Finis Agility Paddles

I am writing this having been inspired by nightcrawler's superb swimming because I know he is a fan of these Agility paddles.

Having dug them out recently to do the "Catch and Throw Drill" I have been reminded how good they are and how little time time I have ever spent with them.

Swimming some laps with them today I was aware that I grasp them for dear life which is clear indication that my catch and pull through is imperfect. They should stay on with a loose thumb. Also they were getting snagged at exit which was an error.

When swimming with human hands it's possible to slip the water and still swim feeling OK. Not so with Agility paddles which don't take kindly to any slippage.

Some people don't see any connection between doing "Unco Drill" and normal swimming. With these paddles it becomes obvious that they are are the same action.

20 km of these would be massively beneficial I reckon.

)) thank you for your compliments, trying to be my best, and beating myself.

I am getting back into swimming after a holiday and working with the Agility paddles.

I just found this Dave Scott video which shows nicely how to benefit from them in terms of a good body balance in the water. It's actually about how to finish the stroke but the girl is using Agility paddles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zemV9ToHMw

What is nice is how she reaches forward in a glide on one edge of the body and rotates during the pull and applies the finish pressure when her body is rotated right around onto the other edge.

As DS says, many people do this fine with one hand but the other hand stops short and is inefficient.

The Agility shows up my defects here but I keep working at it.

I also had tried and recommended Agility paddles to my swim squad many years, almost a decade, ago. Agility is the most useful paddles for every stroke.

cottmiler wrote:
...What is nice is how she reaches forward in a glide on one edge of the body and rotates during the pull and applies the finish pressure when her body is rotated right around onto the other edge...

Oh Whoopee! - maybe I'm doing something right after all!  When I do my little "no explicit leg action/just relaxed legs" FS variant - I actually begin to roll towards the still recovering arm early, before it enters the water (by a deliberate quick downward thrust of the hip, on the recovering arm side, as the arm approaches the water.  That causes the legs to execute a wave action starting from the hips).  So am on my entering side "edge" during extension etc. - then of course its roll the other way as the stroking arm pull moves into the "push", for the arm to clear the hip during the up-sweep.  Basically it's just Maglischo's "body roll mantra" (Roll towards the arm going down and roll away from the arm coming up) - except that the momentum of the arm recovering before making entry, adds to the early body roll action.  Well it feels good anyway - even if there's no great payoff!

I liked DS's emphasis on the well-bent elbow during the early part of the up-sweep of the stroking arm (shades of "Passing the elbow" under the body).  Think one can certainly get more power by fully using the triceps(?) arm muscles, as one adds more power by pushing the forearm/hand back, while still maintaining a partially bent elbow at arm's water exit - so as not to pull the hip down, as might occur with a straight arm exit.

nightcrawler,

A bit of fun is to swim with one paddle only but without the thumb through the hole.

This means that the paddle must remain on under water owing to water pressure and also during recovery and entry.

If your underwater action is faulty it will fall off.

Perhaps you will try it?

Over 20 km in total have now been swum with one paddle on either right or left hand.

Improvements in swim technique are being made through using the Agility paddles, although slowly.

Improvements such as strength and timing.