How a Triathlete can Benefit Using a Swim Training Snorkel
14 Benefits Of Using Swim Training Snorkel
Do snorkels really belong in a swimming pool? Many swimmers view the snorkel as being more suitable for activities in the ocean or as a helpful tool to use while on holiday.
Exploring the vibrant corals while snorkelling is an incredible activity, but swim-training snorkels are also a powerful coaching tool that can be transformative to your swimming prowess.
The goal of this article is to explain the advantages of using a swim training snorkel, the drills that employ it to enhance performance, the physical benefits that come with regular snorkel usage, and a helpful guide for purchasing a snorkel. Let’s dive right in!
The benefits of using a swim training snorkel
Incorporating a swim training snorkel into your workout program can have an immense impact. It is one of the most beneficial training aids, comparable to the likes of swim fins and kickboards. Using a swim snorkel can improve your style of swimming, whether it is freestyle or breaststroke, more effectively than a traditional snorkel.
Push-offs are a bit tougher because as you break the surface of the water, the movement of the leg causes the water to flap over the top of your head and release a stream of bubbles just like a whale would out of its blowhole, producing a spritz of chlorine in the air.
Once you become accustomed to using a swimmer’s snorkel, it is obvious that there are advantages to incorporating it into your workout routine.
1. Designed for the serious swimmer
If you’re unfamiliar with swim training snorkels, your initial reaction might be that they are an inconvenience. Regular snorkels may cause resistance in the water, and faster swimming styles such as front crawl and butterfly could cause water to enter your mouth.
Swim snorkels work differently. A swimming snorkel can help you swim low in the water with the aid of a head bracket and a mouthpiece that is pointing forward. This ensures you remain facing the right direction as you swim. This offers a never-ending opportunity to swim using all kinds of styles.
2. Helps you become one with the water
The West is becoming increasingly aware of Eastern philosophies. Meditation and awareness of one’s thoughts and feelings have become commonplace terms. In today’s rapidly changing environment, any chance for serenity should be cherished.
Training snorkels are very hydrodynamic. They create minimal resistance and are comfortable for the person wearing them.
Combining an unlimited degree of inhalation and the opportunity to retain the snorkel in position during flips while swimming laps (this will necessitate a bit of training) gives the person an effortless swimming experience.
A swim training snorkel makes swimming more enjoyable, making it easier to become one with the water and free yourself from any anxieties.
3. Increases awareness
A lot of freestyle swimmers have difficulty maintaining their necks in a steady position during the swim stroke. A snorkel for swimming can help to straighten your posture from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. You can utilize this technique for your freestyle swimming that does not involve snorkelling with repetition.
Having a more upright head posture can result in a punch with greater substance. Swimmers can briefly interlock their ankles while glancing up to inhale. Being able to breathe without having to tilt your head upwards allows you to have a steady flutter kick without needing to switch sides while taking breaths.
It is difficult to constantly watch the bottom of the pool when one’s instinct is to look ahead to avoid coming to any harm. Frequently tilting your head upwards is detrimental to your posture and your fluidity of movement. A swim training snorkel has been created to require that you look downwards, which results in enhancing your swimming stroke.
At this point, you are free to forget about breathing and just concentrate on your technique as you swim through the water. As previously noted, the swim snorkel allows you to be more aware and in the moment.
This heightened consciousness will permit you to apprehend the subtle details of your stroke. When you become aware of the minute details, you can make some slight alterations to your stroke pattern, leading to greater speed and better form.
4. Improves your length times
If you are a swimmer who is looking to stand out against the competition, you must do whatever you can to reduce your time in the water and make sure that you have an advantage during swim meets.
Research has demonstrated that employing a swim snorkel during training helps to raise both the stroke rate and length. When all is said and done, enhanced technique leads to a better stroke, leading to better outcomes.
You should have no problem impressing your Strava fans with quicker laps while wearing your workout snorkel. If you take the enhanced snorkelling methods and apply them to your swimming strokes without the aid of the snorkel, you have a chance of achieving personal records at swim competitions.
5. Keeps your backstroke on point
Those who read carefully may have observed that we declared that a swim training snorkel assists with all swimming strokes. We are all aware that swimming the backstroke does not require you to submerge your head in the water. Would it not be unnecessary for a swim snorkel in this situation?
If you rotate your snorkel, it will appear like it is an aerial and project above your head. Utilizing the snorkel while swimming backstroke provides you with a means of gauging the amount of head movement.
Maintaining proper alignment of your body is as critical when doing backstroke as it is when swimming front crawl. It is surprising to consider that a swimming snorkel might be able to enhance backstroke performance.
6. Provides larger lung capacity and pain relief
Using a swim training snorkel can have a positive impact on your physical and mental well-being both in and outside of the swimming pool. A better respiratory system and diminished aches in the neck are both results of utilizing a snorkel.
A single night of sleeping with your head off the pillow can lead to multiple days of neck discomfort, even when you make the slightest motion, resulting in significant pain. Employing a centre-mounted snorkel can provide a break for your neck when you are swimming for exercise.
