A real, genuinely mega-elite swimmer buddy of mine throws workouts at me from time to time as a challenge. They often include about 1/3 of the yards in pull sets (with or without paddles). I ask his eliteness why, and his answer is something along the lines of “to build strength, you skinny shrimp”.
Now, I can’t help but wonder why pull sets would do that. It’s friggen easier to swim with a PB clamped between the Campy crank spinners. Well, then again, my shoulders do seem to tire a bit more, and the stroke is a little different – I find myself kinda flat in the water and my recovery feels sloppy.
I understand the issues around why not to swim with one (teaches all the wrong stuff about body position). I’m looking for real reasons to swim with one. One reason, I guess, is that since it’s easier, it’s a bit of active recovery that breaks up the workout.
If you are a developing swimmer a pull buoy takes out your lower half allowing you to focus on front quadrant technique; and
If you are a really good swimmer you take out the kick which allows you to build strength since you are really pulling yourself around…add a band around your feet and you’ve got good times.
I use them for two reasons and I don’t use them a whole lot.
1: Relief of boredom, VERY few swimmers or coaches will admit to this but many ways that swim workouts are constructed are to relieve boredom. So, pulling is largely for variety.
2: More common is to use them when the main set was quite hard but you need to get some more yards in.
3: Just the other night I had another use. New swimmer showed up to the one hour workout. His form was, well he looked like a guy who just started swimming (which he was.) After 30 minutes or so he was totally done in by the technique work he was doing. Both mentally and physically.
So he gets the buoy and some bands on and it allows him to use the rest of the hour to do some swim specific conditioning. Granted he’s not yet at the place where his normal swim stroke looks like his pull buoy stroke, but he’ll get there and when he does he’ll have some strength to do it.
The risk is that he will come to depend on the pull buoy, known risk and if he is swiming with a coach, the coach PROBABLY wouldn’t let that happen. Or let it happen to such a degree that it holds him back.
add a band around your feet and you’ve got good times
Having never actually used a band, I’ve always been curious as to how much difference it makes with a PB, if you’re not cheating and kicking at the same time as you’re using the buoy. Does it really make a difference?
Many people don’t realize how much they are kicking when using PB - the band guarantees that their legs remain immobile. Easy way to measure this is timing a PB set with and without the band. The band times will be slower.
Using the band only (no PB) makes for a very interesting set. Great for working on body position once you overcome the sensation that you may drown.
I see FQS as an effect caused by it being easier and quicker to move the recovery arm through air than the pulling arm through water. So a good 90%+ of swimmers (exceptions being a kayak-style swimmer like Janet Evans or Michael Klim) are going to have a FQ component to their swim.
The problem is that if you over-exaggerate the front quarter by gliding when your hand enters, you end up with a decelleration ‘dead spot’ in your stroke, and unless you’re a strong hard kicker, you lose momentum during that part of your stroke. A number of people may also find it hard to get a good rhythm going on with too much glide, and open water swimming is all about finding rhythm once you get the basics down. The only long front-glider I can think of among the elite open water men I’ve seen is Ky Hurst, and he’s an awesome kicker. The rest tend to be pull-and-go types.
And if you’ve been in the pool a long time, pull buoy sets are harder and slower than full stroke. It was one of those bizarro moments to discover that so many triathletes are faster with a float than without.
FWIW - I know a swimmer who had one of the fastest English Channel crossing times last summer. He did a lot of training miles/hours with a pull bouy. I do not not if it was to make training easier/harder or what. I will ask him why when I see him next. (He hung a thermometer from his bouy.)
I think there is some difference between the benefits a “mega-elite” will get compared to you (forum’s worst swimmer, right?). A good swimmer should be slower with the buoy because they are eliminating half their motor (kick). So therefore PB work may help them build strength/power. Often beginners are faster with a PB because it corrects their poor body position.
My point is that the elite’s reasons may not actually pertain to you.
However, it may be helpful for you to focus on just one part of your stroke at a time. Also, some people like it because it mimics the body position of being in a wet suit.
When I was a real swimmer back in the day, I used pull buoys, bands, tubes, drag suits, way too much shit if you ask me. Yeah, it made me stronger, but I already had good technique. Now I refuse to use anything when I swim except my body, and I always discourage all my friends who are trying to improve their swimming from using any aids (pull buoy, kick boards…). I just think it teaches a not so good swimmer to rely on something they can’t use in a race anyways. I’m sure most swimmers will disagree with this.
As a beginner freestyle swimmer as of 3 months ago I can vouch for the Pull Bouy for several reasons.
1 - i’m lightning fast when using it because it puts my body in an efficient horizontal, skimming the water position, thus giving me an idea of how my body position should be w/o the PB.
**recently i’ve had a couple mid-workout epiphanies after i pushed my head, shoulders, and chest further down in the water and felt my butt and heels pop up to the top of the water. recognized it right away as the Pull Buoy position…PB Position = Good Position = Fast Swim = Fast OA Finish time = Sponsors up in my grill = New Free Gear = Winning Kona = History in the making. So I’ve got that dream going for me…thanks Pull Buoy!
2 - when i’m completely spent at the end of my workout i can always rely on that PB to help me get some ‘extra’ laps (i need it) and helps reinforce the swim position…even after I just burned a bunch of laps with not so stellar form. kind of like an “oh yeah, that’s how i’m supposed to feel”. nice to walk away from the pool with that fresh in my mind.
3 - helps me work on respitory endurance. usually after a workout, even if I’m breathing hard, I can still swim a couple 25 yd lengths on one breath at a time, using the pull buoy (note to future fans…yes, I can do it w/o pull buoy…but the lifeguards at the Y don’t like pulling me out of the water anymore. They’ve told me to stop)
4 - rename it Pull Toy, you get the picture…Fun!
And that is my professional ST opinion. Signed. Endorsed by my soon-to-be-sponsors and performance coach.
KickBoard, you may ask? Don’t. I’m a long distance runner…my calves barely cast a shadow. Me and Ghandi suffer the same fate in the pool…week rear motor. Water aerobics ladies lap me while I’m kickboarding.
Now, I can’t help but wonder why pull sets would do that. It’s friggen easier to swim with a PB clamped between the Campy crank spinners.
You’re talking bouy + paddles right? With paddles and pb I can get pretty close to my normal swim times. PB + paddle set, done right and your arms will be burning and mostly useless for the rest of the day. I’d say don’t waste limited workout time for swimming doing a PB only set, add those paddles to make it a truly strength building set. Also, paddles will quickly show where you are dropping elbows during the pull and in general show where you aren’t pulling optimally.
Are people who say “pull bouy times = regular swim times w/o pull bouy”, using paddles? Please tell me yes, otherwise this makes no sense to me.
I’m surprised nobody’s talked about this aspect of using pull-buoys:
If most of your races use a wetsuit, a pull buoy will help mimic your body position when wearing a wetsuit and your stroke will adjust to achieve an efficient forward motion. Without the buoy, if you’re a not terribly good swimmer, your legs are likely sinking and you’ll be using some of your stroke effort to stay afloat - pushing you up rather than forward. Float your legs and all of your stroke can be used for moving forward which is exactly what you want in a race with a wetsuit on.