I like them, you can feel what it is like to swim faster but i was told I would benefit more from paddles than any amount of fin or pull buoy work (23 min mile swimmer)

They said lose the fins, get the paddles

a big advantage of using fins is that when doing drills, you have a bit more propulsion, therefore are a bit higher in the water and your position is closer to your normal position when you swim normally, so it ease the transfer.
note that this is true for both slow swimmers and elite swimmers. I was lucky enough to swim in the pool where many top swimmers were getting ready for the olympics in 2000, (runaway bay sport center, there was popov, klim, huegill, petria thomas etc...)

many of them including fins to do drills, just to have enough speed to make it more like "real swimming"
although I have seen popov doing 30'' 50m kick sets with no fins...so not sure what the extra propulsion is.

so, yes, fins are a useful tool for swimmers,...just need to know what you are using them for.

as you stated, fins can help improve ankle flexibility. they can be useful in developing top end speed and identifying spots of resistance that can be eliminated. as francois pointed out, they can be helpful in learning drills and in getting a novice to achieve a more balanced position.

so all that is great, but i think their use as a training aid for a triathlon is marginal. you're much better off swimming or pulling like you do now. you can go faster with the fins, but it won't help you race any better.

brent

Fins magnify the sensations from your feet.

So if you're like a frined of mine who lurks here, and your feet don't seem to do what they are supposed to. Or they are all out of rhythm, the fins help you to realize what is going on.

They are a proprioreceptive aid. Most people don't have a really good understanding of what their feet are doing down there. So the fins can certainly help that part of it.

I agree on this, as long as you stick to fins design for swimmers. some use diving fins, work a lot on them and then realize they have no stroke at all...
bummer! :-)

however, as BrentL said (and if L is Lorenzen, we can surely trust him for swimming advice...) there are more efficient ways to get faster in the water.
personally, I'd use fins only in the off season, if I want to do a lot of drills...

Fins are used to allow you to go faster than normal and work on stroke mechanics at the speed you want to go. Only use fins for drills, and only while you are learning the stroke. Once you have the stroke mechanics down there is really no reason for fins, and are probably a hinderance to really developing your "real" swim stroke. Too many people get used to them, as with paddles and bouys, and can't let them go and move on to the next level - real swimming without aids.

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"My strategy is to start out slow and then peter-out altogether" Walt Stack

I've been swimming competitively for 30 years, with a 5 year gap right after college, when the "fin movement" snuck in. I remember showing up at a masters program after my hiatus and wondering if I'd shown up at a SCUBA 101 class by accident. I've been puzzled by it ever since. I find fins marginally helpful for swim drills (like some of the other posters said, to keep your speed up) and VERY theraputic the day after a long run to get my weak ankles all sorted out. Then again, swimming in general seems to be very soothing to my legs after long runs. Other than that, they only seem useful (IMHO) for weaker swimmers to keep the pace during swim sets. Even if they did help strengthen your kick, in triathlon, I use my legs mostly for balance and rotation anyway (especially during wetsuit legal races).

Fins can be a useful tool. Just don't let them become a crutch you can't swim without.

As for paddles, they can teach you something about your stroke, but can also massively screw up your shoulders. Use only under the direction of a coach or coach-like person who knows what he/she is doing.

I am neither a swim stud or a coach. But I did try out a set of Zoomers today. I was doing drill work, and I noticed that in order to move fluently forward while swimming, I had to straighten my leg, and use more frequent and smaller kicks. It was pretty crazy actually. The interesting thing is that when I took them off after my drill work, and just swam, I had a completely different feel for the water. I also cut my stroke count down from 17 to 15 per length. I'm not sure if they are going to help much or not, but after today I am definitely going to use them regularly when I drill.

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"What the mind can conceive and believe, the mind and body can achieve; and those who stay will be champions."