It's not easy to choose fins when you are a beginner. Should you choose short or long fins? It's always the same dilemma…We are going to explain how to best choose fins for greater effectiveness and less difficulty during your swimming session.
Foot pocket: part of the fin designed for fitting your foot. The swim fin's foot pocket will ensure foot support when kicking. For effective leg kick, support is essential. It is therefore essential to take time to try on fins before buying them!
When trying on fins, you must also check foot fit inside foot pocket and that as little as possible of the foot remains uncovered to prevent water entry.
Our advice: prefer a shoe size above your usual size because your foot can swell during physical exercise.
The blade: it's the part of the fin that is an extension of the foot pocket.
Short: it ensures good kicking frequency and makes aerobic workout more demanding. The movement is very close to the "natural" movement and helps to focus effort on core stability and doing a abs-glutes workout. The Nabaiji Silifins are perfectly suited to this use!
Long: it ensures greater physical effort and a more intense glide feel during use. An amplified kicking movement will then be felt. It requires muscular strength and generates full leg workout. Nabaiji trainifins are therefore more suitable.
Our training equipment product manager, Gilles recommends you do a more sweeping kicking stroke during your swimming session to maximise effectiveness. Best to start movement from your hips than from the knee!
To intensify leg workout, don't hesitate to make use of a kickboard. If you feel a slight irritation, it will be no doubt be due to the foot pocket's rubber. Why not use a latex sock to feel more at ease!
The stiffer and longer the blade, the greater the physical effort required. And therefore the greater the speed.
The speed can also teach us: a very stiff fin with very strong thrust enables "overspeed".
Speed also helps to improve coordination between arms and legs.
Gilles gives us a few tips on when to wear fins:
"First of all, TRAIN without fins by doing a few lengths! Otherwise you risk "overheating" your muscles too quickly.
To start training, I recommend using "short" fins because more lightweight and very flexible. For women, who are seeking to tone their legs, Nabaiji's short Silifins fins are the perfect accessory!
There is much less thrust than with longer blade fins. They enable swimmer to put emphasis on speed and frequency rather than power. The physical exercise is centred more on the aerobic than on muscle strengthening."