Alignment Kickboard

I bought Canadian Olympian Brent Hanson's freestyle mastery online course because I was intrigued by the different drills the USA Swim Coach was doing w/his team. I asked him about it & he referred me to Brent Hansen's website. The coach explained he was teaching all his age group swimmers Brent's drills, so they don't use the high elbow recovery technique bc it causes shoulder impingement. Also, how Brent's rotation drills are whole body (head/shoulders/hips), instead of just shoulders & hips. Brent highly recommends the Finis Alignment Kickboard. I teach a LOT of swim lessons weekly (17 yrs teaching), mostly to children, 3-11, with a few adults. I find it's a little harder for the littles to use this board (it's very buoyant), but my older students & adults like it. I love that it has grooves underneath for your thumbs, so you can be prone on your stomach, & hold it out in front of you, holding the edge closest to you, or, on your back, with the board on the top of your thighs. Brent also uses it 1-handed, where you put 1 hand under the strap & pull with your other arm, keeping the arm on the board straight. I like that it's not just regular foam, so it doesn't get dinged up easily. It could be punctured by something sharp, or if a child were to bite it. I only use it with kids under my supervision (I teach privates) & don't let them play with it. I believe it's an effective tool. Adults & older children may have the strength to use their core & keep it under the water a few inches when they're on their front or side, the way I would do with a normal kickboard. Love the bright color! I use several of the Finis training aids in my teaching = alignment paddles, swimmers snorkel, the giant foam float with holes (aka "The Big Cheese"), the tick tock hip rotation belt, & the posture trainer head alignment tool. They make quality, innovative products that last. I always wash them off with soap & water after every use.

I recently got back into swimming and lack the stamina to perform a lot of laps in order to get my workout. This thing is a great way to get back into swimming shape while being easy to use. It’s very comfortable to hold (which I was worried about) and very light weight but doesn't feel flimsy. It alap doesn’t offer too much resistance in the water so I can reposition it easily which is great for flip turns. It so good that my husband borrows it and now I’m tempted to get another.

To the coaches out there, I've used this kickboard as a tool to strengthen nearly every part of freestyle, backstroke and butterfly. I used to give my swimmers a pull buoy to balance, but this board takes the guesswork out of it. The kids can focus on stroke instead of fighting their tool, which in turn helps increase their balance in the water. Funny how that works. I've used it for streamline, not as effective as I thought, but still useful. I give my kids a snorkel and that keeps their head in position and works the shoulder and back stabilizers. The issue I had was with breathing, so the snorkel fixed that right away. Some of my senior level swimmers alternate with drill strokes inbetween breaths - which works if they are capable. Oddly enough, this board separates the skilled swimmers from the novice ones - across all ages. The skilled swimmers figure out how to breathe by rotating the shoulders and hips while the novice ones lift the head straight up. When that happens, the board slides to the side and makes it difficult to recover. It has made fixing some of those pesky habits the kids inherited by other coaches a breeze.

I use this kickboard for swim kick sets. It takes getting use to but for me it was worth experimenting with it to get the most out of it. It definitely improved my streamline, kick and breathing. I would advise forgetting everything you did with a standard kickboard. This kickboard is closest to the way you actually swim. Your hands should be outstretched hand over hand a few inches under the water and arms close to your ears in streamline. Breathe by rotating your head to the side as you do when you swim and return to looking at the bottom of the pool. You can even pivot your body side to side as you kick to really cut through the water. I Love this board now that I’m use to it.

1) I'm a weightlifter. I have long arms. I am plagued by fairly constant shoulder issues from my lifting shenanigans. 2) I have fairly large legs, with little fat. I am plagued by very, very sinky legs and naturally poor body positioning when I swim. That said, this kickboard is a welcome relief to both of these issues. Using a traditional kickboard typically exacerbates 1) shoulder issues by increasing the forces on the shoulders and 2) poor positioning in people with sinky legs as they force the chest higher and thus the legs lower. The fact that this board sits below the surface alleviates these issues a bit. It's not perfect, but it's a huge help. The lower position also allows you to use it when swimming on your side -- this keeps the lead hand from drooping, a common fault. When using normally, bringing the hands together also allows focus on the streamline position. Holding a traditional kickboard this way is really unstable and awkward, so you often end up using a wider grip, which increases drag and reenforces poor positioning. The strap is, like others have mentioned, a bit too tight, but you can get thumbs comfortably in. That said, overall this kickboard a much better choice for basically everyone. Highly recommended for beginners, like myself.

I like this board because it is smaller than the typical boards and fits nicely in my swim bag which I pack into my gym back. I use it with fins to improve my form. It floats well, keeping my upper body streamlined. I like that it has a strap so I can also use it one handed, practicing my technique with my other arm and doing breathing exercises. With this one, I don't really need a traditional kickboard. Highly recommend it!

Prächtige und funktional

Great! Works as described:)

No soy una experta en natación, tan solo una aficionada, pero esta tabla me gusta mucho más que las demás. Te frena menos a la hora de practicar patadas de crol, ya que se lleva justo por debajo de la superficie, te hace nadar más estirado y ocupa menos espacio. A mí me ha gustado mucho.

Cumplió con todas las expectativas de todo lo que ofrece el producto: hidro-dinámico, mantiene la postura del cuerpo, reduce la presión en los hombros que provocan las tablas convencionales, la manija ayuda a mantener la estabilidad sin necesidad de agarrar por los lados. Muy buena para los entrenamientos de patada en cualquier estilo.

Great little board. Purchased because of shoulder injuries and find that it really does take the pressure off. Easy to manipulate. Nifty bit of fun and a great workout paired with fins.