Used fistgloves for fist time...

Peter Brown <pbrown@no_spam_enterprise.net> wrote in a message -

<<I used some fistgloves for the first time yesterday. I just did some of my usual drills and then
about 1/2 mile straight swimming before taking them off and doing about another 1/2 mile. This
morning, the muscles in my lower back were _really_ tight. This wore off through today. Does anyone
know of the tight muscles a good or bad thing?>>

Hi Peter. I'm not sure what kind of coorelation there is between using a pair of fistgloves for the
first time and tight lower back muscles. It sounds to me as if you may have been "trying too hard"
when you swam with the fistgloves. My recommendation is to swim as relaxed as possible when you wear
them, focusing for instance on the feeling of the pressure of the water's resistance on your
forearms as you anchor them.

The "closed fist" or "clenched fist" drill has been around for 40 or 50 years. Howard Firby, one of
the greatest coaches of the 20th century, is generally credited with this innovation. One of the
main reasons to practice fist swimming is to take away the surface area of your hand when pulling
against the water which tends to highlight the effectiveness of the surface area of the forearm for
propulsion. Although the forearm isn't flat and wide ("paddle" shaped like the palm of the hand),
there is quite a bit of surface area compared to the hand and the speculation is that rotating the
forearm as you sweep out and then in during the power phase of the stroke cycle induces a circular
flow of water around the forearm that creates "lift".

When you remove your fistgloves the palm side and back side of your hands are extremely sensative to
the pressure of the water for a period of time allowing you to find better angles of attack and more
productive hand speeds to keep your hands from "slipping".

As is our usual custom when posting to this newsgroup, I'm disclosing that I have a financial
interest in the fistglove. I invented it in 1980 and since 1996 have sold fistgloves to coaches and
swimmers as a "teaching" aid. Their use is very different than using paddles which are probably more
correctly termed a "training" aid.

Regards,

Scott

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] (Scott

Lemley) said:

Peter Brown <pbrown@no_spam_enterprise.net> wrote in a message -

<<I used some fistgloves for the first time yesterday. I just did some of my usual drills and then
about 1/2 mile straight swimming before taking them off and doing about another 1/2 mile. This
morning, the muscles in my lower back were _really_ tight. This wore off through today. Does
anyone know of the tight muscles a good or bad thing?>>

Hi Peter. I'm not sure what kind of coorelation there is between using a pair of fistgloves for
the first time and tight lower back muscles. It sounds to me as if you may have been "trying
too hard"

Thanks for the advice Scott. I think I was trying too hard. During my first few lengths, I noticed
how much my length time (obviously) increased. I was obsessed with decreasing my length time and
after a few lengths, I managed to pull some of the time back. So I was probably overdoing things and
not using them as intended.

Quoted message said:

pb

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