Primarily a cyclist, I have taken up swimming for cross training in the past 6 months. I am now swimming about 2000 yards 3 evenings per week. I have found that I can only swim efficiently or reasonably fast using a "pull buoy" for reasons I am uncertain of. With the pull buoy, I can do 5 X 100 on 2 min. with each 100 around 1:22-1:25 and sets of 200 around 2:55-3:00 min. per 200. Not great for a real swimmer, but okay for someone like me. Without the pull buoy -- just regular crawl stroke with a kick, I am more like 1:35-1:40 per 100 and I get much more tired after each 100. W/o the pull buoy, I even have a hard time doing 200 with all flip turns. I usually end up skipping one or two to catch my breath at the wall.
I do some kick board sets and I seem to have a reasonably strong kick (not great, but adequate). But when I am swimming w/o the pull buoy, I seem to have a hard time coordinating the kicking properly with the crawl stroke. I think my legs are sinking too much and my swimming kick is too weak. w/o the pull buoy I seem to get almost no glide at all, either due to lower swimming speed or some other factor which makes for extra strokes, more work going into a flip turn and for general inefficiency.
Is it common or normal for non-swimmers to be significantly faster and more efficient with a pull buoy aid? I get why fins would be a big boost, esp. for avg. swimmers, but I am not clear why I can only swim well with a pull buoy.
Any helpful theories or advice?
I do some kick board sets and I seem to have a reasonably strong kick (not great, but adequate). But when I am swimming w/o the pull buoy, I seem to have a hard time coordinating the kicking properly with the crawl stroke. I think my legs are sinking too much and my swimming kick is too weak. w/o the pull buoy I seem to get almost no glide at all, either due to lower swimming speed or some other factor which makes for extra strokes, more work going into a flip turn and for general inefficiency.
Is it common or normal for non-swimmers to be significantly faster and more efficient with a pull buoy aid? I get why fins would be a big boost, esp. for avg. swimmers, but I am not clear why I can only swim well with a pull buoy.
Any helpful theories or advice?