VoloBlades: Shifting The Center Of Pressure Down To The Lower Palm.by eduard on Sat, 06/29/2013 - 13:19.

Swimming paddles were invented in the beginning of the 18th century. In the following 300 years, they have gone through manifold of successive alterations but the overall concept has remained the same. With the exception of finger- and anti-paddles, the traditional swimming paddle has a surface area slightly bigger than the swimmer’s hand and covers the hand and the fingers entirely. With such a surface area, the paddle’s center of pressure is located approximately between the swimmer’s upper palm and fingers as indicated by the intersections of the two red lines in the image below:

We thought that by shifting the center of pressure down to the lower palm we could design a more effective swimming paddle. To achieve this, we made the swimming paddle shorter and wider. The top edge of this new swimming paddle, which we named VoloBlades, does not extend beyond the top of the palm, allowing for the fingers to retain absolute freedom of movement. Because VoloBlades are shorter and wider, their center of pressure is located in the lower palm, as indicated by the intersection of the two red lines on the image below:

The benefits of a swimming paddle with a lowered center of pressure will become evident when we evaluate two activities during which the arms move in a similar manner to the movements during the pull phase of a swim stroke.

Suppose you are pulling yourself up onto the deck from the deep end of the pool. You place your hands on the deck and push down with the lower parts of your palms. You automatically do this, because subconsciously you know that it is the position from which you will generate the most power. By pushing down with the lower palms, you are recruiting bigger muscles, the lats specifically, which enable you to generate enough power to pull yourself onto the deck.

In contrast, if you try to pull yourself up onto the deck by pushing down with the upper palms or fingers, you will notice that it is significantly harder. By pushing down with your upper palms or fingers, you are recruiting smaller muscles, the triceps and shoulders, which are not as powerful as lats, making the task of pulling yourself up onto the deck nearly impossible.

If, however, you try to push down on the handle with the top parts of the palms or your fingers, it becomes virtually impossible to extend forward even a little bit without falling down. You fall because by pushing down on the handle with the upper palms or the fingers, you are recruiting smaller muscles, triceps and shoulders, which cannot generate as much power as the lats and the core and which cannot sustain your weight in the air.

Both examples describe arm movements analogous to the arm movement during the pull phase of the swim. Pulling yourself up by pushing down on the deck is equivalent to pulling yourself forward by pushing down on the water. Likewise, rolling out and then back in on the abs wheel is similar to pushing down the water during the pull phase of the stroke.

Furthermore, both examples demonstrate that pushing with the lower part of the palms generates significantly more power than pushing with the upper palms or the fingers. The same is true for swimming: pushing down the water with the lower palm during the pull phase of the swim generates more power. All other things equal, a swimmer with a more powerful pull will swim faster.

VoloBlades, due to their unique design, shift down the center of pressure, encouraging swimmers to pull with the lower palm. In addition, VoloBlades help swimmers develop awareness of what it feels like to pull with the lower palm as well as awareness of the connection between the hand, the arm and the core.

Swimming paddles have been around for almost 300 years. In that time, there have been numerous minor alterations but neither the overall concept nor design has changed significantly. VoloBlades, however, stand out because of their unique design and because of the way that they mimic natural movement, capitalizing on core muscles to help swimmers get stronger. We believe that VoloBlades will help you become a faster and more efficient swimmer because VoloBlades help develop a more powerful pull and bring about overall awareness of the connection between the hand, the arm and the core, all of which are necessary components for efficient and fast swimming.

Other uses for AquaVolo Band

Basic Balance Drills with AquaVolo Band:
Used around the upper body, binding arms at the waist, it isolates arms and encourages swimmers to use hips and core for balance and rotation rather than compensating with arms.

Breaststroke Kick

AquaVolo Band can also be used around the knees to help teach proper breaststroke kick.

Introducing VB AIR by eduard on Thu, 04/03/2014 - 18:06.

There are three common types of underwater arm pull in swimming:

1) the dropped elbow arm pull;

2) the straight arm pull; and

3) the high elbow arm pull.

Here is how James Counsilman describes each in his book, The Science of Swimming (1):

"The dropped elbow arm pull is the poorest type of pull and provides the swimmer with very little forward propulsion, since very little water is pushed backwards.

Dropped Elbow Pull

"The straight arm pull is better than the dropped elbow arm pull so far as effectiveness is concerned, but at points A and B the force applied downward is too great, and at points D and E the force applied upward is too great. This tends to push the swimmer upward at points A and B and downward when the hand is at D and E.

Straight Arm Pull

"The best pull is that which will minimize the dropped upward and downward components of the straight arm pull and provides a greater push backwards. It begins almost as a straight arm pull except that the elbow is higher. The elbow bends during the pull and then nearly straightens as the pull finishes.”

