putting paddles on a swimmer who has technical issues (i.e. dropped elbows, bi-lateral imbalance in their hand entry, crossing the center line, a lack of feel for the catch and inability to anchor that catch) may not be in their best interest until some of the technical deficiencies are corrected.
It teaches you proper body position (keeping those hips nice and high, teaching us what efficient swimming should feel like), it targets your upper body exclusively (great for when your legs are gassed), it can help you focus on proper technique (allowing you to focus, for example, on early vertical forearm), combined with paddles and/or an ankle band, can be a heckuva upper body workout, and finally, it’s good for improving “feel” of the water (because you can *generally* do pull sets longer than regular swimming there is more time spent working on the arm stroke, and more time improving your hand’s relationship with the water.). Now, with any piece of swimming gear there is the temptation to cross-over from tool to crutch. If you are constantly reaching for the pull buoy to avoid having to work on proper swim technique that incorporates the kick, then it’s almost certainly a case of the latter. When we lean on the pull buoy we start avoiding some of the critical aspects of our swimming, from using the full kinetic chain to having incorrect stroke technique. Using the pull buoy can also produce other downsides. One big downside is limited hip rotation (power in the stroke should not come only from the arms and shoulders; a lot of it is derived from the hips.). Throwing a pull buoy between your legs tends to make your hips flatter, which will slightly reduce your stroke length. Frequent use of the buoy can also make you reliant on it for proper hip position. A pull buoy gives the hips an artificial lift–but if the moment you take it off, your hips plunge to the bottom of the pool, it’s time to stop using it and figure out why 
your hips are sinking.
Swimmer’s snorkel. The center-mount snorkel is a relatively new tool in the competitive swimmer’s arsenal. It straps to the front of your head, allowing you to breathe through a mouthpiece while keeping your face below the surface. It takes a bit of getting used to and sometimes a nose-plug comes in handy to prevent water getting up your nose. It is really worth the effort to learn how to use it though. The snorkel can help both the beginner and experienced swimmer focus on stroke improvement while effectively eliminating the interruption of turning the head to breathe. It allows you to relax, breathe easily and maintain proper body alignment as well as focus on the proper hand pathway under the water. It can also balance out the workload across both sides of your body allowing you to avoid overloading one of your shoulders. It encourages you to keep your head down during freestyle as well. While using a snorkel won’t completely remove your need to pick up your head and eyes to find the wall, it does encourage you to look down. Proper head alignment is key to swimming balanced and streamlined! The snorkel can also help you swim straighter—something we can all improve upon in open water swimming! I use the snorkel during my warm-up and during drill sets.
Tempo Trainers. The tempo trainer is one of my favorite toys. It’s a round clocklike device that’s small enough to fit underneath your swim cap or can clip on to your goggle strap. It’s nothing more than a metronome that helps to improve your stroke rate, which can make you swim more efficiently and thus faster. It works by beeping to the frequency at which you set it. Your job is to make sure each hand enters the water in time with the beep. You can speed it up or slow it down so that you can closely gauge your intensity during each swim session. There are two objectives to using a tempo trainer: 1. To become familiar with timing the stroke to the beep at various points in the cycle. 2. To experience the effects of tempo changes on SPL (Stroke per Length), and begin to understand the relationship between SPL and Tempo.
(during training sessions that is). Like a pull buoy, the buoyancy of the shorts lifts up your hips, putting your body in the proper balanced position, which frees you to focus on your stroke. The primary reason I find these superior to a pull buoy is that I can swim with my whole body, which includes proper hip rotation and kicking. These shorts permit a more natural roll in the water aligned to my natural stroke—something a pull buoy does not allow. If I’m looking for more of an upper body strength workout, then I slip on my hand paddles. These shorts are also super helpful for those swimmers that have an over-aggressive kick (usually employed in an effort to keep their bodies afloat). As is the case with all these swimming toys, these shorts are beneficial when used in moderation. I wouldn’t recommend wearing them for more than 30-40% of your workout. Make sure when you put them on you are consciously reinforcing good habits. Use your sessions in neoprene shorts to consciously think about those things that are difficult to work on when you’re just fighting to maintain good body position. Pick one thing at a time to focus on: hip rotation, head in the proper position, or the timing of your kick, pull and breathing.
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