The swim portion of training is important so that you know how to use your arms while on the surface either to help with speed and/or control to get into position or for recovery by swimming back after a score using your arms so that you rest your legs. And I'm sure there are lots of other reasons that don't need to be detailed here.

But while working with an instructor on technique be sure to get kick help. You can use several different kicks not only within a game but within one drop or one run with the puck to make you more effective. This becomes even more critical when you are using stiff fins as any flaw in your rythym or techinique may cause you to expend more energy for less result. And the last thing you want to do is expend energy to get you going only to have your bad technique counter what you just started. You may need to get going with one kick and then ease into a different kick before cranking that up to full speed. And really the best way to figure this out is experience so do a bunch of underwater lengths experimenting with different kicks.

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Just in case you weren't sure, it's official -- CMAS sucks.
Oh yeah, and now they're broke.