The lope was actually the result of several years of trial and error with several different very good swim coaches. It's not pretty, not a way of swimming I'd recommend to just anyone, but in the end, it's a way of doing things that gets me going at a reasonable clip without having to kill myself in the process.

Every time I'd go through a 30 day try to reform my stroke into something more symmetrical, at the end of the adaptation period, I'd have a more conventionally pretty stroke, but one that was slower at a higher heart rate than ugly swimming. So back to ugly it would be.

And I've never had a problem going straight in open water, and figure as long as I'm normally in the first 15% of women out of the water, I'll just stick with what worked for me for the better part of 15 years in the pool.

i dont get why people say a pullbuoy doesnt simulate wetsuit swimming as for me it does. both are have a buoyancy effect. what's your reasoning? a pullbuoy is only a crutch for people with bad body position. same with a wetsuit. i'd be quite happy to have all tris with a non wetsuit swim.

Swimming with a pull-buoy simulates swimming with neoprene shorts. A wetsuit gives you more impulsion in the torso area, not to mention no feel for the arms in the forearm. And some other effects. That's a lot of credit for such a small piece of sponge.

---

-
"Yeah, no one likes a smartass, but we all like stars" - Thom Yorke


smartasscoach.tri-oeiras.com

Damn swimmers...

...not coming from a swimming background, I'm perhaps a couple of levels above Schwing on the "joy of swimming" scale (or lack thereof) and have found in the past a pullbuoy a blessing in terms of being able to get in pool time without feeling like a thrashing idiot.

Having said that, I know that it has hurt my overall swimming ability and have been weaning myself off it except when called for during drills, or on days when a swim workout has for whatever reason followed a particularly tough day on the bike and or run. When I do use the buoy now I am noticing that my pace is very close to the non-buoy swimming, which was not the case before. I was noticeably faster before with the buoy than without.

But I still believe it has its place in a workout...just not the *entire* workout anymore for me.

you can actually kick with a wetsuit...

I love my pull buoy. We are at one with each other. Some of the best workouts I have had have been with me, my pull buoy, glassy pool water with no other swimmers, just concentrating on my stroke. It's nirvana I tell you.

---

_________________________________
I'll be what I am
A solitary man

SAC, I agree and disagree;

For most who are poor swimmers, their biggest issue is faulty balance fore and aft. Especially with AG men, they are often tilted like speed boats in the water. For these swimmers the PB simulates the wetsuit in that it lifts their entire rear ends and puts them more in line >>they become more streamlined>> they are faster.

The key, for me, in PB overuse is that people miss out on the benefits of the kick.

If you can time your kick with some regularity then you can centre the lower half of your body and use that to throw your stroke. Personally, I love my PB but I try to use it sparingly because it hides my flaws, which are legion.

---

kiwipat

per ardua ad astra