Why do some swimmers in more advanced classes still use swimming or buoyancy aids such as a noodle, aquaplane or kick board?
Some swimmers may still use a swimming or buoyancy aid such as a float or a noodle when they can swim unaided to help with improving the efficiency and technique of their strokes.
Noodles and kick-boards can be used to isolate and focus on improving one part of a stroke, for example, here we can see one of our swimmers using a noodle to focus on perfecting the motion of her legs whilst swimming breast stroke. We can then see her using a kick-board to focus on different areas of the backstroke. First holding the board down over the legs to enforce keeping the legs straight, pointing the toes up and preventing the knees from bending. Secondly holding the board with one arm across the chest to focus on perfecting the single arm motion for the backstroke.
Aquaplanes can be used as buoyancy aids to help swimmers stay afloat when they have been asked to swim a longer distance. Increasing the distance can often be tiring and hard work so using a buoyancy aid can help to alleviate worries of staying afloat whilst trying to improve on stroke efficiency. For example, here we can see one of our swimmers who have recently moved from non-swimmer to beginner level. This means that she now needs to work on swimming double the distance than what she is used to. Using an aquaplane helps her to stay afloat while swimming the longer distance so that she can work on improving her stroke efficiency which is the main focus.