Videos of Freestyle timing, pulling pattern, arm position

Just to be clear, you look at the first image and see his left arm in EVF or power phase? No, I don't advocate swimming the catchup drill in races, my point is just that if you are going to rely on video for evidence you can't just select the frame that appears to support your position, and a lot of people do just that. There is a lot of variability in strokes, especially at different distances, and one size doesn't fit all. That said, some things, like dropped elbows are almost never effective. The thing is that swimming mechanics aren't simple and the various components of the stroke are all interrelated. If one isn't careful one can easily draw false conclusions, witness the whole lift versus drag debacle. In some sense it would be ideal if we shortened the recovery time significantly so the arms spent more time pulling, but there are complicated whole-body reasons why it isn't necessarily better to recover the arms faster. Btw, if you look at the side with the later catch and look at the time from when the hand finishes the pull, i.e. ceases to provide propulsion, to when he achieves his catch there is definitely a period where no propulsion is coming from the arms. Maybe that is a flaw in his stroke, or maybe there is a good underlying reason for it. First, let me say I do agree with you that one size does not fit all. The variables from body type, strength, flexibility, athleticism, etc., require swimmers to make adjustments. And we agree that their are some things that simply are counter-productive to efficient propulsion like a dropped-elbow, a poor kick, and drag, to name three. Lift and drag forces simply exist and because we swim in water they are very important to propulsion. On the physical side of swimming, if you're a coach who would like to help swimmers get faster your instruction should be based on science. There isn't anything that I'm telling anyone in the forum that hasn't been said by Dr. James Councilman, Ernie Maglischo, United States Swimming (Training Categories and Training Design Guidelines) and ultimately based on science. There are swimmers on this forum who actually believe that waiting for one hand to catch-up to the other before they start pulling is the way to attain optimum speed. I know that sound silly to you and I but I have read it more than once. Some swimmers give two hoots about the technical side of swimming but I'm not one of them. Thank you for your time. Coach, it's fun exchanging ideas and I wish you and your team all the best. And I know that your swimmers should be very happy to have a coach who is passionate about the sport. Keep me posted about you or your team progress. Again, Thanks! Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, suffered from bad breath. This made him (Oh, man, this is so bad, it's good) a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

Just to be clear, you look at the first image and see his left arm in EVF or power phase? No, I don't advocate swimming the catchup drill in races, my point is just that if you are going to rely on video for evidence you can't just select the frame that appears to support your position, and a lot of people do just that. There is a lot of variability in strokes, especially at different distances, and one size doesn't fit all. That said, some things, like dropped elbows are almost never effective. The thing is that swimming mechanics aren't simple and the various components of the stroke are all interrelated. If one isn't careful one can easily draw false conclusions, witness the whole lift versus drag debacle. In some sense it would be ideal if we shortened the recovery time significantly so the arms spent more time pulling, but there are complicated whole-body reasons why it isn't necessarily better to recover the arms faster. Btw, if you look at the side with the later catch and look at the time from when the hand finishes the pull, i.e. ceases to provide propulsion, to when he achieves his catch there is definitely a period where no propulsion is coming from the arms. Maybe that is a flaw in his stroke, or maybe there is a good underlying reason for it. First, let me say I do agree with you that one size does not fit all. The variables from body type, strength, flexibility, athleticism, etc., require swimmers to make adjustments. And we agree that their are some things that simply are counter-productive to efficient propulsion like a dropped-elbow, a poor kick, and drag, to name three. Lift and drag forces simply exist and because we swim in water they are very important to propulsion. On the physical side of swimming, if you're a coach who would like to help swimmers get faster your instruction should be based on science. There isn't anything that I'm telling anyone in the forum that hasn't been said by Dr. James Councilman, Ernie Maglischo, United States Swimming (Training Categories and Training Design Guidelines) and ultimately based on science. There are swimmers on this forum who actually believe that waiting for one hand to catch-up to the other before they start pulling is the way to attain optimum speed. I know that sound silly to you and I but I have read it more than once. Some swimmers give two hoots about the technical side of swimming but I'm not one of them. Thank you for your time. Coach, it's fun exchanging ideas and I wish you and your team all the best. And I know that your swimmers should be very happy to have a coach who is passionate about the sport. Keep me posted about you or your team progress. Again, Thanks! Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, suffered from bad breath. This made him (Oh, man, this is so bad, it's good) a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.