Snorkels... Do you find them a help or a hinderance?

I will be asking santa for the FINIS snorkle this year. There's some drills this will allow me to concentrate on, like viewing my hand entry and catch, and head-up free with dolphin kick. I love my snorkel, but I cannot imagine how a snorkel will help you with either of those ideas. A snorkel is great for working on head position, because when you are not turning your head to breathe, but are instead always looking down, you have no excuse to vary your gaze and thus you can't fool yourself about how still your head is or isn't. But with your head in the right position, your hand enters well above your field of view. Likewise for kicking on your front, the value of the snorkel is that you can kick with your head down, not up. Pulling with the snorkel is a great way to focus on using the oblique abdominal muscles to roll the torso from armpit to armpit. To keep the water out of your nose, you just have to remember to breathe in through your mouth and out through your nose. I took a few weeks to master that skill but once I did I had no more water-in-the-nose problems. A woman I swim with who swam in a D-I college program says her team used snorkels a lot.

I recently started using the Finis one when I switched to a different age group team. I love mine. I have to use a nose clip or I take in water through my nose, however. I love the feeling of concentrating on my stroke more. I use mine to really work on my rotation and entry.

I love my snorkel, but I cannot imagine how a snorkel will help you with either of those ideas. Your probably correct with the first idea then. But on the second drill my face enters the water each stroke and I have to hold my breath. The snorkle might let me breeth throughout so I can master the drill.

If you use the FINIS snorkel, you are generally getting LESS air than before. Especially if you put on the flow restrictor. I like them okay. Breathing really changes your stroke, so it is nice to take it out of the equation and work on other aspects of technique. It tends to make your stroke more symmetrical so if you have a weak side, this can help. (Breathing to your less-dominant side would also help.) I also like them for controlled/recovery swimming. Since the airflow is restricted, it forces me to control my speed and not go too hard. I know some swimmers and coaches who lavish praise on snorkels. I think I remember Paul Smith saying they are his favorite piece of equipment.

I love to use my mine. I have a problem with my head position when I swim. By using the snorkel I can concentrate on keeping my head down and my shoulder roll. Overall I think it is a great tool when you add some paddles and bouy.

I will be asking santa for the FINIS snorkle this year. There's some drills this will allow me to concentrate on, like viewing my hand entry and catch, and head-up free with dolphin kick.

I love my Finis snorkel.I use it regularly in warm up and recovery swims.Taking head movement out of the equation makes it easier to concentrate on other things in drills too.

great for drills esp one arm drill. also good for kicking without board.

I use mine in at least 1/2 my workouts, usually in a pulling set with just paddles. Anytime you can train and restrict the flow of oxygen I think its a good thing...as long as you can do it efficiently and safe. It takes some getting used to but I can go as hard as my lungs can take and not choke on water, etc. I'm pretty relaxed and used to it now. The only thing I don't like about it is how it feels like its crushing my forehead after 10 minutes (you need to adjust a bit regularly).

Like Chris I use a Finis snorkel, it does restrict airflow and you generally will go a bit slower when using it. It allows one to concentrate on stoke mechanics without the breathing cycle getting in the way. Our masters team is based out of the University of Denver (DU) and both the division one college team "The Pioneers" and the USA swimming age group team "The Tops" use the Finis snorkels extensively in there practices. Also of note, multiple world record holder, DU masters swimming coach and owner of Swimlabs, Michael Mann is a very regular user of the Finis snorkel in both pool practices and sessions in his Swimlabs Endless pools.