Fishlike Sports Academy Pte. Ltd.

No suspense about this one: fistgloves are unquestionably the best way to learn how to anchor your hands "quickly". They turn any swimmer into a problem solver. When the problems the fistgloves create are solved, the ungloved hand will be much more solidly anchored than before.

One of my favorite coaching techniques is to present swimmer with a well-designed challenge, for example, figuring out how to make forward progress in the water without the use of an open hand. It never fails... Swimmers will experiment with different solutions and intuitively selects the one that works best (and it won't necessarily be the same solution for every swimmer). With furthur practice, they'll eventually "own" the improved techniques that is resulted, and they'll remember the lessons deeply because they discovered the answer all by themselves. In my experience, self-discovered techniques under experienced supervision are invariably more natural to the swimmer than one imposed by a coach or teacher.

The problem presented to the swimmer by the fistglove stroke trainer is ironically: how do you hold on to the water when you have nothing to hold on with? By squeezing the hands into a tight, latex-wrapped fist, a fistglove turns a broad, flat surface into a rubber nub. On the first few lengths, your hands would most likely slip helplessly through the water. But, gradually, you'll figure out how to gain a little control. This is done partly by using the forearm for purchase, partly by increasing the rotation of your body, and partly by simply learning to be more patient. By making the catch with exquisite patience and attention, you will eventually learn to get the water to resist the gloved hand "just a little bit". With practice you can learn to do remarkable things with the slight amount of resistance. So much so that by continuing to stroke patiently, the gloved-swimming sensation will gradually come to feel almost "normal". After a while, you may even wonder if you're wearing a glove!

Measure how much control you're gaining by counting strokes per length. If your experience is similar to mine and that of your TI swimming colleagues you'll find that when you first start wearing the fistgolve, your stroke count per 25 meters may be 3 to 4 strokes higher than without the gloves. But, after regular and attentive practice with the gloves, your gloved count would surprisingly drop to only 1, 2, or even 0 counts higher than your ungloved count. Here, you've learned to balance and rotate and find the best path through the water with our arms.

The real magic, of course, happens when you peel off the gloves. Suddenly, the previously ordinary-feeling hand seems "buge", as if you had a dinner-plate-sized paddle at the end of your arm. And with that broad, flat, bladelike implement to work with, holding on to the water - anchoring your hand - turns out to be a piece of cake.

Why are fistglove better than paddles for teaching the feel for water? Because paddles teach the opposite lesson from fistgloves. Swimmers figure that paddles will teach them how it feels to have "big hands". Once the paddles come off they'll only remember that particular sensation they're aiming for. While the paddles are on, you do of course feel more ease in anchoring and holding the water. But when the paddles come off? You'll feel like someone rowing with a popsicle stick. Your hands seem dumb and ineffectual. We have taken to calling fistgloves the "unpaddles", because after using fistgloves your hands seem smarter, not dumber!