How do Kick Sticks work?

Question
Dear Liam: How do Kick Sticks work, and do they really train you to swim faster?  If you havent seen them yet check out www.bothhands.com and click on the picture of the device.
Sincerely Kirk

Answer
Hi Kirk...

Wow...great one to bring to the table.  I have not used them before and did not have those coming up in swimming but...from my initial reading of the web link, they seem like they would work.  I myself am a "horrible" kicker.  All of my power came out of my arms and thus I always felt that pure kicking for me was like battling some unseen enemy.  From the looks of things, (without getting to physiological or analytical)those would work well.  I did and do suffer from that snake like motion they are talking about if I don't concentrate.  If that would alleviate that then we would have something because I know that many "bad" kickers have the same issues.  From what they are saying, I agree with what its trying to do.  It is trying to force certain body positions and muscle groups to do things so that they become repetitive and then in muscle memory.  I absolutely agree with that concept.  Swimming is about muscle memory.  If you are the strongest guy in the world, you still could get beat by a guy with a better stroke or better kick.

My initial response is good call and go for it.  How much do they cost?  I couldn't detect that from the web site.  Thank you for bringing that to my attention!

LM