My lazy right arm

Simple. You aren't propelling yourself during the recovery. I don't recall Janet having lots of shoulder problems, but if she did, why do you assume the problems were caused by her recovery? edit: here's an interview with Janet where she specifically says she's never had shoulder injuries: www.insidesocal.com/.../q-and-a-with-ja.html To wit: So, I can have the nastiest/most horrible recovery on earth while slapping my hands on the water at the end of the recovery but when my hand enters the water the pull is excellent until it starts the recovery phase again. I can do this consistently 40 times per 50 meters and never ever have rotator cuff tendonitis, bursitis, or any anomaly with the shoulder whatsoever. I find this hard to believe after swimming millions upon millions of yards/meters over many years as Janet (not the recovery description above but the straight arm recovery) has or whoever swims competitively in USAS, Masters, College, High School, etc. Janet did have Scoliosis as a teenager and had surgery for that problem. But it never affected her making national cuts, setting age group records, or winning gold medals. I don't know if Scoliosis helped stay away from injury or if it was her straight arm recovery or both. Janet Evans takes about 40 strokes per 50 meters while Sun Yang takes about 25-27 strokes per 50 meters. While both are efficient, don't you think the swimmer with the less strokes per 50 meters would at least be more shoulder friendly than the swimmer that takes more strokes per 50 meters? Do you have stats on shoulder injury for swimmers that do straight arm recovery compared to swimmers that use high elbow recovery? According to the below survey, there is about a 47 to 73 percent incidence rate among competitive swimmers will have a shoulder injury in their careers (citation below). So Janet Evans must have been part of that 27% that never had or never will have a shoulder injury. McMaster WC, Troup J: A survey of interfering shoulder pain in United States competitive swimmers. Am J Sports Med 1993;21(1):67-70

Simple. You aren't propelling yourself during the recovery. I don't recall Janet having lots of shoulder problems, but if she did, why do you assume the problems were caused by her recovery? edit: here's an interview with Janet where she specifically says she's never had shoulder injuries: www.insidesocal.com/.../q-and-a-with-ja.html To wit: So, I can have the nastiest/most horrible recovery on earth while slapping my hands on the water at the end of the recovery but when my hand enters the water the pull is excellent until it starts the recovery phase again. I can do this consistently 40 times per 50 meters and never ever have rotator cuff tendonitis, bursitis, or any anomaly with the shoulder whatsoever. I find this hard to believe after swimming millions upon millions of yards/meters over many years as Janet (not the recovery description above but the straight arm recovery) has or whoever swims competitively in USAS, Masters, College, High School, etc. Janet did have Scoliosis as a teenager and had surgery for that problem. But it never affected her making national cuts, setting age group records, or winning gold medals. I don't know if Scoliosis helped stay away from injury or if it was her straight arm recovery or both. Janet Evans takes about 40 strokes per 50 meters while Sun Yang takes about 25-27 strokes per 50 meters. While both are efficient, don't you think the swimmer with the less strokes per 50 meters would at least be more shoulder friendly than the swimmer that takes more strokes per 50 meters? Do you have stats on shoulder injury for swimmers that do straight arm recovery compared to swimmers that use high elbow recovery? According to the below survey, there is about a 47 to 73 percent incidence rate among competitive swimmers will have a shoulder injury in their careers (citation below). So Janet Evans must have been part of that 27% that never had or never will have a shoulder injury. McMaster WC, Troup J: A survey of interfering shoulder pain in United States competitive swimmers. Am J Sports Med 1993;21(1):67-70