Freestyle - Swimming With Fins

Sure, fins can be used for all strokes, but today, let's just focus on using them for two types of freestyle.

Why do it:
Swimming freestyle with fins can do a couple things, first, it can allow you to grab a bit more glide out front and get some great feeling of water flowing past your body with less work than normal, and second, it can get you at or above end of season race pace at just about any time during the season.

How to do it:
1)  Swim some smooth freestyle, and even with a gentle kick, the extra push you'll get from the fins will allow you to stretch a bit more out front.
2)  Don't focus on how you're kicking, but rather, how the water passes your body and look for the spots of extra resistance.  The lower effort at just a bit higher speed will create a bit more resistance from the water and allow you to find those key places to clean up.
3)  Throw in some high intensity sprints, using a very strong kick to force the front end of your stroke to keep up.

How to do it really well (the fine points):
Have goal times for your sprints... don't just try to swim fast.  A good example would be to break some sort of record, or your best time, in practice from a push off rather than from a dive.  This will show you how to hold your head, body and how to attack with your arms when it all comes together at the end of the season.  Remember, either easy, or intense, fins can really add a nice new dynamic to your training.