Get Faster With… Paddles

What if I told you there was a device that could make you swim faster the moment you put it on? One that lifts your body higher in the water, lets you feel what it's like to grab a whole armful of water, and lets you pile up more meters with less wear on your shoulders. And what if I told you it costs about as much as lunch?

It sounds like something you'd see on late-night TV, but it's real, and you probably already own a pair. It's the humble swim paddle, that flat piece of plastic rattling around at the bottom of every triathlete's mesh bag. Welcome back to the "Get Faster With…" series, where today we're giving paddles the attention they deserve, both the good and the not-so-good. Because like most simple tools, a paddle can be one of the best things in your training or one of the worst, and the difference comes down entirely to how you use it.

What Paddles Actually Do

At the most basic level, a paddle makes your hand bigger. That's the whole trick. But a bigger hand changes almost everything about your pull. You catch more water at the front of the stroke, you push more water back through the middle, and you travel farther on every single stroke.

The real benefit, though, isn't the extra distance. It's the feel. With paddles on, you get to experience what it's like to truly hold the water: to anchor your hand, set your catch, and push a big, solid chunk of water straight back past your hip. A lot of triathletes have never felt that with their bare hands, because their hand slips through the water before it ever grabs hold of anything. Paddles give you a clear, exaggerated version of the sensation you're chasing, and once you know what it feels like, you can go looking for it without them.

That's the best way to think about a paddle. Not as an engine that powers you down the pool, but as a teacher that shows you what a good pull is supposed to feel like.

The Strength Myth

Paddles get sold as a strength tool. The pitch goes something like this: swim with paddles, build a stronger pull, swim faster without them. It sounds logical, and sure, there's a little bit of extra load when you put them on. But in my experience, the added resistance just isn't enough to make you meaningfully stronger.

In fact, most people, myself included, find it easier to swim with paddles, not harder. Think about why. The bigger hand moves you through the water faster, and the faster you move, the higher your body rides on top of the water. A higher body position means less drag, and less drag means less work. So instead of making swimming harder the way a weight makes a lift harder, paddles usually make swimming feel smoother and faster than it does without them. That's not a strength workout. It's closer to a shortcut.

If your goal is to actually build strength in the water, that's a job for resistance training. Things like parachutes, drag socks, and power racks make swimming harder on purpose, which is exactly what you need to build more power in your stroke. Paddles mostly do the opposite. I go deep on the difference in get faster with resistance training.

Pull Sets: Paddles Plus A Buoy

When you see "pull" written on a workout, it almost always means paddles and a pull buoy together. And if paddles make swimming easier, the pull buoy makes it easier still.

The buoy sits between your thighs and floats your hips and legs right up to the surface. Remember, your body works like a teeter-totter in the water. When your legs sink, they drag behind you like an anchor, and every stroke has to fight that drag. The buoy takes care of that problem for you, lifting your back half so your whole body sits flat and high. Combine that with bigger hands and you've got the easiest, fastest, smoothest version of freestyle you'll ever swim.

That's exactly why so many triathletes love pull sets. They feel fast. They feel effortless. For a lot of people, a pull set is the one part of the workout where swimming finally feels like it's working.

Where I Love Them

I'll admit it, I'm a fan. I love paddles and a buoy, especially on long aerobic swims.

On those days, my goal is to spend more time in the water at a steady effort, building my aerobic base without beating up my body. Pulling lets me get more volume in without taxing my shoulders as much, because my body position is higher and each stroke takes less effort to move me forward. It's a way to add meters that my body can recover from easily, which is exactly what an aerobic day is for.

Used that way, on purpose and with a clear goal, pull is a great tool.

The Crutch

But here's the catch, and it's a big one. Paddles and a buoy are a crutch, and it's very easy to lean on them too hard.

The same things that make pulling feel so good are the things that hide what's wrong with your stroke. If your legs sink, the buoy floats them for you, so you never have to fix your body position. If your kick is weak, the buoy holds you up so it doesn't matter. If your catch slips, a big paddle grabs enough water to cover it up anyway. Swim with them too often and you'll get really, really good at swimming with paddles and a buoy, and not much better at swimming without them.

