I recently had a disagreement with another swimmer about proper fly technique. After the recovery, where do the hands enter the water? I was taught they should enter the water a little wider than your shoulders, but he insisted that they should enter the water closer together, more like 6 inches apart. Which is correct? Does it make a difference whether you're swimming sprint fly or distance fly?
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Former Member
I was dumb (or whatever) enough to try swimming the fly with recovered hands landing palms face in (and down) instead of out and down. I did not do it enough times to be sure of anything but these were my impressions: The hands enter the water much smoother with palms out. However, with palms landing in you can pull quicker and with no hand and arm rotation but the earlier pulling seems to involve pushing down too much so any benefit is lost by extra drag. With palms landing out, the hand (and arm) rotation (during the short sweep) generates the least drag while getting into position to pull (which is conveniently the "glide" point). What I can't guess on is whether there is any benefit to the hands and arms doing the circle thing (like the breaststroke pizza shaping hand movement) before the hands go straight to the belly - other than it's just a necessary motion and result of the hands entering palms out.
I could be wrong about all of this but I don't plan on any further investigation as my curiosity is done.
I was dumb (or whatever) enough to try swimming the fly with recovered hands landing palms face in (and down) instead of out and down. I did not do it enough times to be sure of anything but these were my impressions: The hands enter the water much smoother with palms out. However, with palms landing in you can pull quicker and with no hand and arm rotation but the earlier pulling seems to involve pushing down too much so any benefit is lost by extra drag. With palms landing out, the hand (and arm) rotation (during the short sweep) generates the least drag while getting into position to pull (which is conveniently the "glide" point). What I can't guess on is whether there is any benefit to the hands and arms doing the circle thing (like the breaststroke pizza shaping hand movement) before the hands go straight to the belly - other than it's just a necessary motion and result of the hands entering palms out.
I could be wrong about all of this but I don't plan on any further investigation as my curiosity is done.
