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I have followed this line with interest. Seems the questions are: Is Fin Swimming useful? Is fin swimming alone enough for cardio fitness? Swimming is something I know a fair amount about. Having been to college on a swimming scholarship and continued in the Masters swimming program; presently training for long course nationals in Fort Lauderdale in August 98. I have been nationally ranked in the "mile" or "1500" (depending on the meet) several differnet times for my age groups since then. Any ranked swimmer does some fin "swimming" at times (we call it fin training) as part of their overall workout. Go to any age group or college swim team workout in your area and you will observe this. No swimmer does all their training solely with fins. Is fin swimming useful? of course. I've currently let my coach know the diving I do so he adds some parts to my workout to strenghten my legs with fins because of my diving (Jackson Blue dives swimming are certainly more fun as a result) He also has me doing 200- 500 yards underwater swimming with fins ( I like to use the long Mares fins for this) trying to go as far as I can on each breath. "Regular" swim fins are much smaller then "scuba" fins. Any swimmer catalog has them for sale, i.e. World Wide Aquatics etc. Underwater swimming with fins is much easier at the beginning of a workout than after the sprints at the end. I suggest you try both ways and also compare between short course (25 yds/meters) and long course (50 Meters). But I'm not a coach. I'm just the person in the pool doing what I'm told. Working with a coach is the best way to progress. Let your coach know your specific needs and he/she can tailor your workouts accordingly. Will fin swimming alone develop your cardio fitness? Not unless you work hard and for long workouts. I guess you could fin hard 3500 yards every day and build yourself up. But why would you do this all the time anyway? Trying to get better at swimming in Jackson Blue I have done some pretty "stupid" workouts in retrospect - like 5000 yd fin swims (mostly underwater trying to go 50 yards on each breath), but my coach and boredom has convinced me there is better ways to skin the cat. Swim workouts that are structured are a mix of warm ups, stroke drills, fin drills, sprints and cool downs. The length, of course, varies with your goals. If you want to get good swim workouts join a Masters team or get a coach. For those of you in areas without teams, there are alot of coachs that will give you workouts on line now. San Diego Masters have their workouts, (three different levels) on line and they'll customize. So do alot of the other "big" masters teams. Susan -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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