Swimmers have a long standing history with hand paddles which are primarily used to increase the pulling resistance of the stroke to enable the swimmer to move more quickly through the water, and as a byproduct, build back, shoulder, and arm muscles. In addition to muscle growth, proper technique is the other main contributor to increasing a swimmer's speed in the water. Previously patented paddles such as, U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,418, U.S. Pat. No. 7,179,146, U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,233, U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,998, have focused on contouring the hand paddle so that the swimmer's hand is properly positioned and/or use apertures to increase the feel of the water to encourage proper technique and hand awareness during a stroke. Most hand paddles comprise of one rigid structure that conforms and attaches to the hand in a variety of ways, but does not actively react to how the hand moves in the water. Other hand paddles such as U.S. Pat. No. 1,541,100, U.S. Pat. No. 2,017,463, U.S. Pat. No. 1,708,331, U.S. Pat. No. 1,663,328, have been designed to incorporate a moving or pivoting component that actively reacts to the relative water flow with respect to the swimmer's hand or foot. Such paddles with a moving or pivoting component focus on an underwater recovery where the moving component is used as a tool to increase the pulling resistance of the swimmer yet enter a lower state of resistance during the underwater recovery to enable the swimmer to move through the water more quickly.
Throughout the development of swimming stroke mechanics, it is widely accepted that a swimmer's palm must be perpendicular to the direction of travel and pressing water in the rearward direction. If the swimmer ceases to press water in the rear direction while the hand is still in the water, then the swimmer is not increasing his or her body speed in the desired direction. If the swimmer's hand becomes non-perpendicular to the overall direction of travel, then the swimmer will essentially be decreasing the amount of resistance at which he or she is able to push the water backwards. These two basic principles are widely accepted by anyone that is skilled in the art, yet executing those technical principles on a consistent basis is challenging. Due to the onset of fatigue, swimmers will cease to press the water rearwards after the hand moves past the shoulder and the swimmer may also rotate his or her palm to decrease the amount of water that is captured by the hand pulling motion and in return reduce the stress on the arm, shoulder and back muscles. The swimmer may also pause or glide the hand near the surface of the water at the beginning of the stroke to incorporate a resting period within a stroke. In the forward gliding state, the palm is not perpendicular to the desired direction of travel which means that the hand is not being utilized for the forward propulsion of the stroke. A swimmer must quickly position his or her hand so that it is perpendicular to the direction of travel and continuously press water to the rear of the stroke until the hand exits the water.
Swimmers often have a difficult time determining his or her hand position during the stroke because of the inability to feel or see what his or her hand is doing at the back of the pulling stroke. Often a swimmer will believe that he or she is pushing water throughout the entire pulling stroke, but rather the hand is not maintaining the pressure required and often exits the water prior to a full stroke. Video analysis and coaching are used to address issues similar to this, but each method results in a delay between the action and the notification to the swimmer.
Accordingly, it is the objective of the invention to provide real time physical and visual feedback to the swimmer and observers, if proper stroke technique is not being executed for any type of swimming that relates to the use of a swimmer's hands propelling the body forward.
Another objective of the invention is to address proper hand orientation relative to the path at which the hand is pulling during the stroke.
It is yet another objective of the invention to encourage a proper hand position at the beginning of the pulling stroke so that the hand is positioned perpendicular to the direction of travel.
It is a further objective of the invention to provide the ability to indicate the onset of fatigue during a swim by notifying the swimmer instantly when his or her stroke begins to deteriorate.