| FitTip: Practice with Paddles |
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| by Diet Detective Editorial Staff | |
| Friday, 07 July 2006 | |
Like fins on your feet, hand paddles add resistance to your stroke,
which builds muscles and gives you cues to improve your form.One way to make developing a quality stroke easier is to practice it using hand paddles. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes and styles, ranging from simple plastic spades with loops for a finger or two to webbed gloves and mitts. Paddles work like fins on your feet, strengthening upper-body muscles by adding resistance, but they're especially helpful for improving your form by making your mistakes more noticeable, says Jane Katz, Ed.D., World Masters swimming champion and author of The All-American Aquatic Handbook: Your Passport to Lifetime Fitness (Allyn & Bacon, 1996). "They teach you to stroke more efficiently," she says.
If you don't raise your elbow high enough during your recovery, you'll know it as the paddle drags in the water alongside you. Similarly, if your hand enters at the wrong angle, you'll feel it slap against the water. "When you do it right you get more power, and when you do it wrong you get less," Katz says. Just remember that the added resistance can translate to added strain on your muscles and joints, so use them sparingly at first. "You don't want big paddles," Katz says. "Less is more. I like the small or medium paddles."
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