Pull buoy swim (Page 3)

Sure, but how many times do you need to feel good balance to remember what good balance felt like? It's a foreign sensation that without anything to compare to can't really be easily discovered, so a pull bouy can help feel it, as can some other tricks I use in lessons.

I will hold peoples feet during drills and easy swims during their first several lessons and even suggested that they use the ladder or steps into the pool to rest the tops of their feet on, face down and just float in a horizontal position. The only movements involved are to get taller (gently squeeze legs together, gently move armpits forward lengthening from the shoulder blades).

While I'm holding their feet for them, I'll bring their big toes together and place them on the palm of one hand, then ask them how much pressure was on my hand. Sometimes we have to do it 2-3 times. It's never a sensation of more than a soup can weighs. And that's how much their legs weigh at the tips of their toes... 1-2 pounds max, usually far less. A pull bouy gives significantly more flotation than that, so the body balance isn't learned, and the swimmer can get away with a lot of destabilizing forces up front that the pull bouy will tolerate, but that can simply make things even worse without.

In my experience people don't need to do this very long before they find a sensation they want to repeat with first a simple pushoff, then 3-5 strokes, then 6-8 strokes with 1-2 breaths. Then come back, relax & balance & repeat the sequence again. I think it prolongs the learning curve to swim laps if the proposal is to learn what balance feels like. It just doesn't take long to feel it, learning to execute it may take longer than a few seconds, and without guidance from a coach or experienced swimmer making real time suggestions with real time feedback, it can be very frustrating to figure out on your own.



Regarding the singles vs homerun analogy, I think what I described above breaks it down even more. Stance, grip, bunt, swing, swing, swing, repeat stance, grip, bunt, swing.... keep building and building and reducing the amount of time needed to find the feeling, then practice the feeling in full stroke. Lose the feeling? Ok, practice again, but as soon as you feel it, try to swim it.

Swimming with the pull bouy when you know what balance feels like is swimming with a pull bouy for a different reason than not knowing what it feels like.

I'm not opposed to using it. feelign good balance doesn't take mile long pull sets or even 200 yard pull sets. 30 seconds float & exhale with a pull bouy in your ankles. Then swim 3 strokes without, using legs to respond to rotation...beginnings of a 2 beat kick but just separating the legs to balance rotation.

TO each their own, but this is how I work with addicts.

That's a great write-up, Suzanne. I find "absolutes" (I was a PGA Teaching Professional at one time) annoying (I'm not saying you're using them....just a point of contention with me). What works for one person may not work with the next person. I didn't read Sutton's article (regarding the PB) until I'd gotten to the point I needed to wean off mine. But, I think his stance on it is spot-on..........for ME. How it translates to anyone else??? No clue.

I've never sucked at anything athletic....lol. But, swimming just about tore my confidence down. When I got back in the water (almost a yr ago), I used wetsuit shorts all the time. At least (I thought) I could eliminate the breathing aspect of why I couldn't swim distances from the equation. And, I did (eliminate that). When I moved to the masters group, I turned to the PB to allow me to swim the workouts. It worked, until I realized I needed to wean off of it. I knew that, all along, though. I've yet to talk to anyone who doesn't realize that.

Did it hold me back? I don't know. Did it straighten out the curve? I can't say it did, definitively. But, I don't think anyone can say it didn't, either.

I think that as a former PGA teaching pro, and just as someone whose always been good at athletics, you were bound to figure out swimming regardless of what path you took. Thee fact that you woudn't give up led you to persist first with the PB, then later, without it and make ongoing improvements.

There's are two people that swim regularly at my pool.

One of them wears his full wetsuit every time, swims continuously for about 20 minutes then leaves. he places in his age group at sprint tris and what he does works for him.

Personally I hate the way he swims and I know he could be even faster if he took a few lessons, changed up his practice habits and learned to swim without his suit. But it works for him and he's not motivated to get any better he just maintains what he's got.

There's another guy that started training for an ironman awhile ago (few years) paddles, pull bouy, kickboard all the toys. Built up his endurance and improved just a little bit. Now he still swims 3000+yards per workout but his hips are still 6" under the water. He just powers through it, and he's actually gotten much worse (in my opinion) than when he did his IM a few years ago, b/c he just keeps using the toys and doesn't know what to fix when using them.

My point is that there will be people like you who know how to learn and improve, even if you don't know what the fixes are just yet. But people like the 2 folks above don't recognize that improvement is there for them if they want it.

My guess is that you are still searching for ways to continuously improve, as are most reading this (or they wouldn't be reading this or responding).

I think we're all here for a similar reason and that neither of those two men I mentioend are on forums trying to still figure things out...they don't have time for that Im sure!

I have no idea what you're trying to say.

The fact that you think I still use the PB makes me realize you haven't read this thread.

Guess I'm confused about the "weaning off"? And with how it keeps coming up?

Edited by brigby1 2016-04-24 8:13 PM

Past tense.

Keep reading.

OK....I'll save you some time. This (below) is from page 2.

" I joined masters swimming last fall and used the PB a LOT. I mean I used it almost all the time. I weaned off of it after a couple-3 months and I only use it now when the workout calls for it. I've been swimming about 8500-9000 yds/wk for a while now. "



Edited by nc452010 2016-04-24 8:17 PM