And there's no paddle or buoy waiting for you on race day.

I see this all the time. A lot of triathletes love pull sets not because of the benefits they're getting, but because they're easier. If pull is your favorite part of every workout, it's worth asking yourself why. It's also worth knowing that if your technique is off, big paddles can put a lot of stress on your shoulders, which is the opposite of what you want. So use them, enjoy them, but don't build your swimming on top of them. Most of your swimming should still happen with your own hands and your own legs.

Not All Paddles Are The Same

Paddles come in a lot of shapes and sizes, and each one changes your stroke in a different way.

Bigger paddles add the most resistance and give you the biggest feel for the water. They also change your timing the most and put the most load on your shoulders, so they're best saved for experienced swimmers with solid technique. Smaller paddles stay much closer to your natural stroke, so your timing and turnover don't change much, which makes them a better everyday choice for most triathletes.

Then there are finger paddles, which only cover your fingers. They barely add any resistance at all. Instead, they sharpen your feel for the water and make you more aware of exactly where your hand is pointing as you enter the water and set your catch. They're a great middle ground between swimming with paddles and swimming with your bare hands.

Take The Strap Off

No matter which paddles you use, here's the one change I'd make today: take off the wrist strap.

The wrist strap ties the paddle to your hand. That sounds like a good thing until you realize what it hides. With the strap on, your hand can enter the water at a bad angle, slice in thumb first, or pull out to the side, and the paddle stays stuck to you the whole time. You never feel the mistake, so you never fix it.

Take the strap off, and the paddle starts telling you the truth. If your hand enters the water wrong, or you pull at a bad angle, the water will catch the edge of the paddle and rip it right off your hand. When you do it right, it stays put without any help. Every stroke becomes instant, honest feedback, which is worth a lot more than any extra speed the paddle gives you.

Paddle Drills

This is where paddles really earn their spot in your bag. Some of the most useful things you can do with a paddle have nothing to do with pull sets at all. Here are a few of my favorites.

One paddle at a time. Swim with a paddle on just your right hand, then switch to just your left. The contrast between the two hands is the whole point. The hand with the paddle feels big and powerful, and the bare hand suddenly feels small, which makes you pay attention to exactly what each hand is doing. Most swimmers find one hand catches the water much better than the other, and this is one of the fastest ways to notice it and start evening them out.

The grab paddle drill. Turn the paddle upside down and grab it with your hand, so instead of covering your palm, it runs up along the inside of your forearm. Now your forearm becomes the paddle. The only way to feel pressure on it is to set your elbow high and get your forearm pointing down toward the bottom of the pool early in the stroke. That position is what coaches call an early vertical forearm, and this drill lets you feel it in a way that's very hard to describe in words. Your forearm is a much bigger surface than your hand, and this teaches you to use it.

Paddle on your head. Set a paddle flat on top of your head and swim easy freestyle. If your head lifts, bobs, or swings from side to side, the paddle slides off. To keep it there, your head has to stay still and in line with your spine while your body rotates underneath it. It's a simple way to check that your body line is right and that you're moving straight down the pool instead of snaking from side to side.

Paddles, then no paddles. Swim a 50 with paddles, focusing on the feeling of holding the water, then immediately swim a 50 without them and try to find that same feeling with your bare hands. The contrast helps the sensation carry over, which is the whole reason to use paddles in the first place.

And there are plenty of other creative ways to use them. Once you start thinking of a paddle as a teaching tool instead of a speed tool, you'll find new ways to use it to feel and fix things in your stroke.

My Favorite Paddles

My favorite paddles are the FINIS Agility Floating paddles. They have no straps at all, just a thumb hole, so they help you feel every mistake you make on your hand entry and your catch.

I started using them in 2014, and I've never gone back to anything else.

So next time you grab your paddles, take the wrist straps off before you get in the water. Swim one pull set and count how many times a paddle tries to escape. Every one of those is a lesson your old paddles never taught you.

Because the best swimming tool isn't the one that makes swimming easier. It's the one that tells you the truth.

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