Today we are releasing a new size of VoloBlades: VoloBlades 30, the smallest paddles in our VoloBlades family. We created this smaller size to meet three important criteria, explained in detail below. We wanted the swim paddles to fit swimmers with smaller hands, to be effective for breaststroke, and during sprint.

Swim paddles for smaller hands

We believe that swim paddles should not be used as one-size-fits-all. The paddle size that works for elite swimmers might not work for age group swimmers. The paddles that work for male swimmers might be wrong for female swimmers. If you’re 5 feet tall, chances are you have smaller hands than someone who’s 6 feet tall—shouldn’t you have the right size paddles?

The wrong size of paddles impacts a swimmer’s biomechanics and hinders technique. The size variation of swim paddles that are available on the market now, unfortunately, is nominal. This forces most swimmers into the one-size-fits-all model. VoloBlades 30 provides swimmers with smaller hands swim paddles that are appropriate for their size.

Breastroke paddles

The hand movement in breaststroke is very distinct from every other stroke in swimming. Traditional paddles have a relatively large surface area that covers the entire hand including fingers. For this reason, using traditional paddles in breaststroke is very cumbersome and prone to hampering technique.

VoloBlades 30, on the other hand, have a small surface area that only covers the lower palm leaving the fingers unobstructed. This makes VoloBlades 30 perfect for breaststroke. The smaller surface area and the unobstructed fingers preserve the swimmer’s freedom of movement and technique while developing awareness and feel for the insweep and outsweep phases of the breaststroke. Better awareness and feel for water result in faster swim times.

Sprint paddles

During the sprint, the large surface area of the traditional paddles increases the stroke length while decreasing the stroke rate and hand velocity during the underwater phase of the stroke. Sprinting with traditional paddles feels very different from sprinting without them.

We wanted to make paddles that would increase the stroke length without reducing the velocity of the hand during the pull. We believe that VoloBlades 30 achieves this goal. Sprinting with VoloBlades 30 feels much closer to sprinting without paddles. VoloBlades 30 do not decrease the stroke rate and hand velocity during the underwater phase as much as traditional paddles but still increase the stroke length.