So much faster with a pull buoy

if you float like this \ you're a drop dead sprinter Guilty! It's kinda funny because my wife teaches swim lessons for kids & adults…she knows not to use me as an example of "how to float". Every time I try to float on my back I sink completely, starting with my legs. :banana:

Do those of you with strong kicks feel a connection between the timing of your kick and the timing of your stroke, or are they independent? I have a somewhat strong kick and when it becomes wholly integrated into my stroke I can definitely feel the connection. It feels like there's less of a load on my arms and shoulders, yet my legs don't feel overworked either. Unfortunately I don't always achieve this while swimming (maybe 40-50% of the time). Also, I swim slower when using a buoy and just pulling.

I float more like this / -&- is very funny, striking resemblence to what I saw this morning. Do you cross over the midline of your body at some point of the pull? The day someone told me my hands crossed at the front was the day that I started to improve (3 weeks ago:)). I've always had crazy legs, but when I first corrected the crossover, I was then able to effectively press the "T" popping the feet up by pushing armpit/chest, and use a 2 kick properly. Result, 40 seconds faster 500M than one month ago, this is with just a moderate effort! Even though it's still slow by intermediate standards (8:50), I'm finally improving. My 50M also dropped 2 seconds to 0:34. I never tried a bouy yet. Breathing will be the next thing for me to fix, I drift at times.

I don't get this at all. I'm a bouy hater. I pretty much just flop from one side to the other like a fish out of water with the bouy. I'm a very small older woman and I can't sink a bouy or a kick board into the water even if I use the childrens' size. Suggestions?

Do those of you with strong kicks feel a connection between the timing of your kick and the timing of your stroke, or are they independent? The less you kick hard (e.g. 2beat kick) the more important this connection becomes. IOW, when you kick as little as possible, these kicks (2 per cycle) must fall at the right time (timing wise). I have a strong kick, but I do not use it in a distance swimming scenario. Although this connection is important even for sprinting, I find it is even more crucial for 2beat kick free style.

Where can you get a band for your feet? My Masters Team doesn't use them? Ram - Of all of the odd things you can use, try a vacuum belt. They make them in varying sizes and they give just enough to get them around the feet/ankles. I get them for the kids I coach. They hate me for it, becaues they work, but it's because they hate me that I know it's doing the right thing - preventing much of any movement at the feet. They are usually only a couple of bucks and very little drag at all. Life is hard enough without adding more drag... I usually go to a vacuum shop, but I think they may even be at a grocery store or Target/Wal-Mart.

There's one thing that I don't think has been mentioned.. Why do you do a split kick?? My guess is because you're off balance somewhere in your stroke and you are naturally trying to counter-balance for it with that kick. Do you cross over the midline of your body at some point of the pull? Do you pull wide somewhere?? Action-Reaction. Some of the suggestions here are valid. Kick smaller and more consistently, better body balance starting with your head and working your way down. Press your body against a wall and get your entire spine to make contact with the wall. Not easy - is it? What muscles are you using to do it? Abs? Lower Back? Probably both. Good swimming posture requires both.. Engage those exact same muscles, now in the water and think about swimming taller and not looking to low or high. You should be able to kick with the tip of the heels at the surface - 2, 4 or 6 beat kick. If the kick is small/tight enough, you can't get too low if your heels are that high. Food for thought..

For me, and it's a repeat of some of the other astute posters above, it's all about head position. If my head is up, as happens in short course crowded 5-second sendoff workouts, my back/butt sags so that when I rotate, there's an automatic fishtail. It's hard to feel, but makes me so "angry" when I can tell, usually happens as I tire out towards the end of a workout. The buoy exaggerates that feeling if you try to keep your legs in alignment, so it makes it easier to feel the corrective action of putting your head down and pushing down a bit with your chest. Personally, spine alignment seems to be the key concept, and kebab seems the appropriate visual metaphor. Good luck, happy laps.

Work on/play around with your hip to chin alignment and swimming downhill. I've tried focusing on raising my butt up to kick. You could just be cursed with muscly and heavy legs which means you're more of a sprinter type than a distance type. Float with no kick: if you float like this __ you're a distance swimmer if you float like this \ you're a drop dead sprinter if you're somewhere between __ and \ you're mid distance. if you float like this ~ you're a butterfly expert if you float like this V you're future is in synchro swimming if you float like this & you're a noodler so move over to the open swim area the last 3 are jokes but the first three came from a coach...doesn't mean you cannot overcome them.. but it takes work.

very interesting thread..so much so that i got a tire tube and wrapped it around my ankles today while pulling. while there was no dramatic "ah ha" moment, when i took off the band and just swam, i was much straighter. i plan to add this to my toy pile from now on. i had a completely different experiece when i decided to take off the pull buoy and swim with just the band. this proved to be fairly impossible. my legs went straight to the bottom. i couldn't keep my feet up for anything. is this something i *should* be able to do and there is something about my stroke that is limiting my ability to do this? Or, are the physics of such a stunt just impossible?