No...

Unless you're doing Swim-Run with only paddle swimming as your race, no don't just use paddles. Paddles are great for strength/power, however you lose feel for the water, and can mask many other imperfections within your stroke.

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I wrote this, you should read it:
https://www.slowtwitch.com/...n_Swimming_6700.html

Interesting, maybe with too much paddles you dont improve your water sensibility

My swim coach said contrary to what many think paddles DO NOT build strength. It's to get a feel for the water and how to enter and push through the water and to always remember how the water should be pushing against your hand.

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IG -frebay | Strava

Thank you so far everyone. Helpful.

But Monty, the double negative has thrown me a bit....

No as in there is no reason not to do them all with paddles....so in other words yes, do them all with paddles which is a good idea.

Or no, don't do them all with paddles since that is a bad idea.

?

And since I don't know how to multi-quote, I am surprised paddles do not build strength/stamina etc....that seems to me to be precisely what they do and are meant for.

Masking imperfections seems logical per tallswimmers point. That seems valid and I hadn't considered that. That should be taken into account since I am sure there is much I can work on.

Losing feel of the water to Frebay's point maybe, although the "water feel" concept has always been a bit too esoteric for me.

Also assume the swimmer, me, while AOS is very comfy in the water and not flopping around trying not to drown or simply survive the swim leg. For context OLY times are usually ~25 min and 70's are 30-32. Not sure if that matters. Bottom line I can swim, just not lighting fast nor super slow, and wonder if more shoulder/pull strength and stamina would be maybe a low hanging fruit/economical approach to trying to get faster (one of the many ways of course).

My swim coach said contrary to what many think paddles DO NOT build strength.//

I have no science or studies, but logically, if you create more resistance to something, have to put more force to move that object, you should get stronger? I may be wrong, but wouldn't that be like climbing in too big a gear, running with 75lbs on your back, or just putting more weights on a plate? OR do those things not make you stronger either?


The other part I totally agree with, paddles give you a different feel for the water, one that AOS swimmers need the most.

I just answered your opening question in your OP. OF course I knew this thread would take off, as the other 20 on this subject before it. But I always love this topic, as there are two competing camps when it comes to pulling. There are pro coaches that use pulling exclusively(well almost always) and they produce world champions in triathlon. There are others that are in the feel the water camp, and actually a 3rd group that consider paddles a crutch for triathlete swimmers, and detest them for that reason alone..

And keep in mind the type of swimming and swimmer we are talking about is not the usually pool only swimmer. I have heard about some OW swim pros that pull most of the time too, so many ways to skin this cat I would say..

That’s not really how it works though. The bulk of the resistance comes from your body. The arm/paddle is just an anchor that your body should be moving past. I agree that paddles are mostly for technique, even the big ones that I just moved up to don’t really make my muscles any more sore than a hard swim without them.

I also find that for a couple hundred metres after I take them off, my feel for the water has gone to shit. So yeah, don’t use them exclusively, same as it’s a bad idea to use fins all the time.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Depends who you listen to - http://blog.trisutto.com/?s=paddles

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

Depends on the athlete, where they are in their development and what particular movement/stroke issues they have. In general, for beginners, it isn't the greatest idea. I've seen too many athletes who used paddles way too much and the best description is they get "paddles hands." Their hands move like they are wearing cement mittens and their feel for the water is lacking. The other thing is most triathletes tend to go with paddles that are too big for their stroke and strength in the water. Those are just some observations.

Hope this helps,

Tim

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

One of these days I hope to ask a question that is black or white and not gray. Every question I ever ask just raises more questions and since time is money, getting answers is priceless....albeit impossible.

In the meantime I am going to up my paddle use and see what happens.

Thanks.

I’m in the camp that using paddles more isn’t going to hurt you, unless of course they hurt you.. go for it

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

One of these days I hope to ask a question that is black or white and not gray.//

Ya, unfortunately asking about how to get faster swimming, is like asking what you should eat. There are people that eat meat 3 times a day, every day of the year, while others only eat plants, dont wear leather or any other animal product. And they both achieve the same level of success in sport. I dated a fast swimmer girl once who if she even touched a paddle, she would be injured. Then there are the folks that never take them off, for anything, and they do just fine too. You are on the right track, try them out a little more and just see what happens. And I'm still not convinced they dont make you stronger either.

