Anyone ever try this: with access only to a small pool (like at a hotel or if you have a small pool at home), could you attach yourself from a belt around the waist to the wall with stretch cords (surgical tubing/therabands/etc) so that you can swim in place? Maybe put visual markers like coins on the bottom for different stretch lengths indicating different resistance levels. I wonder if swimming mechanics would be altered? Any thoughts on the subject?
I have tried it and in my own experience it was only an aggravation and not worth the time.
The main complaint is breathing. Due to limited forward movement your normal head position for breathing will give you a mouthful of water rather than air. In those endless pools at least the water is moving past you as you remain stationary and are then able to get good air.
If I were away from a quality pool for a period of time I would much prefer to visualize. It is effective and much less aggravating.
They make setups for doing that. We used to use them in HS and college. Some coaches in the early 90’s thought they were really good for something. Strength maybe? I don’t remember. It is definitely a different feel and I always thought it messed up my stroke. I remember the issue with breathing too.
The best thing about them though was that at the beginning of our taper for sectionals our coach decided that it would be a good idea to use them the other way (walk to the other end of the pool on the deck and then use the potential energy to swim back really fast without much work) so we would get used to the fast/easy feeling of swimming shaved and tapered, kind of like motorpacing I guess. Anyway, we got one of our sprinters to swim like an 7 second 25 that way. Being 18 year old guys, we decided that if one cord was good, two would be better and we were all set to launch him into a 5 second 25 using two cords until we got the cords tangled stretching them out and one of the buckles broke. Fortunately, nobody was in the way but the part of the buckle that was still attached went right through the particleboard wall into the locker room. That was the end of that.
Anyway, if you’re undeterred (or if it sounds like fun) I bet keifer or someone like that still sells them and I am pretty sure I saw them in one of those SkyMall magazines on a plane being marketed to businessmen who want to use them like you suggest; to get a workout in hotel pools while on the road.