The new fad in swimming is training equipment. Coaches love using all kind of gizmos and gadgets to try and improve their swimmers’ speed, strength, and technique. Some of these tools are better than others, and some are just a total waste of money. I’ll share with you guys my favorite and least favorite training equipment, along with a link to buy them on swimoutlet.com.

While we all love swimming with things like gigantic fins, because they’re a lot of fun, I’m more interested in what equipment is the best for improving the experience for competitive swimmers at any age or skill level.

Prices quoted are the current price, although SwimOutlet will often knock down their prices with sales. Click on the product to go directly to SwimOutlet.com and purchase any of the products mentioned. You won't find cheaper prices anywhere than SwimOutlet.

We LIKE this-TYR Streamline Kickboard ($13.95)- The streamlined design allows for great maneuverability and steering in the water. The shape also makes this board much better for practicing breaststroke and butterfly kick than a traditional board, because you can keep some semblance of that short-axis rotation going. The biggest bonus of these boards is that the grips on the side take some of the strain off of your shoulders. You might not believe that kicking strains your shoulders, but anyone who has had a shoulder injury can attest to the fact that it does.

We DON’T like this-Speedo Competition II Kickboard ($17.95)- The board is heavy and bulky, and is too buoyant to really be comfortable in the water. It too has the sideway handles, but the design forces you to have a fist grip on the board, which can become uncomfortable over time. This board is supposed to espouse the same principles as the TYR version, but I haven’t found a swimmer yet that prefers the Speedo.

We LIKE these-Speedo Vanquisher Goggles ($10.75)- The Speedo Vanquishers are probably the most popular goggles amongst competitive swimmers in the country. They provide a great balance of performance and comfort. They have enough padding to where they don’t hurt your eye sockets, but still maintain a low profile and don’t like. They have an almost universal fit. Adult males, try the Regular Vanquishers, women and males aged 12-15 use the women’s, and kids under 12 try the Jr.’s.

We DON’T like these-Speedy Hydrospex Goggles ($9.75)- It kills me when I still see these goggles at competitive swim practices and meets. Sure, they’re fine for splashing around in the backyard pool, but they leak, fall off when you dive in, don’t tighten well, and create a lot of drag. Furthermore, they distort your vision in the water. If you’re a competitive swimmer, it’s time to upgrade to a better model. I’m not even sure why they make an adult version of this goggle.

We LIKE these-Speedo Optimus Training Fins ($20.75), TYR Crossblade Training Fin ($22.95) & TYR Split Fins ($25.95)- These fins are a huge upgrade from just a few years ago, when competitive swimmers were forced to take giant, recreational fins and chop them off to get something useful for training. They all provide a split toe, which has 2 benefits: It allows swimmers to maintain a faster kick rate, which is supremely important, and it gives a more natural feel to the kick, which allows the strength to translate better to your races. Furthermore, they are all shorter fins, which allows you to have the benefits of improving leg strength and ankle flexibility, without ruining your kick rate. The Speedo version only goes up to size 11, the TYR’s go larger. And to answer a frequently asked question, this is the style of fin that Phelps uses.

We DON’T like these- Standard Rubber Training Fins- TYR Flexfins ($20.95), Speedo Trialon ($23.95), Tritan Swim Fins, ClubSwim Rubber Fins ($16.95), etc.- Every company makes them, they’re standard, floating, rubber fins, and people keep buying them, but they’re simply terrible for training. Of course, people love swimming with them, because you can go really fast without working very hard, but they cause your kick rate to slow down, and once you take them off, you find that you’ve lost all concept of body position because your feet will just sink. Sure, you’ll go faster while wearing these giant fins. But once the fins come off, you’ll be left in the dust.

We LIKE these-TYR Catalyst Paddles ($12.95) & Mentor Hand Paddles ($15.75)- These paddles are awesome, because they help improve strength, and encourage EVF. In general terms, EVF is the idea of keeping your elbow high when on the pull phase of your stroke, and getting your forearm into a vertical position as soon as possible to maximize the amount of water pulled backwards, and therefore forward propulsion. The beauty about these paddles, versus the standard Strokemaker version that many coaches still cling to, is that the gaps in the fingers give them a more natural feel, and significantly reduce shoulder strain.

We DON’T like these-FINIS Forearm Fulcrum ($17.99)- Sure, in theory these are great. After all, they encourage EVF! Or do they? The FF’s are the newest wonder-gadget in swimming, but I’ve already people sink money into them and the coaches only use them for 2 or 3 practices. These things don’t encourage me to swim with my elbows up at all. They might lock your hand in a straight (if not awkard) position, but paddles certainly accomplish the same thing. And a paddle will build more muscle memory, because they require more muscle use. The fulcrum just uses the plastic to support the arm, allowing you to almost not use your arm muscles, and encourage slipping of the hand. All they really do is remind you to keep your elbow up, which seems like a waste of 18 bucks. Plus, they fit a fairly narrow range of arms comfortably (both in circumference, and length).