High Elbow Pull

The “best pull" here is synonymous with fast and efficient swimming. One of the prerequisites for the “best pull” as seen in the illustration above, is the high elbow catch (the arm position between the points A and B). To achieve the “best pull” the swimmer must first establish a high elbow catch, which is why the high elbow catch is considered a critical component of fast and efficient swimming. Swimmers and coaches dedicate a lot of time and effort to refining the technique involved in high elbow catch.

When we learn a new movement, our brain generates new motor pathways that carry the signals from the brain to the body parts responsible for that movement. For instance, if the swimmer consistently drops her elbow during the catch, the brain sends the information necessary to perform that particular movement (dropped elbow catch) to the appropriate body parts along established motor pathways. Let’s call these pathways the "dropped elbow catch" motor pathways.

If this swimmer wanted to develop a high elbow catch (a new movement), she would first have to develop the new “high elbow catch” motor pathways that would carry the appropriate signals from the brain to the body parts responsible for the high elbow catch. For the brain to activate new motor pathways, however, it needs to receive certain information related to the new movement. A logical question to ask at this point is: How can the swimmer perform the new movement in order to send the information related to this movement to the brain, if she doesn’t know how to perform the movement? It feels like a chicken and egg question, but the answer is to do drills and use tools that emphasize certain parts of a stroke and stimulate active thinking at critical moments. Drills allow the swimmer to perform in a consistent manner, over and over in order to refine a specific movement. Appropriate tools bring the swimmer’s attention to specific aspects of a stroke and/or build awareness of the water and the muscles involved in particular movements. VB AIR is one of such tools.

VB AIR

VB AIR inherit their design from our popular VoloBlades paddles. As we have written before, the design of VoloBlades shifts the point of pressure down to the lower palm, which promotes a high elbow catch and quick engagement of core muscles, resulting in a faster and more efficient swim. Furthermore, due to the unique design of VoloBlades, the fingers have direct and unobstructed contact with water, which is a crucial requirement for increasing the feel for water. VB AIR have an additional unique property: they are buoyant. To overcome this buoyancy, the swimmer has to exert extra effort when her arm enters the water and establishes the catch. When the swimmer is forced to exert extra effort in an unexpected place, it brings about awareness of that particular place and time. It forces the swimmer to pay closer attention to the details of the movement that she is performing.

Pushing down with the lower palm on the buoyant VB AIR promotes superior high elbow catch. The design and the buoyancy of VB AIR in combination with the swimmer’s awareness and active thinking during the catch phase create an environment in which the swimmer is able to make adjustments necessary for improved high elbow catch.  As it happens, the information related to the high elbow catch is sent do the brain that begins to activate new “high elbow catch” motor pathways. "The more particular pathway is activated during consistent, purposeful action, the likelier it is to be stabilized."(2) VB AIR allow for this consistent, purposeful action and the creation of an automatic high elbow catch.

References
1. The Science of Swimming. James E. Counsilman (1968) 
2. What's Going On In There. Lise Eliot (2000)

Do Finger Paddles Increase "Feel For Water"?

by eduard on Tue, 02/18/2014 - 07:34.

DragSox and Blades by Gavin on Fri, 04/25/2014 - 10:49.

Looking for some great inspiration?

click here

Michael Osborne | Warrior Aquatic Club

DragSox and BR fins with Thorlo athletic socks under the BR fins:

• 25 BR kick (recovery) on the back (kicking right leg, left leg, both legs) is usually on :50 to 1:00

We will do

• 25 BR kick + 25 BR kick on back (see above), 25 on front is on :25
• 50 BR kick + 25 BR kick on back, 50 is on :55 or 1:00
• 75 BR kick + 25 BR kick on back, 75 is on 1:25
• 100 BR kick + 25 BR kick on back, 100 is on 1:50

and we will repeat this once or twice

Here is a whole “pre-set” using fins and DragSox:

• 8 x 25 BR with dolphin kick, on :30
• 4 x 25 dolphin kick on :30
• 8 x (:20 vertical dolphin kick + :20 rest) alternate thumbs up (above the surface)/thumbs down (only the thumbs are in the water – rest of the arms are out)
• 4 x 25 BR with dolphin kick on :30
• 6 x dolphin kick rockets (shoot off the bottom of the pool – 12 feet deep – in a streamline) – have to watch for sensitive ears on this one due to water pressure
• 6 x 25 BR with 2-BR kicks/1-pull, on :30

Underwater BR kick relays across the pool (20 yards) – try no breathing (for age group)