OK this sounds like a stupid question but someone at the pool told me that my hand needs to be open with my fingers apart when I swim. i normally cup it which is what I thought was the best way. Today I tried my fingers together and my thumb out a little bit from the hand.
The cupped hand seemed best but what do the experts say?
Originally posted by knelson
I'm going to argue this might be exactly the behavior you DON'T want. Your hand is getting knocked back due to the increase in drag. It seems to me you want to minimize drag on the entry part of the stroke--you want your hand to slice through the water.
I feel the "pull" part of the stroke which dictates the forward motion, would be the most important factor of the arm stroke itself. It would seem one would want to sacrifice the increase of drag upon entry to gain a better pull, for the better part of the stroke. Look at the percentage of time spent at the entry point of the stroke, VS the percentage of time spent actually pulling, It would seem apparent that one would want to focus more on the actual pull rather than the entry style. Granted both are important, one just seems to weigh a bit heavier.
I can only speak for myself, but I know when my arm enters the water, it enters very streached out and long. Once my hand hits the water I begin my pull. There is very little time or energy spent moving my hand through the water forward before the actual pull. It seems my hand position at entry has no real effect on the performance of my stroke.
Originally posted by knelson
I'm going to argue this might be exactly the behavior you DON'T want. Your hand is getting knocked back due to the increase in drag. It seems to me you want to minimize drag on the entry part of the stroke--you want your hand to slice through the water.
I feel the "pull" part of the stroke which dictates the forward motion, would be the most important factor of the arm stroke itself. It would seem one would want to sacrifice the increase of drag upon entry to gain a better pull, for the better part of the stroke. Look at the percentage of time spent at the entry point of the stroke, VS the percentage of time spent actually pulling, It would seem apparent that one would want to focus more on the actual pull rather than the entry style. Granted both are important, one just seems to weigh a bit heavier.
I can only speak for myself, but I know when my arm enters the water, it enters very streached out and long. Once my hand hits the water I begin my pull. There is very little time or energy spent moving my hand through the water forward before the actual pull. It seems my hand position at entry has no real effect on the performance of my stroke.
