- Right Mark it is time to whack some paddles on.
- Yep, you see these hanging around at the end
of every pool nowadays, it's like every man
and their dog has a set of these.
And you might be wondering what they are
and how to use them.
- Yeah these bits of kit are extremely beneficial
for improving our strength and working on
our technique in the pool.
So today we're gonna discuss how to use them
and crucially what we need to use paddles for.
(lively music)
Now as triathletes we are well known
for our love of swim toys
and we generally carry around a whole collection
of paraphernalia when we go to a swim workout.
And these hand paddles are generally always
one of those things that we add to our collection.
- Yeah and on the simplest level these hand paddles
increase the surface area of our hand and therefore meaning
that we can grab a hold of more water with each pull
and therefore increasing our momentum as we swim.
Now you can use these completely on their own
as we would when we normally swim
or you can incorporate them into a pool set.
Now a pool set would be when you pop something like this,
a pool buoy between your legs that will stop you from
using your legs and getting a propulsion from your legs
and really isolating the arms.
- Yeah so when we're adding these hand paddles
into a pool set we essentially are trying to mimic
a strength session in the gym or to be more specific
say an overgearing session when we're out on the bike.
So simply put we are just trying to get
more bang from our buck from that swim session
because let's face it as triathletes
we don't usually have a whole ton of spare time.
(lively music)
- So paddles can help to improve the mechanics
of our swim stroke and with time it can also help to improve
our strength and technique too, how so?
I'll hear you out as well, you probably belong
to your local swim club, master swim session
or triathlon club swim then you'll very often hear
a coach saying something along the lines of dropped elbow,
crossing the center line or even bad catch.
- Yeah now these are all weaknesses that I heard
being talked about once upon a time
and that's where paddles are really useful tools
because by using these,
well they help accentuate all those weaknesses
that can possibly be in our stroke.
So with the right attention to detail
and focus when we're swimming and good drill work
in time we can become stronger and faster
and that regular use of paddlework
will just help us become better swimmers.
- Yeah so having a high elbow
well it's kind of become some sort of mantra
in the swimming community and it has been
for a long time now if you switch to swimming on on TV
any high profile event such as the Olympics
you'll see just what we're on about.
But to really understand the benefits of this high elbow
I really believe that you have to feel it first yourself
and that's where hand paddles really come into their own
because by the very nature of their larger surface area
they essentially accentuate that feeling of the high elbow
the benefits that you get from it
and that feeling of being stronger
and more efficient with your stroke.
- Yeah now that is where paddles are really good
because they do help you get more of a feel
for the water when you're swimming.
And other benefits that paddles can bring
are that they make you think about crossing the center line
when you enter the water because that really isn't
a very strong type of catch that we can get
you can end up with an S-type shape pull
which is just as far weaker than a really good
strong over the barrel type of catch.
And another thing that paddles can help you to do
is just promote more thought about the whole swim stroke
right from your entry all the way through to the exit
where you'd come out at the hips.
(lively music)
- Now to really get the most out of paddlework
then you want to make sure that it's establishing
a good technique under water.
Now something that I was taught from a young age
and personally I hate but Fraser absolutely loves doing it
is removing the strap from the bottom of the paddles
that should ordinarily go over your wrists
and that just leaves you with the top strap
for your fingers.
Now what this does is it forces you
to catch and enter the water smoothly
and then pull in a nice even fashion
rather than just trying to grab the water,
muscling your way down the lane
and just relying on that larger surface area.
Now if you find that the paddle is slipping away from you
or moving underneath your hand, then what might be happening
is you're breaking at the wrist
and you're losing that catch and that purchase on the water
so really try to slow things down
and really try to feel the stroke
cause essentially what we're striving for is a good catch
with paddlework and always trying to think of our hands
and our arm like an anchor point
that we're trying to move ourself over
whilst we hold onto the water
at least that's what we're trying to think of anyway.
- Now there are a couple of things worth pointing out
when we're talking about using hand paddles
in terms of how often we use them
and how experienced a swimmer we are whilst using them.
Now when I finished up racing as an athlete
I'll happily admit to having become fairly dependent
on using these hand paddles in my swim workouts.
In fact I was probably using them
for as much as 3/4 of my swimming.
And I'd go as far as saying that
they had become a crux for me.
But that was largely possible
because of the amount of swimming
I'd accumulated over the years as a younger swimmer
and also my fairly resilient swim stroke
and good mechanics that I had.
But as a newbie swimmer or triathlete
that definitely is not something that I'd recommend.
A more sensible ballpark figure would be in the region
of up to 1/3 of your swimming being done with these paddles.
And on that note you might well read or hear people talking
about never going near paddles until you've been swimming
for as much as two years, I disagree with this.
Rather I'd go for the option of little and often,
once you're comfortable being in the water
and keep your reps nice and low when you're using paddles
because that enforces better technique
rather than hammering home poor form
using these extra load that the paddles give us
and just focusing on having better technique
through using them.
(lively music)
So some sample sessions that you could include
in your swimming to think about progressing
with the use of hand paddles
could be starting with nice and short reps
like say 10 times 50 meters with the paddles
and then 200 meters nice and easy swim.
Repeating that set twice times through
that then could build into eight times 75 meters
with paddles and 100 meters nice and easy
again repeating that set two times through.
And that in itself could lead into say something
like five times 100 with 200 meters nice and easy swimming
repeating that set twice times through as well.
So what you're doing is slowly increasing the duration
of the rep that you're using with the hand paddle
and in time once you get more stable and comfortable
using the paddles and your stroke is coping with it
you can factor in longer reps like 200 meters
and even as far as four or 500 meter reps
aren't out of the question either.
(lively music)
- Now for the majority of swimmers
your paddles should be just larger than your hands
and the reason they're about 10 to 20% larger.
Don't do what I used to do as a kid
and I used to just go for the largest paddles I could
thinking I was the don
because actually that's just gonna put excessive strain
on your arms and your shoulders and also amplifying
the faults within your mechanics of your stroke.
- Yeah now essentially as Mark's saying
is don't go and whack on
a set of dinner plates such as these
and believe me I have seen it done
and as Mark's explaining it happens all too often.
And if your swim stroke isn't able to cope with it
you're just inviting the concepts of all sorts
of shoulder injuries that just isn't worth worrying about
so please just keep the paddle size nice and small
and you'll definitely get lots of improvement
from using paddles.
- I think mine were more like dustbin lids
rather than dinner plates to be honest.
Now you might have got it by now that Fraser and myself
are big fans of using paddles and hopefully today's video
has clarified and highlighted those benefits
of using paddles so maybe you might want to include them
in your next swim workout.
- Yeah absolutely so if you've got any thoughts
or discussions or topics about using paddles
drop them down in the comments below
cause we'd love to read about them
and get involved in your discussions.
If you've enjoyed this video,
hit that thumb up wide button,
find the globe somewhere on screen
to get all the other content that we've got here on GTN.
And if you wanna see a video
that we did about swim kit essentials,
you can find that here.
- Yeah and on the biking side
if you wanna see something sort of related
see our overgearing video by clicking just down here.