So you're saying pulling with just the band is very common??? That hasn't been my experience but obviously practices vary in many respects, i.e., kicking w/ or w/o board, pulling w/ or w/o band, etc. Most pools have lots of pull buoys and kick boards but I don't see the ankle bands very often, at least not here in the States. I know you're from Canada so I'm wonder if maybe you have more of the bands???

Wearing a band and paddles (no buoy), I am about 10s/100y slower. Ditching the paddles makes it closer to 15s/100 slower.
-leh

X2

Ironman intensity (not all out), 100s on 10sec rest:

No Gear: 1:40
Pull + Paddles: 1:35
Paddles: 1:35
Pull: 1:45
Pull + Band: 2:00
Pull + Band + Paddles: 1:55

Strange, I know ... If allowed, I would use paddles in a race, but no pull and obviously no band.

Disclaimer - I completed a program 30 years ago where the first thing they did was tie your legs together, tie your hands behind your back, put a bag over your head, and then push you into a 12 ft deep pool to see what you would do. With that said...

It always surprises me that people that generally can figure things out on their own can't figure out what the ankle band is telling them in the pool. If you can float face down, and I bet most here can, then you can swim with an ankle band.

Try this: layout gently on the water face down and float. Don't move. Do your legs sink? Maybe a little, but probably not much. The only difference between that motion and swimming with your legs tied are the upper body motions of breathing and pulling. Neither are supposed to force your upper body up/legs down, and most of us know that. So if that action causes your legs to sink the problem is with those 2 actions - they are not being performed correctly. Fix that problem and you can swim all day with a leg band.

To answer the question. Probably very little speed reduction, but I've never timed the leg band sets. That isn't the point of doing them.

Well for someone who thinks things are patently that obvious, you should actually TRY timing your leg band sets if you're so quick to assume that there is 'probably little speed reduction.'

It reminds of all those posters who say "I can definitely swim no problem with an ankle band - I've never done it before, but I know I've got great form so I can do it no problem' and then when they actually try it, find that they're totally wrong about it.

There's actually nothing obvious about ankle band swimming. It 'seems' like all it does is make you kick a lot less, which should be straightfoward to do in theory, but when folks realize by actually trying it how dependent their kick often is on their upper body stroke, and how limited their kick-free balance is, it's pretty eye-opening as to how not-obvious ankle band swimming skill is.

You completely missed the point of the post. You are also missing the point of using a leg band, so I'm not surprised. Leg bands force you to swim correctly - simply a drill. Do you time 1 arm drills, kick drills, catch-ups, etc?

I never said doing it should be obvious. I said that the reason you can't do it should be obvious. I even explained why it should be obvious, but you seem to have missed that point also.

As for your time comment - If you're like a lot of us, you don't get much propulsion out of your kick when swimming a triathlon. You are saving your legs for the bike and the run. So if you slow way down with a band that means you are using your kick to keep your legs up, and that has been stated time and time again to be not what the kick is for. If you are swimming correctly and not using your kick much (me) then stopping kicking should have little or no affect.

I thought the same thing until I took my first shot at swimming a 50 with the bands. I couldn't eve make it back to the start, my feet were dragging on the bottom of the pool (no exageration). That's why I started using the buoy after reading here that it was ok to start with. I'm a comfortable 1:30/100 swimmer but something is dramatically and is being exposed by the bands.