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Welcome to Scuba Diver Magazine.
My name is James and I am Scuba Diver Magazine's man in Miami.
I am a professional diving instructor and also a digital content creator and Scuba Diver
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To help make you a better, more well-informed diver.
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What we're going to do in this video is follow up the first video in our basics lesson, which
focused on fins and fin styles.
We're taking a look at finning techniques and the different styles of finning that are
out there.
Seemed logical to us.
So what we're going to do is break down each different finning style, how we do that particular
type of finning, and what scenario that style of finning is best useful.
And later in this video, I'm going to be showing you the one finning style, if you can really
call it a style, that no diver should ever use.
But first let's talk about propulsion in general.
So propulsion or finning is one of the four core skills that every scuba diver needs to
have down pat in their arsenal of skills.
The other three being breathing, trim, and buoyancy control.
Now each of these core skills is interrelated.
If your finning is bad, it will throw off or have a negative effect on your buoyancy,
your trim, and your breathing control.
For example, if you are sculling a lot with your hands to get extra propulsion because
your finning isn't very efficient, that's going to throw off your trim, that's going
to cause additional drag, which is going to mean you're going to need to work harder to
propel yourself through the water, which is going to cause you to breathe heavier, so
that throws off your nice, rhythmic, slow, gentle breathing.
And if your legs are in a bad position or you're out of trim, as you kick, you may ascend
or descend, which is going to throw your buoyancy control out of whack.
So a proper finning technique is absolutely essential for the proficient scuba diver.
Now let's break it down and have a look at each individual finning style in turn, starting
with the flutter kick.
The flutter kick is probably the first style of finning that you learnt, and the reason
for that is because number one, it's the easiest to get a handle on, and number two, it feels
the most natural or the closest to regular swimming kicks.
The key to a good strong flutter kick is to point your toes, stay strong through the ankle
and knee joints, and drive from the hips and thighs, keeping your legs straight and your
fin tips pointed out.
That's going to give you the most efficiency in each fin kick cycle.
When should you use the standard flutter kick?
Well, as I said, it's probably the most popular kicking style and the first one that you learn,
and it's good for all basic open water diving scenarios.
But it is also the fastest finning technique, so if you need to get somewhere, i.e. in an
emergency, it's definitely the technique you should use.
And when performed correctly can also be strong enough to give you a headway into a current.
Now because of the great big motion that's involved making a good, strong flatter kick,
it's not the most controlled of propulsion techniques.
So it's generally not preferred by photographers who want to hold a very tight position or
technical divers in overhead environments.
And that brings us to our second style of finning, which is the frog kick.
The frog kick is by far and away the style of kicking most preferred by technical divers
because they're carrying a lot of bulky gear and the frog kick, when done effectively,
is a very powerful propulsion tool.
And I'm seeing more and more recreational divers out there on the reefs being taught
the frog kick, and this is only a good thing.
I firmly believe the more tools in your toolbox, the better.
The kick is executed, as the name suggests, like a frog, by opening the hips, pushing
the knees out, and then drawing the knees and the fin blades inwards.
This allows very tight control of the diver's body position in the water.
So if you only, for example, have a very short distance to go because you want to get your
camera into the ideal focal length, then the frog kick is absolutely the best technique
for you to use.
It's also the easiest kicking style in which to brake.
You simply flare your fins out to the side, and that will kind of slam the brakes on and
hold you in position in the water column as well.
Again, great for photographers, great for videographers that want to get that steady
shot.
Now whilst being one of the stronger and more controlled styles of finning, it's probably
not the fastest, but then again, when is scuba diving ever about being the fastest?
Next up, we have the modified flutter kick.
Without doubt the modified flutter kick is the least efficient kicking style that we're
going to present to you today, but it serves a specific purpose.
Now, as you can see here, it really doesn't give you a great deal of propulsion.
You're moving incredibly slowly through the water column.
But what you are doing is controlling the amount of kick up your fins are producing.
So if you're in a silty overhead environment where the risk of a silt out is very real,
then this is absolutely a useful kick style to have in your arsenal.
The modified flutter is executed by, instead of flexing the thighs and the hips as you
would for a regular flutter kick, instead flexing the knees and the ankles to produce
kind of a flicking motion that gives a slow but steady propulsion.
Next up, we have back finning.
Back finning, as the name suggests, is a technique by which the diver can reverse back out of
a tight spot.
Back fin technique is very similar to the frog kick, but in reverse, in which the fin
tips are thrust backwards into the water column, and then the knees are flared, brought out
to the sides and slightly forward, which creates backward momentum.
The important thing here is to keep your ankles locked throughout the move to create resistance
against the water column and your fin blade.
So ladies and gentlemen, that brings us to the one kicking style you should never be
using as a certified diver, and that is the bicycle kick.
Yes, unfortunately I see too much of this in newly qualified divers and it's really
a shame.
As I said before, it's going to have an effect on your trim, your buoyancy, your breathing,
and that's going to lead to you having shorter and less enjoyable dives, which is really
a bad thing, especially for newly qualified divers.
When I see certified divers out in the water with really bad finning technique, I want
to go up to them and ask them to go back to their open water instructor and ask for their
money back, because really they shouldn't have passed if they hadn't mastered the very
basics of which finning is one of them.
It's really bad technique.
It's going to cause you to expel a lot of energy with very little result, which means
you're going to burn through your tank faster and your dive's going to be shorter.
Everyone these days seems to have either a housing for their phone or a GoPro or some
other kind of action camera.
Absolutely recommend that as a tool to have your buddy film you and have a look at your
finning and have a look at your body position in the water and see if there's areas that
you can improve.
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So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen.
That is my complete guide to finning techniques and when each of the different kick styles
should be used.
Don't forget to make your next dive on that subscribe button.
So you don't miss any more content from Scuba Diver Magazine.
Again, my name is James, and if you'd like to see more content from me, I'll put a link
to my channel, Divers Ready, in the description of this video down below.
Let me know in the comments below, what was the first kick style that you used?
Which one do you find the easiest or which one do you find that you end up using the
most?
And are there any particular kick styles that you're trying to work on?
So just here I'm going to put a playlist of all my other content on Scuba Diver Magazine's
YouTube channel, and just below it I'll let the YouTube algorithm pick whichever video
of ours is best for you.
Until next time, my name is James Scuba Diver Magazine's man in Miami.
Dive safe, dive often.