You can do 2 things to swim faster:
Increase your strike rate or increase your distance per strike. The low hanging fruit for 90% of the AoS swimmers is tempo. How does something that quite slows down your tempo make any sense?!?

If you absolutely insist... then do use then with sprints/ nothing more than 25s.

How does something that quite slows down your tempo make any sense?!? //

Maybe because it keeps some from slipping water and striking 25 times a length? Would you council someone taking that many strokes a lap to take more to get faster?

Yes, I have some very good reasons.
Most of the drills I do in our squad don't use paddles and would be difficult to do with paddles (ie sculling, doggy paddle, fists, side kick, 6:1:6, 6:3:6, 6:5:6)....paddles serve their purpose in other drills and also for some active recovery, but in reality you don't swim with paddles when racing so you should train in many ways as you race.
We do some drills with paddles, type of paddles depends on the drills we are doing (swimsmooth.com).

Paddles increase the resistance against your hands, improving muscle strength, and also slow down your turnover a bit, which makes the whole thing just like overgearing on a bike... which is awesome for increasing slowtwitch endurance. It's basically VLaMax or "sweet spot" work while riding, but for swimming instead. Do hand paddle sets for 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes at a time just like sweet spot on the bike and watch what happens. (I can tell you what happens already - You'll be faster and never get tired).

I swim long sets of an hour at a time and pause for a the second it takes to put on or take off the strapless Finis hand paddles and keep going, for hand paddle sets of 5 to 20 minutes. You don't have to try any harder or think about what you're doing, the hand paddles do it all for you. Simple, simple, simple.

Here's the strapless ones. They are incredible. If you don't enter or pull correctly, they fall off. So they fix your technique at the same time. https://www.proswimwear.us/...0LPoevBoCnjoQAvD_BwE

Big flat paddles, tyr catalyst or similar with good buoyant pull buoy. Swim hard and fast! Main set not drills 300s 400s 3000-5000m for main set. Sit back and watch the open water speed come your way. 💪

I want some of these magic paddles that just do the work for you. Where do I find them???

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

Yeah..be careful to build up slowly if you go down the paddle path.. I can't get more than using them for 200m before starting to get shoulder issues. That said...I have pretty interesting shoulders, injury wise.

2 years ago I trained exclusively w/ paddles for a little over 6 months after signing up for Casco Bay Swim-Run long course, having never swam with them before. I'm also an AOS (hate this saying an acronym, just for the record). The paddles I used are the Roka Pro (blue). They're pretty much small dinner plates.

I started by introducing paddles into sets of alternating 100's and built to alt 500's and then straight 1,000's. My shoulders, back and lats were sore in the beginning for sure, but my body quickly adapted. I put on swim-specific muscle really quick. Paddles made swimming faster easier for me, but I'm also more of a diesel engine kind of athlete. I went from 1:50/100m to 1:40/100m almost immediately; but I plateaued there -- probably cause the paddles just increased my power and didn't change my stroke per se. I was also more focused on endurance as the swim I was training for was 10k long.

Three weeks later I raced an Olympic Tri and almost broke 30 mins, Avg'ing 1:43/100m pace.

Funny thing is, after the Swim-Run race I went back to all Triathlons and I haven't had a desire to train with the paddles since. Haven't touched them. I'm back to swimming low 1:40's on a good day without them; but for some reason I feel like they're an artificial aid. Maybe I should start incorporating them again.

Remember, we're all Experiments of One. I've *knock on wood* never had any shoulder problems, but I can easily see how someone could quickly flirt with injury with paddles. Like all training tips and tools, they're not a Magic Pill or Silver Bullet; especially since we can't use them in a Triathlon Race. Good luck.

So why is using fins a thing at all? Since we're sort of in a do dads thread. Should I buy some?

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

You can swim faster by reducing drag too. Or do we assume that not working on how to improve swim form is the only way to go for triathletes?