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.