Videos: please see technique

The hand orientation on the recovery issue has a lot of differing opinions, and I'm not really sure there is a best way for every person. Thumb down/first entry has the potential of shoulder injury due to internal rotation. Some swimmers actually have the palm facing them on the recovery and enter the water pretty flat. See this Popov video; Alexander Popov The same video actually has some really good footage of points relevant to your stroke. Things I would take note of and try to emulate: 1. Notice the recovery in a relative straight line. At the 3:48 mark you can see it's almost like he does a fingertip drag drill while swimming normally. Your recovery looks a bit flat and semicircular, so you cross the center a bit, especially your right arm. That makes it tougher to catch water and stay straight. Watch where you start and where you finish on your freestyle video, particularly the 1st and 3rd swims. You will see a drift to the right? Think of your arms from start of recovery to entry on railroad tracks shoulder width apart. Fingertip drag drill is good for that. Let your forearm loose and let your shoulder do the work on the recovery, that may save you some energy. 2. Look at his head position around the 00:50 mark. Think of your body like a teeter totter. Your head and trunk are one side, your hips and legs the other. Don't think about it so much as dropping your head, i.e. don't let your head lose its alignment with the trunk (the seat of the teeter totter does not change its position relative to the bar, right?). Keeping your head aligned with the body, teeter your top half slightly downward and feel the hips and legs rising. It will take some practice, but you will eventually get the feeling. 3. Look at the 1:30 mark where he is catching water. If you were to draw a line from his shoulder to his wrist and hand, that line would pass underneath his elbow. That is a high elbow. Watch how he maintains that throughout the catch and pull. Think about that imaginary line. The other thing to think about is not leading with the elbow on the pull which you are clearly doing. If you lead with the elbow, your forearm is not vertical. You are feeling pressure on your arm and confusing that with good pressure when in fact it is downward pressure. You want backward pressure. As a dryland drill, put one of your arms up to the ceiling and then rotate your body away from that arm. You are now ready to catch. Now keeping the elbow in the same place, have your forearm come down until it is parallel to the floor and at the same height as the elbow. Now bend it even more so it is actually a little below your elbow just to get a good feel. Practice that a lot to get a feel for what your shoulder and arm should feel like when actually pulling in the water. Good luck.

The hand orientation on the recovery issue has a lot of differing opinions, and I'm not really sure there is a best way for every person. Thumb down/first entry has the potential of shoulder injury due to internal rotation. Some swimmers actually have the palm facing them on the recovery and enter the water pretty flat. See this Popov video; Alexander Popov The same video actually has some really good footage of points relevant to your stroke. Things I would take note of and try to emulate: 1. Notice the recovery in a relative straight line. At the 3:48 mark you can see it's almost like he does a fingertip drag drill while swimming normally. Your recovery looks a bit flat and semicircular, so you cross the center a bit, especially your right arm. That makes it tougher to catch water and stay straight. Watch where you start and where you finish on your freestyle video, particularly the 1st and 3rd swims. You will see a drift to the right? Think of your arms from start of recovery to entry on railroad tracks shoulder width apart. Fingertip drag drill is good for that. Let your forearm loose and let your shoulder do the work on the recovery, that may save you some energy. 2. Look at his head position around the 00:50 mark. Think of your body like a teeter totter. Your head and trunk are one side, your hips and legs the other. Don't think about it so much as dropping your head, i.e. don't let your head lose its alignment with the trunk (the seat of the teeter totter does not change its position relative to the bar, right?). Keeping your head aligned with the body, teeter your top half slightly downward and feel the hips and legs rising. It will take some practice, but you will eventually get the feeling. 3. Look at the 1:30 mark where he is catching water. If you were to draw a line from his shoulder to his wrist and hand, that line would pass underneath his elbow. That is a high elbow. Watch how he maintains that throughout the catch and pull. Think about that imaginary line. The other thing to think about is not leading with the elbow on the pull which you are clearly doing. If you lead with the elbow, your forearm is not vertical. You are feeling pressure on your arm and confusing that with good pressure when in fact it is downward pressure. You want backward pressure. As a dryland drill, put one of your arms up to the ceiling and then rotate your body away from that arm. You are now ready to catch. Now keeping the elbow in the same place, have your forearm come down until it is parallel to the floor and at the same height as the elbow. Now bend it even more so it is actually a little below your elbow just to get a good feel. Practice that a lot to get a feel for what your shoulder and arm should feel like when actually pulling in the water. Good luck.