What swim equipment is useful to improve performance?
There are many swim tools and toys available in the swimming world. Some are favoured more by triathletes than by pure swimmers and vice versa. In this blog, coach Jon looks into the equipment that can help you improve your triathlon swimming performance.
There are three ways to improve swimming performance:
Improve your swimming technique
Improve your swimming fitness
Improve your open water skills
Most of the equipment we will talk about today will help you improve swimming technique and swimming fitness depending on how you use them. We will cover pool-based equipment today, so we won't cover equipment to specifically improve your open water swimming skills.
A quick caveat to using swimming equipment - some of the tools we will discuss today - namely: paddles and fins add an extra load to your joints and muscles. Make sure you are thoroughly warmed up before using them, introduce them slowly and gradually increase the amount of time you are using them. Many senior coaches suggest no more than 25% of a session should be done with any single item of equipment. Swim equipment is excellent at helping you pick up the correct technique but, if used incorrectly, can lead to injury.
Fins
A pair of swimming fins can help develop power in your leg kick and help with swimming drills by providing extra propulsion. If you have particularly stiff ankles using fins can also help to develop good ankle flexibility. You can get away with kicking with poor form with fins, you'll still move forward. Therefore, it's especially important to make sure you kick with good form - kick from the hip rather than the knee.
Technique:
Strapping on a pair of fins can help when performing technical drills, such as sidekick, 6-1-6, 6-3-6, and UNCO. The added propulsion the fins offer is a huge benefit for beginners as you can spend less time worrying about sinking and more time focussing on perfecting the drill technique. Using fins shouldn't be seen as 'cheating', but as an aid in your swim stroke development.
Conditioning:
Kick sets with fins can help develop both speed and strength.
Speed - try some short sprint kick sets with fins on such as:
25m sprint, 25m easy with a kickboard
Strength - 'Tombstone drill' - Turn your kickboard vertically up and submerge half of it under the water - you now have a huge wedge of resistance to work against. Kick hard against the board for half a length then switch to normal kick.
Paddles
There are many paddles available of different shapes and sizes. Generally, the bigger the paddle, the more resistance you will be working against. Some paddles are tailored more to the technique and catch dynamics improvement rather than conditioning. Each paddle is designed to help you work on slightly different elements of your stroke. For example, FINIS have 6 different paddles available in their range. Conventional paddles work on the assumption that if you create a larger surface area for the hand to work against it will help you develop a greater catch and feel for the water. However, overuse of large paddles with poor technique can rapidly lead to injured shoulders. They might also slow your stroke rate down to an unrealistically low rate, with your swimming then being limited more by technique than brute strength. Beginners may be better off starting with finger paddles. They force you to focus more on catching with the entire forearm and not just the hand.
Technique:
Paddles can help you work on your 'catch' and get a good 'feel for the water'. Any weaknesses in your catch will be exemplified by wearing hand paddles; some paddles are designed to let you know you are pulling through the water incorrectly by simply falling off your hand if you are not applying the correct pressure through the water.
Practise your sculling drills with your paddles on; you can even try unstrapping your fingers. If you keep a constant pressure on the water, the paddle won't fall off. Adding a single paddle to your hand during the UNCO drill can be a nice addition to your technique work. Adding one paddle and one fin to the opposite limb for Criss-Cross drill is a great way to work your cross-chain core muscles.
Conditioning:
Once you have spent sufficient time perfecting your catch with paddles, you can begin bringing them into your conditioning sets to strengthen your shoulders and lats with the added resistance. Paddles can be used in any swim set, often with a pull buoy and a band. Try alternating between using paddles and swimming without paddles such as:
8 x 200m
Alternating:
200m steady with paddles, pull buoy and band
200m Hard
Take 30 seconds rest between 200s
Pull Buoy
A pull buoy between your legs helps raise your hips and allows you to work solely on your freestyle pull whilst adding an extra training load to the upper body. Many triathletes become over-reliant on a pull buoy; try to avoid this. It is generally less challenging aerobically to swim with a pull-buoy, and it is easy to mentally switch off and disengage your core muscles. Overusing a pull buoy can lead to de-training. It is also important to emphasise good rotation as it is easy to flatten off your stroke when using a pull buoy.
Technique:
Using a pull buoy alone can help you focus solely on your pull and catch without the distraction of kicking your legs. A pull buoy can be a nice addition to drills in the same way as fins. For drills like doggy paddle or sculling, use a pull buoy to keep your legs up and allow you to focus on the movement of your hands and arms.
Conditioning:
As we saw with paddles - pull buoys work well together with paddles in conditioning sets to add extra emphasis to the upper body and core. You can also try moving the pull buoy down between your ankles; this is a tough core workout as you work harder to keep the stroke balanced and the float in place.
Ankle Band
Ankle bands can be easily fashioned from an old inner tube; these are simple pieces of equipment that can bring some extremely challenging swimming drills into your routine. Securing your legs together with a band eliminates your ability to kick, which causes your lower body to sink. To maintain a horizontal position, you'll be forced to increase your stroke rate and focus on using your upper body and core strength to keep moving forward. As with all these tools, use a band with caution. Using a band improperly or too frequently may promote poor technique. The difficulty of keeping a horizontal body line through the water without the help of the lower body may cause some swimmers to 'muscle their way through the water, leading to snaking along the pool in an attempt to avoid sinking. Beginners will want to start by using a pull buoy alongside their band to give them a chance at keeping their legs up in the water. If a band is too tricky, simply crossing your ankles offers a very similar challenge.
