Freediving Training Tips – No Fins Freediving
No Fins Freediving or Constant No Fins (CNF) is considered the hardest discipline in freediving , and it is, especially when your technique is not great.
You dont need to practice in the sea to work on your No Fins technique. Actually you should NOT practice in the sea.
The swimming pool is the best playground for training no fins. And the good news is that you dont even need to hold your breath while you do so.
-If you dont have any basics of breast stroking, take a couple of swimming lessons from a good breast stroke swimmer, he/she will be able to give you a lot of pointers and exercises to practice in the swimming pool.
-Once you understand the are the proper movements to perform, spend hours to practice, swimming on the surface only.
-Breathe through your snorkel while you practice, no need to hold your breath and make it harder for yourself.
-Perform many lengths only using arms (breast stroke) and then other lengths while only swimming with your legs.
-Most people struggle with the right leg stroke technique, so make sure you get it right before you spend hours learning and practicing a bad technique. It is really hard to unlearn mistakes!
-Once you feel confident about both strokes, put them together and work on the right timing and the gliding phase.
-Count how many strokes you need to complete a pool length, then work on minimize the amount of strokes; this will force you to improve your technique and your gliding phase too.
-Proper stretching exercises might be necessary; especially for shoulders, hips, knees and ankles flexibility.
Here below a short demonstration of the leg stroke training you can do in the pool.
Only once your technique is improving, it is time to work on your DNF (Dynamic No Fins) or to move in the open water and practice some vertical no-fins freediving.