12 Days of Christmas Gifts: Day Four

Iron Mike here presents to you twelve days of gift ideas for the marathon swimmer in your life. Check back daily!

Day four: Sunday, 17 December. Pull buoys.

Pull buoys are important if you’d like to feel what your body position should feel like. When I started, my feet dragged in the water due to a weak kick. Using a pull buoy gave me a feel for the water that I then tried to emulate when I didn’t have the buoy between my legs holding my bottom half up.

When I swim now with the buoy it is so I can concentrate on my pull. I can ignore my legs and just work on my catch. But not all pull buoys are created equal.

My legs are heavy. The wimpy buoys that many pools have in a cage on deck usually don’t hold my legs up. I need a nice solid buoy. The one I like and use the most now is the TYR Stars & Stripes pull buoy. One, because I’m unabashedly patriotic. Two, it is large enough to hold up my heavy legs.

There are other styles of pull buoy out there. The old style two white Styrofoam version. The pull buoy/kickboard combo style.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *