Swimming

Pool Tools: Less Is More

by Terry Laughlin

Make no mistake about it. You can become an excellent swimmer with nothing more than your own body, a swimsuit and some smart coaching. No accessories necessary.

But there are plenty available. They supposedly work like weight machines of the water, letting you isolate muscles you need to work on, then bear down on them with concentrated training. It’s true that virtually everyone uses them, but this is one of those cases where most folks just have the wrong idea about what these training aids really do. So let’s give them a critical analysis.

Of all the elements that make up the hard-to-define gift known as “swimming talent,” the most valuable is kinesthetic awareness — gifted swimmers just know how to work with the water to achieve less resistance and more fluid movement than other swimmers. “Average” swimmers can unquestionably heighten their own kinesthetic awareness, which will produce more improvement, more quickly, than anything under the heading of “work.” The most commonly used training tools have two drawbacks: (1) they encourage you to focus on effort, rather than efficiency; and (2) they actively interfere with your ability to improve your kinesthetic awareness. Finally, for developing swimmers, there is also the issue of prioritizing precious pool time for activities that have the largest value. Drills and mindful swimming practice help you swim better immediately. Buoys, boards and paddles simply don’t.

Just Say No to Kickboards
The main idea of kickboard training is to get your legs in shape for kicking harder. And why would one want to kick harder? (1) Because you feel your legs sinking, (2) To swim faster, or (3) To burn more calories or fat. But (1) balance — taught by drills — is what keeps your legs afloat. And (2) the ideal kick for fast, fluent swimming, is one that harmonizes seamlessly with overall body movement. Finally (3) the best way to burn calories and fat is with easier swimming for longer periods. The truth about kickboards is they contribute absolutely nothing to your efforts to improve your freestyle, whether you’re just learning or are training for a national championship. The flutter used on a kickboard — with arms, torso and hips rigidly locked in place — is so different from the kick you use when swimming that kickboard training does nothing to help your body move efficiently through the water. Ditto for “conditioning your legs.”


Because your legs move so differently when kicking on a board than while swimming, the only thing a kickboard really trains you for is kicking with a board. If you ever enter a race that involved pushing a kickboard up and down the pool, then kickboard sets would make sense; otherwise, it’s a waste of time. If you want your legs to be “in shape” for swimming, the relaxed side-kicking you do while practicing drills I’ve been teaching conditions your legs to do exactly what they need to do when you swim: stay relaxed. You are dispensed from using a kickboard ever again.

Lose the Buoy
Pull buoys have one central drawback: They fool you into thinking you’re balanced. Swimmers like them because they support your hips and legs, allowing you to feel better and swim faster. The problem is that using it never teaches you how to stay balanced without the buoy. As soon as you remove it, that sinking feeling is right back and you’re no better off than before. Want to feel better without the buoy — permanently? Balance drills, keeping your head in line with your spine, swimming “downhill,” and swimming with Fistgloves® produce lasting lessons in how to stay balanced while you swim.

And as for the idea that training with a buoy strengthens your pull by overloading your arms, in fact, it does just the opposite. The artificial buoyancy of the buoy underloads your arms — no training benefit at all. Moreover, using a buoy can actually hurt your stroking power, because power doesn’t come from the arms; it comes from core-body rotation. Buoys are likely to inhibit your body roll, interfering with your rhythm and power. Fortunately, once you do learn balance, putting on a buoy should feel all wrong, which will soon discourage you from using one.

Smart Hands Are Better than Dumb Plastic
Hand paddles are popular because they make you feel as if you can move a lot of water powerfully. But unless you have a perfect stroke, muscling the water with paddles is a good way to hasten shoulder injury. And if you’re lucky enough to avoid injury, once you take them off, you feel like you’re trying to row with a Popsicle stick. What could be good about that?

For intelligent hands that help you work with water like an artist, consider Fistgloves. They have proven so indispensable as an aid to teaching “fishlike” swimming that we give a pair to every student at our weekend workshops. Fistgloves turn any swimmer into a problem-solver and the solution you come up with will help you hold the water like never before.

By squeezing the hands into a tight, latex-wrapped fist, Fistgloves turn a broad, flat surface into a rubber nub. On first use, your hands slip helplessly through the water. But gradually, you find your grip, largely by learning to be more patient and attentive. With practice, gloved-swimming will gradually come to feel almost “normal.” Measure how much control you’re gaining by counting strokes per length.

The real magic happens when you peel the gloves off. Suddenly, your formerly ordinary-feeling hand seems dinner-plate-sized and holding on to the water turns out to be a piece of cake. The simplest way to use Fistgloves is to wear them for the first 20 to 25 minutes of every practice, whatever you may be doing during that time. Every lap will help your balance and finesse. When you take them off you’ll swim with far more intuition the rest of the way. Or you might wear them for 20 minutes, remove them for 10, then put them on again for 20 minutes and swim without them for 10.

Fins as a Learning Aid, Not for Temporary Speed
The most common use of fins I’ve seen is by those who want a dose of instant speed. With fins on, they swim much faster. But, as with buoys and paddles, they’re a temporary and artificial aid that helps you swim easier or faster while you have them on — but the effect disappears as soon as you take them off. Wearing fins to be faster is like wearing platform shoes to be taller.

When used this way fins often interfere with your ability to develop a fluent, relaxed, efficient stroke into a reliable habit. Short-bladed fins, in particular, are specifically designed to make you kick faster than you would with full-blade fins. And the faster your legs move, the faster your arms have to move to keep up. And that’s precisely the kind of thing a smart swimmer wants to avoid.

There are exceptions with fins though. They can be very helpful to anyone whose rigid ankles make stroke drill practice an ordeal. Using fins to preserve your energy and allow yourself to focus on smooth, more controlled movement is an aid to mastering skills. For the most part, even if you use fins judiciously to improve your drill practice, it’s best to take them off as soon as you shift to whole-stroke swimming. And a full-bladed (but not scuba) fin is best for this kind of practice.

Two things you can say about swim training aids: You don’t necessarily get what you pay for, and an idea that sounds good on paper or in ad copy doesn’t necessarily make sense to your body. The simplest “pool tools” seem to work the best. And never forget that the simplest of all remains your own body.

This article was excerpted from Triathlon Swimming Made Easy. For more information on the book or Fistgloves visit www.totalimmersion.net. Have questions on swimming? Send them to Terry Laughlin (totalswimm@aol.com) of New Paltz.

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