Coaches like swimming toys

Swimming is an amazing sport that has lots of benefits, however, if you have to swim twice everyday (as the top athletes do) it could get quite boring at times and one needs a lot of other distractions to keep motivated. One of these motivational techniques is the use of newly developed swimming equipment (I like to call them "coaching toys"). This article will give you a small sample of some of the stuff that is out there, but believe me, the possibilities are endless.

Here we go:
- As discussed in previous posts here and here Front snorkel is a great, fun way to teach your swimmers the skill of head position and body rotation. (personal tip: I love this piece of equipment, however, beware that some swimmers will not be able to use it as they do not know how to blow out water out of the snorkel, so be patient.)



- To help your swimmers' lungs you can try the Cardio cap this little piece of equipment goes on top of the snorkel mentioned above. It is thought to help with lung conditioning by 40%. (personal tip: If you already have the snorkels, this is a good/cheap way to break out of the monotony of everyday practice.)



- Another good way to get your swimmers rolling is the Hydro Hip. You can easily combine the snorkel and this belt together. (personal tip: the fins on the belt are usually not attached very well, so they thend to slide, you will need some sort of a padding between the belt and the fin attachement to make the connection tighter).



- Last hip rotation mechanism I will introduce is the Tech Toc belt. Each time swimmer rotates his/her hips a little ball hidden in the top of the belt hits a side of the mechanism and creates noise. If the rotation is not good enough, no sound will happen. (personal tip: This toy is nice to try but it is not the best, so before you go all crazy buying 10 of these for your team, I'd suggest trying the Hydro Hip above.)


A few more toys are listed on the next page, so go on and click on the link below...


- We all know that swimmers love to feel the speed and the fast movement of the water across their bodies. One way to get your swimmers excited is to give them a Mono Fin. These fins are used usually for underwater reacing, but for our purposes it can be a great learning toy for dolphin kick underwater. It will strengthen ones abdominal area and it is fun :)(personal tip: be careful though, some mono fins are quite rough on the ankles and can create nasty blisters/bruising, so make sure you know what you are buying before you pull out your wallet.)


- One very old piece of equipment is the Pull buoy. This simple toy
is inserted in between your legs and it keeps your feet from kicking, so you can concentrate only on the arm movement. (personal note: this is a must for any swimmer as it helps float the legs up a little, so especially the men with bigger thighs will apperciate it)

If you have your own experience with the above mentioned devices, please let me know.

Note: All pictures are courtesy of Swim-shop.com
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