Technique:
As you can see in this video, the key to keeping your legs up with a band is technique. Your stroke rate needs to be increased, and your core needs to be engaged, any dead spots in your stroke will cause you to slow down and subsequently drop your legs.
Conditioning:
Band work is best done over short distances. Sprinting sets work well with a band as the band forces you to keep the stroke rate up.
Kickboard
Kickboards tend to divide opinion across coaches and athletes alike. Many coaches favour sidekick or kicking on the back, with or without fins. Kickboards can force beginners into poor body positions by raising them up at the front end and causing their legs to sink. However, used correctly, using a kickboard is a great way to strengthen the core and develop power in your swimming.
Technique:
Aside from isolating your legs and focussing on your kick, kickboards can also help with your stroke. If you're aware that you cross the centre line with your hands, then practising a catch-up style drill where you reach for the edges of the kick float is one way of working on a wider hand entry.
Conditioning:
Kick sets can focus on endurance or speed. Mix up a bit of both into your sessions.
Central Snorkel
Snorkels allow you to keep your head still and forget about turning your head to breathe, like fins; this allows you to focus on technique when swimming full stroke or performing drills. Keeping your head still helps with alignment and stroke symmetry too. Some swimmers throw their body out of alignment when they roll over to breathe, the snorkel alleviates this problem. Wearing a snorkel can also highlight whether you are moving your head (even if you think it is staying still); just get a coach or friend to watch you swim head-on; they'll soon spot any head movement if the snorkel is swaying side to side. An added benefit of using the snorkel is that you can watch your hands move through the water without needing to roll your head away to breathe.
Technique:
Snorkels can help with any technique drill by allowing you to keep your head still. Try performing an UNCO drill with a snorkel, then repeat without the snorkel to see if you can hold the same form. Negating the need to move your head to breathe means you can try out different head positions. Maybe you normally swim with a high head position; try looking down towards the bottom of the pool a little more whilst wearing a snorkel, or vice versa.
Conditioning:
Snorkels can be worn for long endurance sets to allow you to focus on holding proper form throughout without having to worry about timing your breathing. Try an alternating set of endurance swim with repetitions with and without the snorkel of your choice of distance. Snorkels can also be used during kick sets with a kickboard to allow you to keep your head down and hold a strong body position.
Drag Shorts
Drag shorts are a simple piece of kit that can be added to your pool based swim sessions. As the name suggests, they add drag, adding resistance and therefore extra load to your swimming sessions. They generally add about 5 seconds per 100m to your pace. They won't improve your swimming technically but will help build strength and power into your stroke. You don't have to keep them on for the whole session. If you wear them over the top of your regular swimming costume, you can simply slip them off towards the end of a session to enjoy the feeling of being fast and strong through the water.
Tempo Trainer
A tempo trainer is a small device that emits an audible metronomic beep under your swim cap. The beep can help you learn to pace your endurance efforts, time your rest intervals and help you work on your stroke rate, rhythm and timing.
Technique:
A tempo trainer is a perfect tool to help you understand your stroke rate. Used in 'mode 3' whilst swimming naturally, tweak the bpm of the tempo trainer to match your current stroke rate, time each beep with each hand entry of your stroke. You can then gradually increase or decrease the tempo of the beeps to try swimming at slower or faster tempos. Practising keeping in time with the beeps helps to hold rhythm in your stroke and alleviates dead spots.
Conditioning:
As an alternative to using the pool clock, a tempo trainer can be used to time your conditioning sets and recovery intervals. Used in 'mode 1' the trainer will beep at 25m intervals, aim to hit the wall in time with every beep to hold a continuous pace through your conditioning sets. As well as being a great motivator, this method of training helps to improve your pace control skills. Pace control is vital when it comes to race day; nearly every swimmer starts too fast and then slows down – by pacing things correctly, you will perform much better overall.
The future of swim equipment?
All of the pieces of equipment we have discussed today are fairly rudimental. More technological gadgets are gradually making their way into the swim kit bags of triathletes:
Form goggles show you real-time data that a normal sports watch would show as you swim, allowing you to keep a much closer eye on your pace and intensity level.
Sensarii is developing a power metre for swimming which will enable you to see where you are applying force through the water in your stroke. This will allow greater clarity and depth of swim technique analysis and, in turn, help you improve your stroke with greater knowledge of what is happening beneath the surface.
Swim smooth stroke insights uses an apple watch to give you a brilliant picture of what your stroke actually looks like and also provides feedback on ways you can improve your stroke.
In summary, there are a lot of tools out there that can help you improve both your stroke and your fitness. However, no one piece of equipment is going to dramatically improve your swimming. Use tools sparingly and always bear in mind the purpose of the piece of equipment you are using. Are you using it correctly and getting the most out of it? For more great tips on swimming drills, check out our YouTube swimming drills library.
Jon has been coaching with his local triathlon club in Hertfordshire around his full-time job as an airline pilot for several years. Unfortunately, Jon lost his pilot’s licence for 11 months in 2019 due to being diagnosed with testicular cancer (read his story here). He used the time off from flying to complete his Level 2 and Level 2 BTF diploma qualifications as well as a L3 Personal Trainer qualification. With his new coaching qualifications under his belt, Jon was able to join Tri Training Harder as a coach in 2019. He has now recovered from cancer, started flying again and is training hard for the coming triathlon season.
Jon has a flexible approach to coaching and training, from his own busy lifestyle he knows how to balance training around family, friends and social commitments. Jon loves to utilise the knowledge gained on his Personal Trainer course and finds incorporating well-structured strength and conditioning sessions vital to triathlon performance.
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