Correct paddles and buoy for you!

My last post on improving swimming received some excellent questions about the choice of paddles and buoy that really does warrant its own dedicated post.

Paddles first -

There's a huge variety out there - concave, flat, round, cut-away, triangle, and my personal favourite old-school option: the "Chopping Board" (yes, an actual plastic kitchen chopping board with a wrist strap - a 1970s swimming staple that still has a place in my toolkit today).

Most athletes assume paddles are primarily about building strength in the water. This is partly true - but that's not the main reason we use them.

The correct paddle for an athlete depends on what their stroke is actually doing underwater. The only way to determine this accurately is to watch them swim. I'm looking at arm turnover, body position, body type and size, kick pattern (2-beat vs 6-beat), whether they have a good press (what most call catch) at the front, whether they're pulling their hand out before finishing the back end of the stroke, and their mechanics through the whole pull phase.

Different paddle shapes are used to correct different stroke faults - without the athlete having to consciously think about what their hands are doing. The paddle does the correcting for you:

• Hand crossing over or swinging out wide? Specific 'cut away' shaped paddles change the path of the hand.

• Pulling out early before finishing the stroke? Concave paddles 'hold onto' the water making it harder to pull the hand out early.

• Neutral stroke? Flat paddles without cut-away let the hand continue in its current path.

• Missing the catch and press at the front? Chopping board paddles.

Paddle size should be just slightly larger than the hand - enough to feel the water, small enough to maintain turnover. I see it all the time, especially with male athletes, they grab the biggest paddles they can find, muscle through the water, and feel fast. But take them off and there's zero transfer to race day. All they were doing was leaning on the paddles and letting them do the swimming.

Now the buoy-

Much simpler. Bigger is better. More flotation is better.

The vast majority of buoys you'll find in shops or at your local pool are too small, they provide maybe half the buoyancy needed, and even less for larger male athletes. I want maximum flotation, close to what you'd experience swimming in a full 5mm wetsuit. If you're still feeling the need to kick to keep your legs up while using a buoy, the buoy isn't big enough.

As for whether these are "just" age group tools, my professional athletes use buoys and paddles too. Some pros do 100% of their swimming with a buoy. All of them use one during recovery swims. The energy cost is lower, heart rate is lower, and the recovery swim then does exactly what it's supposed to, promote circulation and help the body recover from the harder work earlier in the day.

Robbie

Trisutto Director of Coaching at Trisutto

Coaching enquiries

All other enquiries robbie@trisutto.com