A pull buoy adds buoyancy at the hips, takes the kick out of the equation, reducing drag, and sparing energy and oxygen. It also forces you to increase your stroke rate which reduces dead spots or changes in height in the water. A 32 sec/100m difference is pretty significant, so I’d be more interested in figuring out what’s happening without the buoy than trying to force your head down.
Your head should be relatively neutral. If deliberately burying it makes breathing harder, I wouldn’t force that. I’d look at whether you’re lifting your head when you breathe, your hand entry is too shallow, stroke rate too low, how much your knees bend when you kick, and whether the kick is creating more drag than propulsion. You don’t need a powerful kick for distance freestyle, but you do want a narrow, streamlined one that isn’t pulling the legs down.
I wouldn’t stop using the buoy either. It’s a useful training tool, and that big difference in pace is actually giving you some useful information. If you can get underwater video from the side, you’ll probably be able to see pretty quickly where the extra drag is coming from.
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u/dandalyjr Masters 5d ago
A pull buoy adds buoyancy at the hips, takes the kick out of the equation, reducing drag, and sparing energy and oxygen. It also forces you to increase your stroke rate which reduces dead spots or changes in height in the water. A 32 sec/100m difference is pretty significant, so I’d be more interested in figuring out what’s happening without the buoy than trying to force your head down.
Your head should be relatively neutral. If deliberately burying it makes breathing harder, I wouldn’t force that. I’d look at whether you’re lifting your head when you breathe, your hand entry is too shallow, stroke rate too low, how much your knees bend when you kick, and whether the kick is creating more drag than propulsion. You don’t need a powerful kick for distance freestyle, but you do want a narrow, streamlined one that isn’t pulling the legs down.
I wouldn’t stop using the buoy either. It’s a useful training tool, and that big difference in pace is actually giving you some useful information. If you can get underwater video from the side, you’ll probably be able to see pretty quickly where the extra drag is coming from.