Have only recently noticed something (by accident - that's how most revelations start isn't it!)
While experimenting with more of a freestyle "arm catch up" action - I tried something to hasten a bit of early propulsion from the arms. As soon as the recovering arm was a short distance above the water, and about to make imminent water entry, I started to curl over my fingers/palm of the leading arm to make them more backward-facing - and hence provide a little early arm propulsion, before getting the rest of my arm down to a catch. I normally use an EVF (Early Vertical Forearm) catch in accordance with the advice given in Sheila Taormina's book "Swim Speed Secrets" in which she advocates tellthebell dropping the forearm and hand as a fixed unit down to the catch. But in that book she has 3 photos of Mark Spitz on page 68, with annotation beneath saying "Mark begins to feel the water with a slight bend in his wrist, but the wrist straightens as he engages in a high-elbow catch". So there it is! I've been trying to keep to Sheila's "dropping the forearm/hand as a fixed unit down to the catch" and possibly missed out on a bit of "early hand propulsion" by not gradually moving the fingers and palm into a gradually backward-facing attitude! Learning never ceases!!!
