finger spread on catch

I'm still old school with all fingers & thumb held close ,but not tightly against each other.

This seems to go against common belief in slightly spread relaxed fingers as the most efficient position. Is that the common belief? My thinking was that there was effectively no efficiency difference between slightly spread or bunched together, so coaches were advocating slightly spread (to slightly reduce muscle tension in the fingers).

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I have found that if my fingers are to far apart they tend to wiggle around!

:hijack: Hey, Solar, I just noticed (yeah, better late than never) that you are from Montreal. :banana: I can't wait for Worlds, in 2014! As it gets closer, I hope you will chime in on any Worlds-related threads with helpful tidbits about the pool/city/etc. We plan on making a vacation out of it; a road trip up one side of the river to Quebec City and back down the other. After that, we'll head to Maryland for Nationals. WoooHOOOOO! OK, folks sorry :blah:; back to your regularly scheduled finger spread on catch... :bolt:

I'm yet to see actual proof that those swimmers who keep fingers relaxed upon hand entry, are actually pulling in this manner. For most mortals, my advice is (and probably forever will be): Do sculling drills. The way you keep your hands when performing these should be the way you keep your hands whilst swimming. I don't really care how my swimmers keep their fingers. If it's good for sculling, it's good for swimming. Period.

I've experimented with keeping my fingers anywhere from tightly together, to fully spread. For me, it feels best to keep them relaxed but close together. I've tried sculling and swimming with numerous finger positions, and that's the only one that works for me. ...Then again, freestyle is vying with breaststroke to claim my worst stroke designation, so I'm not exactly an expert on finger position! :duel:

Last night at team practice, I tried diff finger positions. Well -I still like mine close , but not tightly .

Tell me about it. I'm already late dammit. Haven't swam for more than 2 years now... But I'll be there. In fact, I may have a great contender for a title. I may as well focus on that project :) That event is held at our indoor Olympic facility I believe? You can write to me anytime. I could at least point to a great master squad where you could share fun workouts etc... THEY, are going to be very serious that year. I was born in Quebec City. The essence of our whole province lives in this microscopic little town. Linsay, a member here knows that squad very well. I love swimming, for sure, but not as much as Master Swimming. The mere idea of yourself booking your agenda around national/international meets... Other than triathlon, I can't think of other disciplines where it's so easy to participate to the worlds. Swimming at Worlds will be held at the Aquatic Complex at ParcJean-Drapeau, the outdoor complex. Montreal and Quebec City have been on my travel bucket list for years, so, rather than going this year as originally planned, we're putting it off until 2014 for Worlds. :agree:

:hijack: Hey, Solar, I just noticed (yeah, better late than never) that you are from Montreal. :banana: I can't wait for Worlds, in 2014! As it gets closer, I hope you will chime in on any Worlds-related threads with helpful tidbits about the pool/city/etc. We plan on making a vacation out of it; a road trip up one side of the river to Quebec City and back down the other. After that, we'll head to Maryland for Nationals. WoooHOOOOO! OK, folks sorry :blah:; back to your regularly scheduled finger spread on catch... :bolt: Tell me about it. I'm already late dammit. Haven't swam for more than 2 years now... But I'll be there. In fact, I may have a great contender for a title. I may as well focus on that project :) That event is held at our indoor Olympic facility I believe? You can write to me anytime. I could at least point to a great master squad where you could share fun workouts etc... THEY, are going to be very serious that year. I was born in Quebec City. The essence of our whole province lives in this microscopic little town. Linsay, a member here knows that squad very well. I love swimming, for sure, but not as much as Master Swimming. The mere idea of yourself booking your agenda around national/international meets... Other than triathlon, I can't think of other disciplines where it's so easy to participate to the worlds.