What's wrong with the supersuits

With the calendar rolling over to 2010, the new FINA suit regulations are officially in place (although here in the states, they’ve been in place since the beginning of the fall season for most organizations). But that doesn’t mean that the debate over whether or not they SHOULD be allowed will subside.

Here’s my take on it. I don’t have a problem with records being broken. Records are made to be broken. Time standards can be adjusted. Look at all of the other training and race technology, and how that has changed swimming from even 10 years ago. Just because the suits aren’t going to be juiced up, doesn’t mean that swimming won’t continue to get faster. Sure, the pace at which records will be broken is going to slow down, but it will still happen. And that shouldn’t be a problem. The slew of records has tuned an entirely new audience on to the sport of swimming. When was the last time that the World Championships got as much coverage as they did in 2009? Never, and it was entirely due to the records.

And at the end of the day, while records are nice, swimmers are competing against the current field of swimmers. A World Champion in the 100m fly is still the best 100m butterflier in the world regardless of whether she set the World Record. And with the competitive balance that is popping up with swimming throughout the world (Australia and the United States used to dominate the swimming world, but now there are a number of top swimmers from other countries), there won’t be many swimmers who have nothing to chase but records anymore. There will always be a new swimmer pushing to be the best.

HOWEVER, I still think it was the right thing to ban the suits. The problem with the suits is limited access.

The polyurethane suits that the world’s best have been using to shatter records are incredibly expensive. They cost upwards of 700$ each, and are only good for a few races. Furthermore, they are made so tightly, that they commonly tear, requiring purchase of another suit.

If you’re Michael Phelps, and you are being paid to swim and win races, this is not a big deal. But for the rest of us, this financial outlay is just unimaginably huge.

Some people have argued that you then limit the suits to the top levels of swimming. But how do you decide what level of meets are important enough to warrant the suits? Sectional Championships? National Championships? The Olympics? And then what would result is a huge gap between those who have qualified for those meets and those who have not, and it would be a gap that would be near impossible to jump once you are on the outside. Especially when there are time standards involved, if for some reason a swimmer is not able to compete the weekend of a Sectionals meet or National Championship where the suits are allowed, then how can USA-Swimming possibly expect to set equitable Olympic Trials time standards, when different swimmers are competing with different suits?

USA-Swimming’s quick fix was to disallow the suits for swimmers aged 12&under, with the presumption that any swimmer over that age was committed enough to spend the money on the suits if they truly wanted to be the best. The problem with this theory is that once you get to a certain level, swimming is no longer separated by age. For example, Dana Vollmer qualified for the Olympic Trials at age 12. Should she have been punished simply because of her age, even though she was one of the best swimmers in the country of ANY age? I certainly don’t think so.

And at what age is the appropriate cut-off, and does that really solve the problem? At age 16, I still couldn’t afford one of those suits, but there are plenty of 16 year old's that compete for, and even win, spots on Olympic rosters.

I think that this issue of access to and fairness of the suits between the haves and the don’t-haves is the real problem. Of course, the powers that be who are in charge of FINA now probably just don’t like that all of their times, that used to be World Class, would now make them just average age-group swimmers due to the new suits.

Many of the world’s top swimmers, including THE top swimmer Michael Phelps, that have been given a chance have expressed their disapproval of the suit. If they don’t like them, then there’s got to be a good reason to not have them.

Why does the U.S. struggle in 50 meter races?

Today I was having a conversation with a very experienced, well-respected coach, and somehow, 50 yard/meter swimming came up. He made a comment that team records in these events were probably relatively slow because the senior swimmers hardly ever swim those events. When I pointed out that most international meets have 50 meter races in all 4 strokes, his reaction indicated that he either didn’t realize this or hadn’t considered it.

It got me thinking about racing 50’s, and why they are so unpopular in the United States. The international swimming community has embraced these events since they really spiked in popularity at the beginning of the millennium, but the United States poo-poo’s on them. Aside from the 50 free, 50 yard and meter events are not swum at the senior level. They’re not official events for the NFHS (high school), the NCAA or NAIA (college), at the National Championships, the Grand Prix, or pretty much any other sanctioning body in the United States for senior-aged swimming.

When looking through the big national level, and sub-national level, meets at many of the other big swimming nations (South Africa, Germany, Italy, Australia) have been much more receptive of the 50 meter events since they were first recognized by FINA in the mid 90’s. I don’t know for a fact that all other nations in the world have a preponderance of 50 meter races, but all of the ones I checked did.

I think that 50 meter races are a great way to bring spectators to swimming, as they are really exciting for even those who don't totally grasp what's going on, especially in a short course pool. What a lot of big international meets are doing is working down to a "shootout" final for 50 meter races, where 2-4 swimmers line up and gun it out for 20-25 seconds. It's about as good as it gets for high-excitement swimming, and would love to see more of it in the States.

As further evidence of America preferring against the 50 meter races, let’s look at the historical data since the 2001 World Championships: the first where the 50 fly, back, and breast were made a part of the official schedule.

