I'm curious as to which is more common -- being slower with a pull buoy or being faster, and why some people are one way rather than the other? Personally, I am far slower with a pull buoy. I attribute this to my natural buoyancy (ahem) as well as having a fairly strong kick when I want to, although I often feel as though I am not kicking very hard, so I'm not sure how much of a factor that is.
Anyway, being slow with a pull buoy becomes very frustrating in practice -- it's hard to keep up with lanemates who I am normally faster than or equal to. Not sure if there is anything to be done about that.
I'm quite slow with a buoy. I have no trouble keeping my legs on the surface of the water, and have a strong kick. Pulling just takes away half of my propulsion, and puts extra strain on my shoulders.
-Rick
As I add equipment (buoy, paddles), I get slower. I'm way faster just swimming. Why do I think this happens?
Buoy: it seems to inhibit my body roll and I swim flatter
Paddles: I am not a "power-driven" swimmer and paddles slow my stroke down too much (as I'm too damn weak to manage the extra resistance!)
I am faster with a buoy because my legs sink and I swim up-hill. I have a weak kick. The buoy get me in a proper body position.
Hmmm, there's probably a linkage here that I'm missing. :dunno:
I am much slower with a pull bouy. If I wear paddles and in shape, I'm about the same speed, sans toys.
I think it is because I can't rotate as I do without. My kick is mostly used for body position or timing, not propulsion. Oh well.
I use a pull bouy to focus on my underwater pull, not for interval training.
I'm just about as fast if not faster at a normal practice pace with a pull bouy because I rarely kick during sets. At a hard/semi race pace where I actually engage the size 15's, then the pull bouy slows me down a tad, but only by about 3-5 seconds per hundred. I also drop about 2 strokes per length at the same time without the kick, go fig.
I love pull sets, my coaches never believed in them and felt they cause injury so we were really never allowed to use them. Now that I practice on my own I find some days I do some pretty heavy pull sets. The only problem with it is that I start to lose the thing after about 200m and I have to stop and reset it.
I'm just about as fast if not faster at a normal practice pace with a pull bouy because I rarely kick during sets. At a hard/semi race pace where I actually engage the size 15's, then the pull bouy slows me down a tad, but only by about 3-5 seconds per hundred. I also drop about 2 strokes per length at the same time without the kick, go fig.
Me too (except my feet are a lot smaller). I find it puts my legs in the correct position without me actually having to do any work to keep them there......which is why I loved my legsuit for distance free :(
Don't use a pullbuoy. If I want to do arm pulls, I just do. Legs trailing behind. (not sinking.....). I naturally ride high-ish.
Yeah, that's the interesting thing... if I don't kick at all, my legs *do* sink. So, I either end up using the pull buoy (and being way behind my lanemates) or blowing off the drill and just swimming. Maybe I need a buoy with very low flotation... does any such thing exist??
The poll results are also very interesting to me... so far, lots of people both slower and faster with buoys (but more who go slower than faster) -- but most people not saying that their speed changes "much."
For some reason, I had expected that there would be few if any people in the "speed unchanged" category.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who responded. It's good to know I'm not the only one out there who goes (much) slower with a buoy, but I'm still not sure if it's something I should be worried about.
As I add equipment (buoy, paddles), I get slower. I'm way faster just swimming. Why do I think this happens?
Buoy: it seems to inhibit my body roll and I swim flatter
Paddles: I am not a "power-driven" swimmer and paddles slow my stroke down too much (as I'm too damn weak to manage the extra resistance!)
I think both of these may be true for me as well, although I tend to avoid paddles for fear of shoulder injury.
