We all know swimming can get a bit tedious from time to time. Trawling up and down that black line. Yeah, as triathletes, we are often quite guilty of just sticking to front crawl and not really changing it up much, but there's still other ways in which you can spice up your training and using toys is one of them. You're probably wondering what on earth we're talking about, but I'm afraid we don't actually mean jumping in the pool with a large inflatable and messing about. These are actually toys and tools that can help you improve your swimming technique. Subscribe to GTN:
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Thanks to Club La Santa for the locations used in this shoot.
Now there's a wide selection of different toys that you can get, so we've just picked a selection that you can add into your training to make it a bit more interesting. So this is quite a common pull toy and it's called a pull buoy and basically, you put this between your legs and it raises your hips slightly out of the water. Yeah, it's great if you are a swimmer who struggles with sinking hips. It basically does a similar action to what a wetsuit would do in open water, but it also helps to single out your arms, so you're really working just on your upper body. You can't really use your legs when you've got that.
You might have heard people refer to the pull paddle combo. And so using a pull buoy and a set of paddles, you're basically gonna isolate the front end of your stroke. Yeah, if you're using large paddles like Mark and I, then it's very much about power, working on your strength and if you wanna feel fast, you can just take the pull buoy out, keep the paddles on, and use your legs and it'll give you a great feel of the water. But if you wanna work more on technique, there are actually other paddles available on the market. Slightly smaller ones that'll just really reiterate getting that perfect stroke.
Now I know we've already mentioned the kick-board, but as its name says, it's specifically designed for kick. If you're got a board like this, you can just place your fingers through the holes and the whole idea is to be comfortable and relaxed, resting your forearms on top so you can concentrate purely on your kick. And you don't have to bury your face into the water either. Keep your head up so that you can breaths, most importantly, and then it's social as well, you can chat to the person next to ya. But really you're doing it so you can isolate your leg kick.
Now another toy, slightly less usual is the snorkel and if you look closely, you'll notice that it's different to the snorkel you'd use on holiday. This one goes down the centre of your face. So you can concentrate on keeping your head completely still when you're swimming. Now a lot of swimmers struggle with the breathing. It's the movement of the head that upsets the stroke. But if you've got this, you can breathe as much as you want and consistently and then you're purely focusing on what your arm and legs are doing.
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Watch more on GTN...
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