it again, but this time pretend you're climbing up a ladder. Bend your elbow (hand a little away from your body) and your hand goes straight down to your thigh. The second way has all the energy going straight down - nothing wasted - everything to power - very efficient. And that's what triathletes are all about, EFFICIENCY!The most common mistake by amateur swimmers (me not excluded) is that they convert their breathing stroke into a vertical support stroke to push their heads up and out of the water further. It doesn't work and it's wasted energy. It slows you down (dramatically) and creates bad habits. Keep that chin in tight to your shoulder and use that stroke to go FORWARD! Why? Again, I have to go back and talk again about displacement bodies in water and how length of waterline/wetted surface affects speed. Unless a boat can plane above the waters surface and eliminate drag all together, it has to push water the water out of the way to move through it. That's YOU! Going through the water and pushing it out of the way. You have no choice, you're displacing that water. The fastest sailboats are those that are very long, 100-feet, and very narrow, less than 15-feet. That's a long, thin, displacement body.The moment that length is decreased, you create "wake turbulence" behind you which is like little whirlpools. These areas of twisting, turbulent water act like suction and hold you back. So it is imperative to maintain the maximum length possible at ALL times while in the water and displacing that water. That's why the thumb-to-thigh or catch-up drill is so important. It forces you to always have an arm fully extended. This actually allows you to glide through the water longer and easier making it easier and faster to swim. Most professional swimmers will have a blazingly fast catch-up phase to their stroke. Their recovery arm comes forward to meet their extended arm to where they always have an arm up front. The actual pull can be slower. It doesn't need to be that much faster than the moving water because you can't use raw power to go that much faster. Most people suffer in that as they're recovering an arm, turning up, getting their mouth out of the water to take a breath, they begin the next pull to push down and keep their head up to breathe. They've immediately decreased their length of waterline by two feet or more and this immediately creates wake drag. You have to be able to put your ear on your bicep with a fully extended arm and keep it their throughout the entire breath. Recovery arm meets the extended one, rotate back down and THEN begin the next pull.A simple thing to write. A considerably more difficult thing to do practice and perfect in the water! For me as well. THIS more than anything else, will probably improve your swimming distance and speed by a huge amount!
My favorite is FistGloves: Swimming with your hand in a fist feels really strange! It forces you to have good balance because you can't use your hands to push yourself up out of the water. I usually do five warm-up laps with the gloves on and then take them off to do my training. Wow! It feels like someone has glued dinner plates to my hands! You'll feel like you're going as fast as a dolphin! I then do my five cool-down laps with the gloves on to make sure my body remembers proper balance in the water until the next swim.Hip fins: These are fins on a belt that you wear around your waist. They do two things; they force you to roll. If you’re not rolling, your hands will hit them on each stroke. And they also provide some resistance during that roll and twist which will strengthen your core.Pull buoy: This is the buoy that you hold between your knees to help keep your legs up. This helps to isolate your arm-stroke to work on perfecting it. While I find that a pull buoy is good for isolating the arms for correcting issues, I think swimming with a pull buoy too much can be bad because it gives you a false sense of balance.Fins: The same with fins. They are good for helping to isolate the arms, but using them too much gives you a false sense o