I saw that the TI folk had devoted most of their ninth newsletter to the virtues of FistGloves.  I decided to risk ten dollars and try them out.  A few months later, when Swimming Made Easy was released, I added both the book and FistGloves to the shopping cart.

From the slick illustration at left, I thought FistGloves would be like those thick martial arts sparring gloves that I had gotten for my daughter.  I was a bit deflated to receive a package containing what looked like two unusually shaped, thick, black balloons. 'FistMittens' would have been a more accurate name.  There is a large slot for the fist and a narrow slot for the thumb.


I tried to put one on right away.  I wondered if they had sent a 'small' by mistake. After the dry rubber had pulled a good deal of the hair off my left hand, I broke down and looked at the instructions, which advised lubricating one's hands with hair conditioner. I resolved to continue the test in the pool.

Even with the FistGloves wet and my hands lubed, they were a bit difficult to put on.  I decided to do the left hand first, AFTER I put on my swedish goggles.  Once on, they were reasonably comfortable. Leaving the thumbs free was an excellent design decision, as I always rinse my goggles between swims. Unfortunately, I had been having trouble with the stop button on my Stroke Monitor, so I just swam and counted strokes.

I took about 19 to 21 strokes to swim 25 yards Crawl, up from the 17 or 18 I had usually swum bare-handed.  I took only one more stroke per length of Breast. My Breast sculling seemed almost useless. I had already forgotten what I read in the newsletter, but I knew that fist drills were supposed to teach me to use my forearms for propulsion, instead of just my palms.

I took off the FistGloves and swam 6 x 50, alternating Crawl and Breast. Zowie, what a feeling! Add the easy speed of wearing fins to the sensation of swimming without them again and you will approximate the experience. Upon rereading the TI newsletter, I saw that they call this the FistGlove 'rush'. 

In my next FistGlove sessions, I didn't bother with lubricant, but they went on fairly easily underwater.  I swam 10 x 50 of Crawl and 5 x 50 of Breast. I felt that I had to roll side-to-side to get my forearms into the crawl stroke. My hands still felt bigger, but I found the FistGlove rush to be much less noticeable in subsequent swims. I did find that having my hands suddenly free, I tended to lift up my head and shoulders.  I had to concentrate on keeping my head and torso down.

Coincidentally, people on rec.sport.swimming began describing high-elbow swimming as "reaching over a barrel" before stroking.  This struck me as the feeling I had while stroking with the FistGloves.  I tried to reach over a barrel even more, both with and without the gloves.

After a few months of using FistGloves, I felt that I had a much more propulsive stroke. Before using them, I had been recording 17 to 19 cycles for an ordinary practice 50 Crawl. I am now recording from 14 to 18 cycles at the same or better speeds. 

Even better, I can now swim a 500 Crawl while breathing to alternate sides.  Before using FistGloves, for any distance over 200, I had to breathe to one side, switching sides on alternate lengths, or I would become desperate for more air. I assume that FistGloves have made my stroke that much more efficient.