Have you ever encountered athletes running while sporting masks that decrease the air intake while they practice? A training snorkel works the same way as it slightly hinders the flow of air. You can reduce the amount of air that goes into your lungs even further with a limiter which will enhance your breathing capability.
Regular practice of this kind will gradually increase your aerobic fitness level so that you require less breathing while swimming without using a snorkel.
7. Balance out your stroke
A significant advantage of using a swim snorkel is that not inhaling on your preferred side makes your stroke more even.
This is especially relevant for sprinters who require a gentle, canoe-like arm movement in their stroke. Having the agility to rotate your arms quickly and evenly helps produce a smoother stroke which helps you keep a steady pace while swimming.
Using a snorkel is advantageous for mid-distance and distance swimmers because it helps keep the amount of effort put in by both sides of their body balanced, as well as helps to prevent any over-straining of one shoulder. Muscle discrepancies can be a main factor in a swimmer’s shoulder, so that could also be a potential issue.
8. Encourages you to keep your face down in freestyle
Swimmers naturally pick their heads up when swimming freestyle.
Swimming with our heads down in the direction of the floor of the pool contradicts our natural tendency to look at where we are headed. It’s more of a safety precaution than it is an unhealthy practice in training.
A snorkel is not a fix-all when it comes to helping a swimmer locate the wall or avoid people in the pool, but it does induce the swimmer to hold their head and eyes lower when moving through the water.
9. Forces you to keep a straight head
For those of you who swim freestyle, bobbing your head from side to side will give you a wet shock when you turn your head and dip the end of the snorkel into the water as if it were a straw.
A snorkel assists in keeping the head in a steady position, thus providing a direct line from the crown of the head all the way down to the feet.
Maintaining a streamlined form when swimming quickly is essential.
Maintaining your composure is a must when snorkelling since that is what the equipment requires. Rotating your hips and shoulders creates propulsion, rather than merely moving your head around.
10. Its use can be done (mostly) without interfering with proper technique
Swimming is mainly a skill-based activity, and if we include items at the side of the pool they should reinforce the correct technique.
No matter if we’re looking at swimming paddles, resistance bands or swimming fins, if we are not using the correct technique, the only thing we are achieving is either forming or reinforcing poor technique.
A small number of investigations performed on the utilization of swim snorkels by competitive swimmers revealed that breaststrokers executing numerous 25m dashes typically shifted to a slower and less angled stroke.
11. You can actually swim faster with the snorkel
Having proper technique generally translates to being more productive in the pool…and we all know what that equates to…quicker swims!
Research has demonstrated that competitive swimmers who wore a snorkel and executed a 100m sprint utilizing the breaststroke and freestyle style swam quicker than when they employed traditional swimming techniques. Breaststrokers saw an increase of more than 6%, while freestylers experienced a rise of almost 5%. (Alrighty then!)
12. A fuller kick
A problem that is frequently encountered by swimmers is crossing their ankles occasionally when they rotate their heads, which impedes the flutter kick motion behind them. No swaying from side to side that leads to an awkward foot positioning which impedes the kick is achieved, leading to more reliable kicking.
13. Great for kick sets
I almost always take my large and unattractive green kickboard to the pool, no matter if I’m warming up, doing a few fast kicking sets, or even taking the time to get more in tune with the feeling of the water through long, slow kicking.
However, it doesn’t always promote correct body positioning and makes it more difficult to kick and combine shoulder and hip rotation as during ordinary swimming.
A snorkel can be very useful here, as it allows you to conserve energy and reach maximum levels of speed. You can also just let your arms hang at your sides and mimic the rotating motion of your shoulders and hips to match your ordinary body position when doing a full swim stroke.
14. Increases feel for the water
It may be the cognizance of improved stroke technique, or the smoother arm rotation that makes it so, but the emphasis on superior body position and steady kicking effectively translate to regular swimming.
What does this mean for you?
If you’re not doing as well in the water as you’d like, or your times in practice aren’t what you want them to be, it’s a good idea to focus on the fundamentals and practice swimming very slowly while using a snorkel.
Top 3 Snorkels for Swimmers
This guide briefly covers three of the more sought-after snorkels in the market. Be sure to read all of our evaluations of the top swim snorkels for swimming to get the most information on this type of gear.
1. FINIS Freestyle snorkel
The FINIS freestyle snorkel is perfect for those who do freestyle and ensures that the head remains in an optimal position. Lift your chin and take a sip of a chlorine-flavoured cocktail.
2. FINIS Swimming Snorkel
This is the “regular” FINIS snorkel. They were the pioneers of head-mounted snorkels and kept exclusive rights to the product until 2004.
3. MP Michael Phelps Focus Swim Snorkel
The most accomplished swimmer ever was involved in the making of its design. What he finds suitable for his practice is satisfactory for everybody else.
Swim With Your Snorkel
Your snorkel should be tailored to help you reach the desired outcomes in your swimming. This tool is quite affordable, plus it is very adaptable so you can use it to target weaknesses and get better.
Let’s now observe a couple of exercises that make use of a swim snorkel after you have gained some knowledge on how it can increase your body alignment and posture.
These exercises are sure to spice up your workout and are effective for swimmers of all levels of skill. You could also use swimming fins to make your training routine even more energetic.