Percentage of Medals won by American Swimmers at World Championships Since 2001

	2001 WC	2003 WC	2005 WC	2007 WC	2009 WC	Total
50 meter events	5/24 (20.83%)	2/24 (8.33%)	3/24 (12.5%)	7/24 (29.16%)	2/25* (8%)	19/121 (15.70%)
All other WC events	18/78 (23.08%)	19/78 (24.36%)	23/78 (29.49%)	24/78 (30.77%)	16/39 (20.51%)	100/390 (25.64%)

*There were 25 medals awarded as a result of a tie for the bronze medal in the women's 50m freestyle

Thus far, Americans have clearly struggled in 50 meter events relative to the longer disciplines. To extrapolate the measure of success even further, from medalists to finalists: At the 2009 World Championships, the United States had 16.39% (34/209) of the finalists in events longer than 50 meters, versus only 10.94% (7/64) in the 50 meter events. In 2007, these numbers were 19.71% (41/208) and 15.63% (10/64) respectively. This data all seems to indicate that the United States, at the international level, struggle (relatively speaking) in the 50 meter races.

I have a few theories about why this could be.

1. Americans struggle in the 50 meter events and therefore they don’t gear their training towards them.- It would serve to reason that, if Americans struggled in the 50 meter events, and knew they would struggle in the events, that they wouldn’t spend as much time training them. Maybe some of the elite coaches found that American swimmers, for one reason or another, just couldn’t keep up with the international swimmers in the sprint distances, and thus created a culture of not focusing on them. Eventually, over the past 8 years, this attitude may have percolated down to the local level.
2. Americans struggle in the 50 meter events because they don’t gear their training towards them.- The opposite of #1. It’s possible that American coaches don’t give legitimacy to these events, because it takes less training to be good at them, and thus choose not to train their top swimmers for the events. In this country, we have great access to coaching, facilities, training aides, training technology, and a great swimming infrastructure, and all of these lend themselves towards being great at longer races. Of course, Australia, which probably has the equivalent facilities, coaching, and perhaps even a better infrastructure, has been more accepting of the 50 meter races.
3. The events are not swum at the Olympics, in college, or in highschool.- It’s all about the Olympic Glory. Until very recently, the Olympics were the only swimming event that got any publicity in the United States, and so top coaches focused all of their training on Olympic events. Similarly, NFHS and NCAA swimming have no individual 50 meter events aside from freestyle. In the United States, high school and college are as important to most people as USA-Swimming. Perhaps in other countries, where they don’t have the same high school and collegiate athletics set up, they can put more focus on club swimming, which culminates in FINA sanctioned events that usually includes sprint races. Of course, since the Phelps juggernaut has hit the scene, more and more national and international events have been getting focus. This month, the IOC denied FINA’s request to add the sprint events to the Olympic schedule. Perhaps as meets like the World Championships, Duel in the Pool, and FINA World Cup continue to get more exposure, Americans will become fonder of the shorter events and they will make their way into more meets.
4. The World Championships results don’t tell the whole story.- Maybe the reason the Americans don’t do well in the sprints at the World Championships is because the U.S. W.C. trials don’t include the 3 stroke sprint events. Instead, swimmers that qualify in the longer disciplines are thrust into the sprint events, and may not give it full effort. For example, at the 2009 World Championships, Matt Grevers and Aaron Piersol both failed to get out of the preliminary heats in the 50m backstroke, while Peter Marshall (who has since broken the World Record in the event) was left home. Adam Klein, who was the U.S.’s 2^nd qualifier in the 200m breaststroke, swam the 50 and finished in 50^th place. 50^th! From the best swimming program in the world, we can’t find another swimmer to finish any higher than 50^th? I know we can’t win every race, but we can do better than that. Of course, this alone can’t tell the whole story. There must be something else contributing towards the attitude of USA-Swimming towards the events that results in them being left off of the docket at the WC trials, and most other national meets. But this is probably a contributing factor in the poor results.
5. Coaches’ egos get in the way.- An important part of coaching is feeling as though you still have influence over what athletes are doing. More often than not, coaches coach because they still have a competitive drive, but are past the point of their life where they can or will compete. To keep themselves motivated, coaches need this feeling as though what they are doing matters. In the 50 meter races, the coaches practices and training has the least effect over the swimmers success. The top 50 meter swimmers are almost always the ones with the most high-twitch muscle fiber. Michael Phelps is the best swimmer in the World, and trains as hard, if not harder, than any swimmer in the world, but never competes in 50 meter races. This is not an accident, rather it’s because he is simply not built for the races and would get blown away by the likes of Liam Tancock, Steffen Dibler, Cameron van der Burgh, etc. Not that those sprinters don’t train hard. But without any training, I’d bet that those guys’ times would suffer significantly less than would Phelps’, Grant Hacketts’, Paul Biedermanns’, etc.

I think it’s probably a grand collusion of all of these factors that conspire to create an atmosphere of anti-sprints.

So, what do you think is the problem? And what are your opinions on the 50 meter events. Would you prefer to see them featured more prevalently here in the states? Leave your locale and level of swimming along with your opinion in your comment to give your response context!