Swimming stroke question?

Question

Once your hand goes into the water and your other arm comes up, what do you do with your hand/arm position while its IN the water. Do you keep your fingers together? What makes the stroke more efficiant? Thank you :)

Answer 1

First ... NEVER .. I MEAN NEVER cup your hand.  You cup your hand to hold water in your hand against gravity.  In swimming you create a flat paddle with your hand.  It is OK for your fingers to be very slightly open ... fingers do not have to be tight.  Actually, a slight opening between fingers is beneficial as there is eddying between your fingers which increases the size of your hand.

Before you can do the proper stroke, you must have the proper head position.  The proper head position is one where the water is hitting your head at about the middle of the top of your head.  

Imagine drawing a perfect circle around your head with your  head  and chest creating the diameter of the circle.  If you are looking forward, the diameter of the circle increases.  If your head is in, what I call, a natural body position (like when you walk), then the diameter of the circle is less.  If the diameter of the circle is less it is easier to roll your hips and shoulders as you swim.  If you roll your hips and shoulders you can do your arm stroke better.

So ... assuming you have good head position ...

Your hand comes over the water close to the body (remember, your body is rolling from side to side so this should be easy).  Reach out for your stroke and your hand enters the water ALMOST (but not completely) flat.  So, your thumb enters a split moment before your fingertips ... and your rolling onto your side (the same side as the hand in question) as your hand enters ... your elbow never goes completely straight so your elbow is slightly bent when your hand enters.

As your hand enters, you begin to bend your elbow as your body moves over your hand and you press the water slightly away from your body ... elbow always facing UP and finger tips always facing down.  As your body moves forward, you create an "hour-glass" shape with your hand.  So, your hand presses out and then in toward your hip bone and then down past the bottom of your swim suit.  It is kind of like carving at the water.

As your leg brushes on your thumb, slightly turn your hand so that your little finger will leave the water first.  By now, your other hand is entering the water and you've rolled on your other side.

I have my swimmers use hand paddles to do drills for this stroke.   However, they use the paddles in a specific fashion.  They do not use the wrist strap and use only the middle finger strap.  That way, if their elbow is up and fingertips facing down while their hand is in the water ... if the paddle STAYS on their hand, they are doing their stroke correctly.  If the paddle pulls off their hand, they are doing it incorrectly.  

Let me now how this works.  I'd even suggest that you print this and take it to your coach and see what s/he thinks.

Answer 2

Freestyle (front crawl)

What makes a stroke more efficient is the pull.  The pull has 3 parts: the catch, pull, and finish.  The catch: The top part of the pull, pressing the hand out.  The entire pull for the left hand is a giant S, the right hand is a backwards S.  The pull  pull the arm in towards the body coming chest level arm should be bent 90 degrees.  The finish: accelerate and push straight down till your arm is straight.  

The recovery is the part of the stroke in which you are not pulling and resting.  For free, back, and fly this is over the water recovery.  Pop the elbow up out of the water first, drag your thumb up the side of the body into the arm pit and push forward.  The answerer who stated that the elbow should always be higher than the hand is correct (except back)

Head position is old school and no longer a focal point.  Also free is done catch up and has been taught that way for the past 8-10yrs.  Catch up: is when one arm does a complete rotation and catches the other arm (like tag).  Go check out some underwater shots of freestyle on youtube and you will see that the elite swimmers swim catch up, and this is now what is taught in our area developmentally and has been for several years.

I agree with the couple of answers that say keep the hand in a natural position and do not force the cupping.

Answer 3

Keep your fingers together and your hand angeled to get the biggest bite of the water. Think of it as an oar. You wouldn't get as much thrust with an oar that had openings in it. Nor do you get much thrust if the oar is "sideways" in the water, it has to be perpendicular to the water to propel the canoe.

Answer 4

yea, u want to keep your fingers together otherwise all of the water will go through them, and that slows u down. then u just want to kind of pull your arm and hand down. It's pretty easy once u get the hang of it. Good luck! (And fyi to everyone: swimming is the best sport ever babes!!)

Answer 5

If you're talking about freestyle, you should have your arms in almost constant motion. When one is out of the water the other should be in and pulling! Keep your fingers together, as having them spread apart adds a lot of drag.

To make the stroke more efficient, have a good strong kick and a steady pull. Make sure you are rotating your body with each pull so you don't tire out your shoulders. You might want to try the "fingertip drag" drill in which you drag your fingers across the water. This bends your hand and makes it so you use your entire arm rather than just your hand and shoulder. Another thing you can do is "flip" your hands out of the water. This ensures a fast pull at the end of your stroke, giving you an extra boost so your turnover can be faster.

Answer 6

for freestyle?

keep your fingers together and cup your hands, to propel through the water faster, also keep your arm tight and close to your head while its in the water

Answer 7

This is not a simple question.

To start the pull portion of your stroke you should anchor your hand in place and pull your body over it, rotating the entire way. You should try to spend as much time as possible with your forearm perpendicular to your direction of travel.

An efficient freestyle is not achieved by pulling hard, you get it by anchoring your body to the water with a large paddle, and using your core muscles to pull your body by the hand.

The ideal hand position is not cupped, or fingers fully spread, but somewhere in between, because the turbulence generated in the small gaps between your fingers almost acts as an extension of your hand, increasing your traction in the water. However, even more important that hand position is proper use of the forearm as a paddle. Your hand should only be one part of your pull. You can practice including the use of your forearm by swimming with fists instead of hands; once you can swim with fists almost as well as your hands, you can switch back to using both your arms and your hands to pull.

Answer 8

OK you keep your fingers together accept your thumb you keep it away from the others  so then you put your pinkie in first.