Can anyone suggest drills to help me swim as fast without a pull buoy as I do with one?
I work hard at practice 5 days a week and make incremental gains every so often. But my improvement over the past year can't compare to the amount I improve when I grab a pull buoy.
So - I need to be working on my body alignment? Keeping my legs high in the water? Strengthening my abs? I try to work on all of those things but I would really appreciate any drill or workout ideas.
Thanks!
I just posted a response in this thread. You might find my post helpful with this question.
It may not be that you are kicking too little when you swim. Sure you might not be kicking A LOT, but you're not kicking when you are pulling either, right?
So what's the difference? I like to think about this the way doctors think about practicing medicine. To paraphrase, the kick should first, do no harm.
The pull buoy will often help a swimmer move faster through the water because it will lift the legs out of the way, helping to reduce drag. This is the most obvious benefit. The less obvious benefit is that the buoy helps you form a tighter axis in the water, thereby allowing you to rotate more freely.
Try having a friend watch you swim underwater. Have them note how low your legs are in the water when you swim and when you pull. Also have them check to see how far you are splaying your legs when you kick. Often, weak kickers will use a 2 beat kick as counter weights to their arms. When that happens they create more drag, inhibit rotation and give no leverage to the pull.
One of two solutions is likely to help you. Either you will need to work on body balance like what Total Immersion promotes (there are many discussions on here about how to do that) or you will need to work on kicking with a smaller tighter kick which allows you better rotation and reduces drag.
I just posted a response in this thread. You might find my post helpful with this question.
It may not be that you are kicking too little when you swim. Sure you might not be kicking A LOT, but you're not kicking when you are pulling either, right?
So what's the difference? I like to think about this the way doctors think about practicing medicine. To paraphrase, the kick should first, do no harm.
The pull buoy will often help a swimmer move faster through the water because it will lift the legs out of the way, helping to reduce drag. This is the most obvious benefit. The less obvious benefit is that the buoy helps you form a tighter axis in the water, thereby allowing you to rotate more freely.
Try having a friend watch you swim underwater. Have them note how low your legs are in the water when you swim and when you pull. Also have them check to see how far you are splaying your legs when you kick. Often, weak kickers will use a 2 beat kick as counter weights to their arms. When that happens they create more drag, inhibit rotation and give no leverage to the pull.
One of two solutions is likely to help you. Either you will need to work on body balance like what Total Immersion promotes (there are many discussions on here about how to do that) or you will need to work on kicking with a smaller tighter kick which allows you better rotation and reduces drag.
