be used to the flexibility demands of a proper kick. Starting out with a medium-blade fin is a better way to go—you can always move up. Note: Avoid super short fins, which have their place but won’t serve a beginner as well as a small- to medium-blade fin.

Speaking of size, fit is just as critical as length. Fins that fit poorly can cause sore spots and discomfort. You can opt for using scuba booties to bridge the gap between sizes, or socks to prevent rubbing, but there’s no substitute for proper fit. Unfortunately, this is mostly a matter of trial and error.

Why, How, and When to Use Fins

Some of this may seem obvious but for the novice swimmer, a little knowledge goes a long way. Put your fins on while sitting on the edge of the pool with your feet in the water or standing in the shallow end—don’t be that swimmer who tries to walk on deck with fins on. Once you’re in the water with your fins on, here are some ways to develop and strengthen your kick.

• Kick sets—One thing that many novice swimmers tend to do is kick at the water by initiating the kick with their knees and pushing the water back with the tops of their fin blades, in an almost bicycling motion. In most cases, this results in no forward motion or even backward motion. To propel yourself forward (and strengthen your lower core), initiate the kick at the hips and let the movement travel down your legs a whip-like motion from hips to toes. You should feel the effort in your lower abs and back, glutes, and thighs. Keep your legs long and strong, but your joints flexible.
• Underwaters-—New swimmers often notice how far many accomplished swimmers are with streamlines and dolphin kicks. These are great skills to work on with fins—they strengthen your core and legs and provide a good way to work on dolphin kicking technique. Using fins as a novice swimmer gives you not only a physical boost but a confidence boost as well. As you develop your skills, you can work on transitioning to being proficient without fins as well.

Fins as a Training Aid

Fins are great for strengthening your kicking movement, but they can also be used to improve your overall swimming ability. Here are a couple of uses that will make a huge difference for a novice or developing swimmer.

• Avoid that sinking feeling—Fins help you by providing propulsion when you’re doing drills or trying to focus on your catch. This prevents you from rushing through a drill or being so focused on not sinking that you miss the purpose of the drill, or can’t focus because you’re struggling to move forward. Fins will give you propulsive force and allow you to work on just one or two things, rather than all of them at once! Swimming is a complex combination of movements and being aware of where your body parts are and able to make subtle changes is a lot easier with fins.
• The need for speed—In order to swim fast, you must swim fast. It seems obvious, but how to swim fast as a beginner? Fins give you extra propulsion and allow you to feel what it’s like to swim at faster speeds. Because swimming is technical and nuanced, when you feel what speed is like with fins, you start to make micro-adjustments to your stroke, your body position, and the way you kick to search for that fast feeling.

Key Takeaways

Fins are like any other training tool. To get the most out of them, be thoughtful with selection and when and how you use them.

The first is that you need to select fins that are right for you. How are your strength and flexibility? Start with a medium-bladed fin and work into longer models. Strengthening a movement is good, but strengthening a bad movement is bad.

Pay attention to your kicking technique. It should come from the core and not the legs. Strengthening movement is one of the primary uses of fins so as you level up, take it slow.

Use fins or drills and isolating other technique movements. This will allow you to concentrate on movements that enhance your catch and pull, as well as your position and speed.