Fist Gloves?

I think you can get the same effect by just making fists yourself, and that gives you the option of "cheating" two strokes away from the wall so you can still practice your turn. That said, sometimes new "toys" help motivate...

I was wondering - why does fist swimming force you to swim with the right technique?

I have a pair of Fist Gloves, somewhere in my house. I haven’t used them myself for a while, however every now and then I’ll take them to the pool for others to use. As Swimlong mentioned, you can get pretty much the same results from swimming with fists without the gloves. There is a slightly different sensory feel with the gloves on, but the drill is the same. However, if you can do fist drills without the gloves, then save your 10 bucks. And to Dima, fist swimming does NOT force you to swim with proper technique. Only you can force you to swim with proper technique. What fist swimming does do is work one aspect of your pull. Think of your arm as having 3 distinct pulling surfaces (the hand, the forearm and the upper arm). Each surface area needs to catch, pull, push, exit and recover. Fist gloves (and fist swimming) are used to reduce the hand surface and allow you to focus on the other 2, just as swim paddles are designed to increase hand surface so you can focus on your hand motions and strength.

Fist swimming really helps you get a feel for the water once you open your hands back up. More importantly it can help develop the awareness in swimming with your forearms, and not just the hands. We usually do a set of 50's with a mixture of drills before starting each main set. I think the fist drill with a deliberate catch up is probably the best one. When your hands open back up they should feel like you're wearing paddles.

I use fistgloves fairly regularly. I think that they help ME in the following ways: 1) Aids forearm propulsion as mentioned by others. 2) Helps correct body balance in the water since you can't really use your arms to hold you up. 3) On days when my arms are really shot and/or my osteoarthritis kicks up in my right AC joint, they allow me to get a decent workout in without stressing my arms/shoulders too much. 4) Better than plain closed fist swimming because you don't have to tense your muscles to keep your fists closed - especially hard for me since I've had some of the fingers of my right hand broken several times working with horses and I can't easily close them. I really like fistgloves. -LBJ

I measured my hands, ordered a pair of fistgloves, began to put one on, and ripped it like a cheap balloon. I don't know if I did something wrong or if I ordered the wrong size (I ordered the largest & I don't havebig hands). I do fist strokes every paractice.

Thanks for all the feedback! For the time being I'll incorporate some fist strokes into my routine and see how those work out.

Originally posted by craiglll@yahoo.com I measured my hands, ordered a pair of fistgloves, began to put one on, and ripped it like a cheap balloon. I don't know if I did something wrong or if I ordered the wrong size (I ordered the largest & I don't havebig hands). I do fist strokes every paractice. It's recommended that you lubricate your hands with hair conditioner before putting the gloves on. I do this, and have never had any problem.

I have started to just do some fist swim drills during workouts that are supposed to include vertical kicking. The pool I swim at is not deep enough for vertical kick drills so I usually try to use that "yardage" to work on improving my form. I can see where the deliberate catch up would be a good idea. I really needed to get up on my side in order to get a good breath between strokes. They seem to be helping me with the dps and in lowering my stroke count.